Search Results for: blog five tips to paying off credit cards

The Best Way to Pay Off Credit Cards

Credit card debt is at an all-time crisis. With compounded interested levels of up to 20 percent, it can quickly spiral out of control. Getting the credit cards paid off should be every family’s number one financial goal. It is the first step in living debt free. The are right ways and wrong ways to pay off your credit cards. Taking out a second mortgage or home equity loan is probably not the best idea, although some others may advise such actions. The same goes for borrowing from your life insurance policy or from friends and family. The key is … Continue reading →

Are Credit Cards Tools or Traps?

Many view credit cards as useful tools. They can help you get something that you want now, that you do not have the money for. Others view them as a way to get cash back, or earn points for prizes, vacations and flights. It is important to realize that with the convenience that credit cards offer, also cards are also dangerous. It is important to avoid charging your wants on your credit card. If you are paying for your wants with cash at the beginning of the month, but charging your groceries at the end, then you are still charging … Continue reading →

Are You Only Making Your Minimum Monthly Payments?

Are you still paying just the minimums on your credit card payments? If that is all that you can afford to do, then you need to begin immediately to change your financial picture. You are too close to a financial disaster. If you have the extra money, but you are not paying it, then you should step back and look at the bigger picture. Recently the credit card companies have doubled the minimum payment due each month. This will help you to get out of debt much quicker. But if you continue to pay just the minimums you are going … Continue reading →

Is Your Graduate Ready to Make Financial Decisions?

The time when you send your high school graduate out on his own is drawing near. Is your child financially prepared to function on his own? Does he realize the ins and outs of planning, saving and spending? Can he manage a workable budget? Here are five tips to help him start out on the right foot. 1) Before he goes out on his own, sit down with him and briefly outline a realistic budget with him. For this to work, he really needs to set the limits. You may want to guide the discussion by suggesting categories that he … Continue reading →

Credit Card Debt

Last month, Miriam wrote a very good blog on Five Tips to Help you Stop Using Credit Cards. It’s very interesting, and good advice for those who need to get a handle on their spending (which would be the overwhelming majority of us!) If you have a lot of debt, you may want to add another couple of steps – first, negotiating a better interest rate. Some night when you’re not stressed, take out all your cards and their statements. Arrange them from high to low interest. Is there a big range? Assuming that your credit isn’t in shambles, you … Continue reading →

Three ideas for quick cash. (Help me with more ideas please!)

I’ve been out of touch with all of you for about a month now, due to a death in the family. Today I come back to writing and it feels good. I hope you’ve been reading Miriam’s blog posts and will continue to come back here on a daily basis. Every weekday I’ll update you on my personal love / hate relationship with money and what I’m doing to turn it around into a win/win relationship. Today, I’ve got a money dilemma. There is this workshop I want to go to, and it costs $150.00. In earlier posts I’ve written … Continue reading →

Adding It All Up–How Much Debt Do You Really Have?

Have you sat down and actually added up how much money you owe to creditors? This can be eye opening to people. You may want to leave out your original mortgage, but if you have a home equity line or second mortgage you should include that amount in your total. This would also include what you owe in student loans, and on your cars. It the number manageable. Is there anyway that you could pay this off in a year? Or is the number higher than what you bring home in a year? Adding up your total debt can be … Continue reading →

Two Tools to get you Started

Several times over my twenty five year marriage I’ve tried to set a budget. Hubby and I both would sit down, get motivated, write down a bunch of numbers and set good intentions. At the end of the month we’d be surprised when our buget and our spending didn’t match. Finally, we got a clue. Actually, we took a class that helped us see where we were going wrong and taught us how to budget. We were budgeting, but allowing ourselves to go over budget – just because we could. As soon as we got a few tools, we were … Continue reading →

Five Tips to Paying off Credit Cards

Paying off a credit card can be a real pain. It seems to take forever! You make the payments every month like clockwork, yet somehow the balance doesn’t seem to decrease – or if it does, it’s only pennies at a time. Maybe the interest rate on your card is way too high, and it feels like you’ll be paying off the card for years to come. Here are five tips to help you pay the card off faster: 1. Call your credit card company and ask them for a lower interest rate. Depending upon your credit rating, you may … Continue reading →

Oh Oh. I’ve Got Too Many Bills.

My husband and I just spent a wad of cash remodeling our kitchen. Actually, I wish it was cash. We spent that good ol’ American money called credit card and now we are paying the price. We have to go on a budget. Hubby and I have been married a long time. Twenty five years in fact, and we’ve talked a good talk about budgets. Every few years we would sit down together and actually write one out, but then something important comes up. Like a new outfit for a wedding or new bike shoes for hubby. We’d spend the … Continue reading →