by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Believe me, if you aren’t careful with your spending, it won’t take long for your hard-earned money to vanish into thin air. Are you an impulsive spender? If yes then I’m betting that you scratch your head at the end of each month wondering where all your money went. The good thing is that you’re not alone. There are thousands, if not millions, of people in the world like you. To ensure that people don’t run out of money at the end of each month, financial experts and credit counselors have come up with several ways of getting your spending under control. The following are four of them.
Avoid buying impulsively
Are you easily excited by the idea of shopping and finding a bargain? If yes then you’re more than likely to buy impulsively. If you want to keep your spending and debt under control then buying impulsively is something you mustn’t do. The best way to control this habit is thinking about the longer-term consequences of buying and owning something before you spend your hard-earned money on it. Also, think about the impulse purchases you made in the past that you later regretted. This will ensure that you don’t buy impulsively which in turn will allow you to control your spending.
Avoid treating shopping as a means to improve your mood
The idea of shopping to improve your mood is something I find quite baffling. Though shopping can lift your mood temporarily, you should never use it as a means to improve your mood. When this becomes a habit, you’re doing two things: using temporary fixes for your problems and spending when you don’t need to. If you want to get your spending under control then ditch shopping as a means to improve your mood.
Keep track of your financial situation
The majority of the people who spend impulsively or excessively are individuals who have little idea of their financial situation. People who don’t keep track of their financial situation are often guilty of spending excessively. If you want to get your spending under control then keeping track of your financial situation would be a good thing to do. To do this, maintain up-to-date records and regularly check how much money you have in your bank account and elsewhere. Additionally, develop a realistic budget based on your income and past expenses. Once you’ve developed the budget, see how it fits with your spending. You need to control your spending if your spending exceeds your budget.
Have a thirty-day rule
Wise men say that if you do something for thirty consecutive days, it becomes a habit. This is why you need to make use of the thirty-day rule. Basically, you need to avoid spending on the ‘unimportant’ things that you love spending on such as home décor, speakers for your car, and sports memorabilia for thirty days. Once you’ve successfully done that, you’ll no longer have the urge to spend on the aforementioned things which will help you to keep your spending under control.
by admin | Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Most people are looking for painless ways of saving money. If you’re one of them then you must know that there’s only one secret to saving money: the less you spend, the more you save. However, contrary to popular belief, spending less doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on the things you love. While cutting unnecessary spending is fruitful, you don’t have to give up everything you enjoy to save money. There are several ways for you to save money without giving up the things you love. Following are 4 creative ways of saving money without giving up the things you love.
Get your spending under control
This is something that most financial experts and credit counselors recommend. If you’re serious about saving money then you must get your spending under control. Now, most people think that this means giving up on the things they love. This is not true. Getting your spending under control simply means having a budget and avoiding impulse buying. Once you ensure these two things, you will be able to save money without giving up on the thing you love.
Shop smarter
If you want to save money then you must improve how you shop. If you always pay full price for an item then a good way for you to save money would be buying things at a discount. Even without spending a lot of cash, you can enjoy the shopping experience. All you need to do is be a bit more prudent when buying things. The majority of the stores have clearance sales. In clearance sales, things cost a lot less than they do during the regular shopping season. For this reason, clearance sales are the best time to buy your favorite shoes, clothes or other accessories. This will allow you to do two things: buy the things you love and save money.
Watch movies and have weekend dinners at home
Most couples love going out to the movies or having dinner at a high-end restaurant on the weekend. If you’re one of them then a good thing to do would be spending on weekends at home. Rather than going out to the movies or having dinner at a high-end restaurant, you, and your partner can watch a movie on the DVD player and make exotic meals at home. This will allow you to have fun on the weekends and save some money.
Look for cheap but fast cable and internet services
The internet and cable television are two things most people cannot live without. While no one is asking you to give up these services, you should limit the money you spend on them. There are many fast cable and internet services that offer their services at a low cost. These are the services you need to find and use.
