5 March 2010

Is Debt consolidation the right solution for you?

Have you been hit by the money bug? Are you suffocating under the burden of multiple debts? Well, debt consolidation can be one of your options. However, you need to know certain things before you decide to consolidate your debt.

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28 February 2010

How to Save When You’re in Debt

Saving can be hard in the best of times, but when you’re in debt it can be particularly. How can you save money when everything seems to be going to making your minimum payments?

Learn some basic advice for how to look at your finances and figure out how to pay yourself as well as your bills.

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30 August 2009

The Joneses Are Your Enemy

We all know better than to try to keep up with the Joneses. Sadly some of us still try.

Even worse, many of us let the Joneses affect us in ways we never even notice. Are you letting your neighbors have an undue influence on you?

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23 August 2009

Should You Ever Leverage Yourself?

Most people don’t think about leverage when they borrow money. That’s too bad because they should.

Thinking about your personal balance sheet the same way you’d think about a business balance sheet can be a key in warding off bad purchases. Especially when you don’t have the money to pay for them.

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16 July 2009

Why You Spend More Than You Make (and What To Do About It)

We all know we’re not supposed to spend more than we earn, but many of us somehow manage to do it. What is driving us to do this and how can we stop it?

As usual, the answers are pretty simple, but you have to really identify what you’re doing in order to take the steps to avert the problem.

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12 July 2009

Debt Reduction for the Willfully Stupid

Debt reduction is not rocket science. People try to make it hard. Ultimately you’re going to have to spend less and earn more.

Despite all this simplicity people are generally too stubborn to simply accept that they’ve lived beyond their means and take the hard steps to correct the situation.

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14 June 2009

Is the Mortgage Crisis Over?

Many people’s lives have already been dramatically affected by the mortgage crisis. Much of our chances of economic recovery rest on if and when the mortgage crisis will end.

Unfortunately many people may be defining this crisis too narrowly. To figure out if the mortgage crisis is over, we first have to define what mortgage crisis we’re talking about.

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29 May 2009

Debt and Moral Hazard

While we struggle to try to return to “business as usual” in America, we gloss over how things have fundamentally changed.

The current economic situation represents not necessarily a fundamental shift, but the eventual realization of moral hazard. We’ve rewarded the wrong kind of behavior for too long and lost sight of sound decisions making.

Is it too late to return to sound practices?

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9 March 2009

Is the Debt Snowball an Atkins Diet?

While I run the risk of alienating a lot of low-carbers out there, I’m choosing to use Atkins as an analogy because I think there are a few parallels between the diet and my reluctance to endorse the debt snowball approach that is currently en-vogue. Generally the accepted science on Atkins as of this writing is that while it is very effective at weight loss, the long term benefits are not entirely clear. This largely equates to why I don’t advocate the debt snowball approach.

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4 February 2009

Investing Prerequisite #1: How To Deal With Debt

Deciding when and how to pay off your debts is not a simple matter. While it can be comforting to be debt-free, that may not always be the most financially expedient approach-nor is it the whole picture. Here are a few steps, including analyzing and paying off debt, that really make your money work FOR you.

First you must establish a fund to allow for emergencies in your life. Then you need to adopt a strategy for getting rid of the rest of your debt. The freedom this will allow you is key in making investments. Paying off your debts is a must before proceeding.

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