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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 →

Do You Know How to Read Your Credit Report?

Since I realized that I have been allowing myself to keep the big picture of my finances obscured by a sort of fog, I have been taking steps in the direction of learning about what my finances actually look like. Today, I thought that I would just go online and take a look at my credit reports to see what was in them. The reports are written in English, but after looking at them for about ten minutes I realized that I have to educate myself about how to read a credit report before I can actually make sense out … Continue reading →

Alleviating Financial Stress

Has anyone claimed the $336.4 million Powerball jackpot? The winning ticket was sold in Rhode Island earlier this month. Goodness knows it wasn’t sold to me… otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this post. Talk about alleviating financial stress. Even if the winner took the lump sum payout, he or she would still walk away with more money than anyone could possibly spend in a lifetime. Well, maybe. Living in debt and trying to survive paycheck to paycheck can be physically and emotionally draining. However, there are ways to stabilize your financial footing, even when it seems like the deck is … Continue reading →

Pros and Cons of Paying Down Debt

I know what you are asking: “How can there be any cons related to paying down debt?” If you are not careful, there are several ways you can dig yourself deeper into debt trying to pay loans and other bills. In a previous blog I addressed the option of cashing in retirement accounts and other investments to pay down debt. While there are a number of benefits to doing this, there are also quite a few downsides as well. In fact, the Department of Labor went public recently warning Americans that making permanent withdrawals from their retirement accounts is not … Continue reading →

What Type of Bankruptcy Should I File?

I would always counsel Frugal Living and Debt Reduction before filing bankruptcy, but what if you really don’t have any choice? While filing for bankruptcy can really decimate your good credit for a long time, it can also give you the breathing space that you need to start over, to rebuild a healthy financial future as you learn to live at or below your means. There are two forms of bankruptcy that are open to you: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. While you should talk to a lawyer to find out if either of these options are best for you, … Continue reading →