The aforementioned ways are some of the ways to save money without giving up the thing you love. To find out about the other ways of saving money, get in touch with a credit counselor.
by admin | Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
It is true that bad credit is costly and causes a lot stress. However, contrary to popular belief, it is the not the end of things. You can recover from even the worst of credit situations. If your credit situation is far from ideal then you may find fixing your credit rating a bit of a challenge. However, no matter how bad your credit situation becomes, you can still improve your credit rating. Some credit repair approaches may require you to do a bit of research. However, the majority of the ways to improve credit rating are easy to perform.
It is important for you to keep in mind that your credit rating will be impacted by every monetary decision you make. There are many things that you can do in your everyday life to improve your credit rating. Moreover, you must avoid certain things if you want to better your credit situation. Following are the Do’s and Don’ts for improving your credit rating.
Do’s
We’ll start with the Do’s for improving your credit rating.
Do pay your bills on time
The first of the Do’s for improving your credit score is paying your bills on time. Your credit rating or score depends a lot on your payment history. People who make timely payments are bound to have a good credit rating.
Do use your credit cards conservatively
According to a 2009 financial report, people who spent less than 30% of their available credit has the best credit rating. For this reason, you must ensure that you use your credit cards conservatively. Stop impulse buying and using your credit card to buy unnecessary things. Once you do that, you’ll see significant improvement in your credit rating.
Do check your credit history
It is important for you to regularly check your credit history. Banks use your credit history to score you. If your history contains incorrect data, you may be declined a new loan or credit card even if you pay your bills on time. So, regularly check your credit history to ensure there are no mistakes in it.
Don’ts
Now that we’ve looked at the Do’s for improving your credit rating, it’s time to reveal the Don’ts for improving your credit score.
Don’t max out your existing credit
A mistake that people make time and again is maxing out their existing debt. This is something you mustn’t do. Your credit rating will suffer if you touch the limit so avoid doing that.
Don’t delay your payments for too long
This is a no brainer. If you continue delaying your debt payments, the interest on the debt will keep on increasing. Ultimately, your debt will become impossible for you to pay off. To avoid this from happening, don’t delay your payments for too long.
There you have it—the Do’s and Don’ts for improving your credit rating. To find out more about improving your credit score, get in touch with a credit counselor.
by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair
No matter how hard we try to prevent it, our expenses keep on increasing. Each new expense increases our cost of living. To manage this ever-increasing cost of living, most people use credit. Ultimately, this results in more debt, making our life even tougher. Let me be very clear: there are no short cuts when it comes to managing your cost of living. There are only two legitimate ways of effectively managing your cost of living: decrease expenditure or increase income. If you choose to do the former then the very first thing that you need to do is create a budget.
Once you’ve created a budget, you’ll know exactly what you spend on and how much. This will allow you to curtail or eliminate unnecessary expenses. This in turn will allow you to lower your cost of living and increase savings. To help you manage your expenses and increase savings, following are 4 tips to lower your cost of living recommended by credit counselors.
Conserve
Most of our monthly income goes towards the payment of utility bills. This is especially true for people with big houses. Even if you live in an apartment, utility bills are going to be a major monthly expense. The good thing is that you can lower the cost of utilities by making small changes including turning off the lights and electronic devices in your house when you’re not using them. By conserving energy, you will lower your monthly utility bills.
Always visit the grocery store with a list
A mistake that most people make is going to the grocery store unplanned. When people go to grocery store without a shopping list, they tend to spend more than they need to. This increases the monthly grocery expense which in turn increases the cost of living.
Find ways to lower your housing costs
For most people, housing is the largest expense. If you’re one of them then you must find ways to lower your housing costs. Now, if you live in a rented property, make sure that the house you’re living in is something you can afford. If not, move to a smaller house in the same vicinity or simply shift to a cheaper neighborhood. On the other hand, if you’ve mortgaged your home, rent out any space that you can in your house. Apart from helping you to pay for your mortgage, this will allow you to take care of your other expenses.
Consolidate all your debts into a single loan
There are ways for you to consolidate all your debts into a single loan. By doing this, you will lower the debt you have to pay each month. This will turn will allow you to lower your cost of living.
