Search Results for: blog not all debt is bad

What Not to Do in Front of Your Kids When It Comes to Money

Children learn what they see. It is a true statement for any kind of behavior including money management. Children’s attitudes toward money and whether or not they will be able to make it work for them as adults has much to do with their parents. If you are married, think about any differences that there might be between you and your spouse, regarding any issues having to do with money. Is one of you more a saver than a spender? Do you approach investing or debt the same way? Chances are that you may each have different ideas about handling … Continue reading →

How Breaking Your Budget is Bad for Your Health

Here is another reason to stay on your budget. Breaking it can actually be bad for your health. Agonizing about how you are going to afford a new purchase can stay with you, even after you solve the problem. Researchers now say that our brains don’t like being in debt. Having fears about money affect our health long term. Whether we realize it or not, debt causes stress, and stress causes poor health. Stress and pain seem to register much more strongly than does pleasure. So, the next time you feel ready to break your budget, keep this in mind. … Continue reading →

Another Good Reason to Get Renters Insurance

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An apartment building went up in flames, and everything inside it got destroyed. Fortunately, no one died in this particular fire. Some of the tenants were new graduates, who lost all their possessions in the fire. This is exactly the type of situation that renters insurance is designed for. There are a lot of things to think about immediately after a person graduates from college. Typically, young adults who just earned their degree are saddled with a big student loan debt. It can be hard to come up with enough money to pay rent, and buy groceries, when a person … Continue reading →

Bouncing Back from Bad Credit

A bad credit rating can have multiple aspects of your life if you are not careful. While most people are well aware that a bad credit score can make it impossible to secure a loan, there is also a litany of other negatives associated with a dismal credit report. For example, even if you are able to secure a loan from a financial institution, if you have bad credit, you will likely be forced to pay a much higher interest rate. In some cases you may also be hit with fees because lenders consider you a risk. In addition to … Continue reading →

When You Are Swimming in Debt

Have you ever seen HGTV’s “My First Place”? It’s about first-time home buyers looking for the perfect place to call their own, within a set budget. I’m always amazed by how seemingly transparent they are with their finances. I’ve seen a few episodes where the buyers freely divulged how bad their credit scores were as a justification as to why their budget for house hunting was so low. Another episode followed a guy as he tried to repair his credit while house hunting. The show documented the jockeying he did with lenders as he waited for his score to improve … Continue reading →

Budget Should Not Be A Dirty Word

I have been pretty fortunate as a single mother. Most of the time I’ve been single I’ve had a good job that has allowed me not to worry about how I was going to pay the bills. It wasn’t like that at first, when I first got divorced I didn’t even have a car, but things got better. Now, due to some pay cuts I’ve taken at work, things are looking a little scarier. Add to that a few emergencies, a major vet bill and an emergency car repair, and my savings account is non existent. Not having that cushion … Continue reading →

Debt and Denial

Facing debt is usually not a fun thing to do. As a result of that, many of us are in denial about how much debt we have, how much we actually owe. As one friend told me while she was writing yet another check for her daughter’s expensive extracurricular activities, “I just don’t want to know how much I’m spending. I know I’m in debt and probably won’t get out of it, so why worry?” Well, there are very good reasons to worry. First of all, if your debt gets too large, you could lose everything, including your home. Second … Continue reading →

Digging Out of Debt

With gas prices creeping to the $5 mark, I have a feeling that many of us are going to be cash poor very soon. That’s if you aren’t already digging out of debt from losing a job or getting your hours reduced when the economy first started taking a nosedive. Getting out of debt can be very challenging. While some people, whose debt has grown out of control, turn to consumer credit counselors, others take matters into their own hands. Studies show more and more people are borrowing from retirement accounts in order to pay down debt. The problem with … Continue reading →

Small Changes That Can Make a Big Difference

With all of the attention that big-picture financial issues like the debt ceiling, social security, retirement planning, the real estate market, and so on, it can sometimes seem like the small financial decisions that each of us make many times each day do not have all that much of an impact. Those little things do matter, though, because both the good things and the bad things add up over time. By recognizing that even small financial decisions can greatly affect out big picture financial situation, we can learn to treat those every day choices with more care. Suze Orman, a … Continue reading →

Good Debt vs Bad Debt

You may hear people talk about good debt or bad debt. What type of debt is good and how can you avoid the bad debt? You need to read this. First of all, let me disclose that I personally think any debt is bad. The goal is to not have any debt at all. In our current society, this isn’t always practical, especially if we follow what most people do an never get really educated about debt. That said, while I would never qualify any debt as good, myself, there is debt that is…well, not as bad as other debt. … Continue reading →