Helpful Budgeting Tips For Young Adults

For most young adults, when the time comes to face the facts with finances they are not prepared. The truth is that budgeting is not a no-brainer, but it isn’t necessarily hard either. Unfortunately, personal finance courses are not yet a required course in high school or college, but they should be. Instead, many Americans are left to learn through a bumpy trial and error. This too, is not necessary. If you are willing to do a little bit of reading in order to get all the facts straight, y...

8 Things You Can Learn From Rich People On Budget Management

Have you ever noticed that the rich just keep on getting richer and the poor even poorer? It’s easy to assume that this pattern is a direct reflection of income, and while income certainly plays into wealth, it is not the sole determining factor in whether a person is rich or poor. Rich people who stay rich (as opposed to certain celebrities we read about who lose millions and end up bankrupt) keep tabs on their money. If we want to live like the rich, we first need to learn to budget like th...

3 Things to Use Credit Cards for and 3 Things Not to

Using credit cards, and the value in doing so, is one of the most debated things between families and friends, and there is a never ending discussion about advantages and disadvantages going on daily on the internet. Two things are for sure: 1. It is nice to have readily available credit for things that come up in our daily activities and 2. It is not nice to have to pay a monthly credit card bill, especially when there is a high interest rate. It all just comes down to what type of person...

Baby-Boomer Generation Must Get Serious About Planning for Retirement

One maxim of life is that it is never too early or too late to start saving for retirement. However, our “Baby-Boomer” generation, the ones that were born in the two decades that followed World War II, have been preparing for retirement, but have, unfortunately, undergone two severe business-cycle reversals in the past ten years alone. Stock portfolios have taken a beating, and home equity values have plummeted, especially if a recent refinancing was used to pay down other debt. Many of these...

How to Reduce Your Property Taxes

Even though the real estate market is soft these days, which means property values are probably less than they could be, the decrease in what your property is worth might not to be reflected in how much you pay in property taxes. Property assessments for tax purposes are done on a regular basis, but generally not every year. Instead local governments do their assessments every few years, which means you may be paying more property tax than you really should because your home is worth less than i...

What to Do about Persistent Collection Agencies

Don’t you hate when you get that call from collection agencies? You know the one – where they contact you and they pretend to be a friend and ask, “is Mary in?” Then, once they have you on the phone, if they’re honest, they say, “this call is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained during this call will be used for that purpose.” If you are behind in paying your bills, no matter who you owe money to, you’re likely to get phone calls like that. However, just because you get suc...

Recessions come and go and inflation is here to stay. In your 40’s, economic ups and downs don’t affect you because you know that with about 20 years left before retirement, you’ll have plenty of earning opportunities. You change jobs, get promoted, and earn bonuses for outstanding performance. Your savings are modest but you know that they will grow, providing you with a comfortable nest egg. But life is full of detours. What happens when you reach your late 50s and early 60s and realiz...

What College Students and Their Parents Should Know About Insurance

What do college students think about? Parties, having a good time, the opposite sex, financial aid, grades, and selecting a major. Most college students don't take the time to think about insurance. However, college students living away from home may not be covered by their parents' auto, property, or health insurance. Let's take a look at some insurance tips that college students should at least think about. Rental Insurance Your parents' home insurance probably does not cover your off-ca...

Doing What You Want To: How to Stop Spending On Stuff You Don’t Even Use

People work hard because they want to earn the right to live the life they want, even if it means spending on things that are useless to them. A person, who may have no control over some areas of his life, may find it extremely satisfying to at least have control over the money he has earned. To have the power to acquire things that normally poses a challenge can be quite addicting, especially when emotions are involved. People, after all, are insatiable beings; it is only right to reap what the...

FTC Protects Consumers With New Debt Settlement Rules

Debt settlement is an effective debt relief solution for people drowning in unsecured debt. With debt settlement, you need to pay back only a part of what you owe to the creditors. Around 50% of the original debt amount is forgiven in this debt reduction process. However, there are too many scam companies in the debt settlement industry. These companies tempt the debtors with slogans like “be debt free in three months”. In reality, the fraud debt settlement companies push people further in debt....

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