Lowering the cost of living can be a real challenge. However, by connecting to a credit counselor, you can make this task easy.
by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
For many people, managing debt is a real challenge. Luckily, there are people who can help you to manage and pay off your debt. The people I’m referring to are credit counselors. The bad news is that not all credit counselors are the same. Some of them may not act in your best interest. For this reason, you need to find ways to separate the good from the bad. Once you know the ways of filtering out the ‘good’ credit counselors, it will become easy for you to find the right credit counselor for yourself. So, without wasting any further time, let’s take a look at the 5 ways to find the right credit counselor.
Know what you want
When looking for the right credit counselor for yourself, the first thing that you need to do is find out what you want from the counselor. Are you looking for general advice, simple budgeting, debt management, or bankruptcy counseling? Once you determined this, you can start searching for a credit counselor who ticks all the boxes.
Find out the services offered by the different credit counselors
When looking for a credit counselors, one of the most important things that you need to do is find out the services offered by the different counselors. It is true that debt counselling is one of the most important offered by a credit counseling agency. However, reputed counselors offer more than just debt counselling. So, look for counselors who offer budgeting and bankruptcy services in addition to debt management.
Determine how much you can pay for credit counseling
Let’s be honest, no one provides services for free including credit counselors. While your first session with them may be free of charge, you will have to pay for any follow-up sessions. For this reason, you need to determine how much you can afford to pay for credit counseling. Before working with a credit-counseling agency, inquire about their fees and costs. Ideally, you should get the prices or quotes in writing.
Find out about confidentiality
Most people who get credit counseling want to keep their information confidential. If you’re one of them then find out if the credit-counseling agency you’re thinking of working with keeps consumer information confidential.
Finding the right credit counselor is not easy. However, by using the 5 ways to find the right credit counselor mentioned above, you can make the task simple.
by admin | Bankruptcy, Consumer Proposal, Credit Counseling, Credit Repair, Debt Management
Today, the average American has more than a single credit card. This coupled with the American lifestyle of “gotta have it now” has led to a lot of problems. Specifically speaking, it has led to a lot of debt. In fact, in many cases, the debt has gone out of the control and individuals have been forced to file for bankruptcy. Believe me, bankruptcy is something you’d want to avoid. After all, living at the mercy of others is never a good feeling.
Are you facing financial difficulty and pondering filing for bankruptcy? If yes then you’re not alone. Make it absolutely clear that your debt has got nothing to do with your personality or way of living. Even the very finest of people may go bankrupt at some point in their lives. Most people who suffer bankruptcy are regular, hard-working people who encounter some sort of blockade. A single blockade whether it was an accident, reduction in wages or the loss of job can send you in the wrong direction.
Come what may, you cannot prevent the aforementioned blockades. What you can do though is limit living on credit. Your debt will start to multiply as soon as you start using your credit cards to pay for what you can’t afford. Eventually, your debt will cause you to go bankrupt. The best thing you can do to prevent such a situation from occurring is avoiding the things that lead to bankruptcy in the first place. Following are 3 tips to avoid bankruptcy that credit counselors recommend.
Develop a budget
This is a no brainer. If you don’t have a budget, there is a 90% chance that you’ll go bankrupt. Basically, you need to list down all your monthly expenses and allocate resources/money to them based on their importance. Limit the money you spend on unimportant things such as home décor, branded clothing, designer shoes, and so on. This will help you to better manage your debt and avoid bankruptcy.
Pay off your debt over time
If your debt hasn’t yet gone out of control, sit down and determine how much you owe. In such a situation, it is more than possible for you to pay off your debt on your own if you re-adjust your budget and use a debt management plan. Also, taking to a credit counselor would be a good thing to do in this situation.
Take help from credit counselors
As mentioned above, credit counselors can help you to better manage your debt. Additionally, they can advise you how to avoid bankruptcy. Knowledgeable people, credit counselors have a sound financial background and can tell you anything and everything you’d need to know about avoiding bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy is not a good situation to be in. Luckily, you can avoid bankruptcy by using the tips mentioned above.
