by James K. on May 26, 2009
Times are still very tough. If you are currently struggling to pay your mortgage, even given the current low mortgage rates, you may be wondering how foreclosure will affect your life?
But more importantly, what alternatives are out there? Foreclosures have a serious and long-term effect on your credit history that you should understand before it happens.
Foreclosure is one of the most damaging items you can have on your credit score, other than a bankruptcy, and it will stay on your score for at least seven years. This means that the effects of foreclosure are going to haunt you for a long time, perhaps even after you get your feet back on the ground after your financial difficulties.
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by James K. on May 1, 2009
Back during the Arab oil crisis of 1973, there was a lot of talk about how driving slower was one way to use less gasoline. The next year, the Nixon administration put a national 55-mile-per-hour speed-limit policy in place, and it is credited in part for the decline in gasoline consumption that decade.
However, years passed, oil prices fell, the speed limit policy was eased in the late 1980s, and any tie to federal highway funds was completely repealed as one of the first acts of Newt Gingrich’s Republican Congress in 1995.
Today, I doubt that many drivers think about the connection between speed and gas consumption.
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by James K. on April 29, 2009
Although repairing your own credit is highly recommended, it is sometimes beyond what you believe to be our capability. It may be too emotionally laden and/or you may just not be able to buckle down and make the necessary money management changes without professional help.
When you explore outside agencies, you will immediately notice that there is a plethora of credit repair companies promising you the moon and the stars. Sure, credit repair in 24 hours sounds great, but you can be sure that it’s not going to happen.
This kind of claim can be easily dismissed. Also, the Internet will offer to have several agencies contact you. They will (in 5 months) and/ or they will make some possibly nasty phone calls to you. Avoid these offers.
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by James K. on April 21, 2009
Statistics show that the vast majority of new businesses fail within the first few years. That fact doesn’t seem to discourage those with the entrepreneurial spirit, however, as new business are opening every day. And many of them are able to keep their doors open, some even are making a profit.
With the challenges placed on us by the economy, finding and keeping a job is more and more difficult. So those who are so inclined are taking matters into their own hands and opening their own businesses.
Business start-ups are often compared to babies, in that they begin by crawling, then walking, and finally running. Sometimes for businesses, the crawling stage can be discouraging, but that’s to be expected. It is important to stay focused and to not give up hope. Quitters never win.
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by James K. on April 13, 2009
It is true. The economic environment just doesn’t look good at the moment. The economic pinch is reverberating not only across the United States but around the world.
From the everyday Joe on main street to auto workers in Detroit to traders on Wall Street, money seems like it much harder to come by, but there is money to be borrowed.
I see business owners everyday who are surviving the economic climate the best way they know how. Hard work. Its an American heritage that will never die More often than not, however, growing a business takes more than just working harder than the guy down the street. It takes getting more money to grow your enterprise through business financing.
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by James K. on April 8, 2009
Risk tolerance is essential for beginner stock market investing. When you want to learn to invest in the stock market, you’ll discover that each person has a risk tolerance that should be understood thoroughly.
Any reliable and professional financial planner or stock broker must know this so he can help you determine your risk tolerance. Then, that professional needs to help you by recommending which investments don’t exceed that risk level.
It’s a commonly believed misconception that people’s emotions are the only factor in determining investment risk tolerance. That’s not the case at all. Actually, a lot is involved with determining what your risk tolerance level is, and emotions are only a piece of the overall picture.
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by A. Kim on March 30, 2009
If you own an IRA or have another retirement account, the words that follow may ring a bell, especially if you’ve been contributing to a retirement account for a period of time.
Think back to when you first started investing in the account. Remember what you were told? See if this sounds familiar:
1) Put money away today in a retirement account and you’ll be able to use your contribution as a tax deduction against your other income.
2) Invest the contribution that you made to the retirement account whenever you want and the growth on that contribution will grow tax deferred
3) When you retire, and begin to take withdrawals from your retirement account, you’ll be able to put money away on a tax deductible basis when you’re in a higher tax bracket and take money out during retirement when you’re in a lower tax bracket.
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by James K. on March 30, 2009
Mortgage rates are still very low and will fuel the eventual rebound of the depressed, real estate market.
But everyone would like to know where mortgage interest rates are headed in 2009. Particularly in these erratic times. Everyone knows that forecasts are not one hundred percent reliable, but fairly educated guesses based on the recent economic events, can be made.
Low interest rates are promoted by lenders all over the country. But this fact is only applicable for individuals that have credit scores higher than 700. If you desire getting a five percent interest or below, you not only need a credit score above seven hundred, but also need to make a considerable down payment.
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by Samantha A. Bow on March 25, 2009
Do you have student loans? Have you graduated from college and are now overwhelmed by your student loan payments that have grown more than you realized?
You are not alone. Most college students graduate with at least some student loans.
College is expensive and it takes a lot of money to pay for it, a lot of money that most people don’t have. This leads to a lot of money taken out on loan. Once you graduate college you are required to pay these loans off, and it can cost you a lot of money every month.
A lot of recent college graduates have trouble finding jobs. Whether you have the job you’ve been searching for or not, you still have to pay back the money for your student loans. Even if you do get a job right when you graduate, you’re not going to be making what you really want to be earning.
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by James K. on March 23, 2009
With the free fall of today’s stock market, almost every stock is cheap in comparison to values from just a year or two ago. But is a cheap stock really a good value?
The meaning of cheap stock, that is, stocks that they are trading under 60 cents or below, are always enticing – because you put down a small amount of money for a potentially lucrative return. It also looks good because with your investment you are getting a lot more shares, or contracts for you amount invested.
However, for many investors, this scenario is just a pipe dream to buy that stock at 10 cents and see it go to $10. Does happen but not very often and it can be very costly. Sometimes they are cheap for a great reason, they are NO GOOD.
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