How To Make Credit Work For You Credit is a powerful tool that can either help or hurt your personal finances. When used responsibly, credit can help you achieve financial goals and improve your credit score. However, if misused, credit can lead to debt, high-interest rates, and financial stress. In this article, we will provide some personal finance advice on how to make credit work for you. Understand Your Credit Score Your credit score is a numerical representation of your creditworthiness, and it plays a significant role in your ability to obtain credit. A good credit score can help you ..read more

Top 5 Strategies To Get Rid Of Debt Debt is a burden that besieges personal finances until it’s fully cleared and gone. If you’re struggling with debt, whether it’s only a few dollars or has many zeros, these top five strategies can help you get rid of your outstanding balances. The Avalanche Method The avalanche method tallies all your debts, listing them from highest interest rate to lowest. The outstanding balances are then paid off from the highest interest rate to the lowest. Minimum payments are made on every loan and other debt, and any extra available funds are put toward the highest ..read more

Top 4 Ways To Financial Freedom In 2023 Do you dream of financial freedom? Of being able to live your life without worrying about money? Well, that dream can become a reality if you start planning now! In this blog, we’ll explore 4 ways to achieve financial freedom in 2023. By making smart decisions, creating a budget, and investing in yourself, you can create a secure financial future and be free of money worries. We’ll look at how you can use these strategies to get on the path to financial freedom and live the life you’ve always wanted. Get ready to take control of your finances and achie ..read more

If you have a credit card, of course you want to use it wisely to protect your finances. That’s why it’s always a good idea to treat paying with a credit card the same way that you would treat paying with cash. Still, there are some wise ways you can use a credit card that you may not be aware of. To Pay Down Debt Many people associate credit cards with getting into debt, but this doesn’t have to be the case. In some instances, it might actually make sense to use a credit card to pay down debt. This is especially true if you have debt with a high-interest rate and a credit card with a lower ..read more

Is your credit score weighing you down? Perhaps a low score is preventing you from taking out a much-needed car loan or even qualifying for a mortgage. Or maybe you’re simply worried about errors on your credit report bringing your score down. Regardless, it’s important to understand your rights and options when it comes to credit repair. How Does Credit Repair Work? Specifically, credit repair is a process that involves disputing inaccuracies and other negative marks on your credit report in order to boost your score and ensure your report is accurate. The credit repair process can be long ..read more

8 Ways to Save on Back-to-School Shopping! It may still feel like summertime, but many students across the U.S. are heading back to school. Back-to-school shopping can be a budget-busting event, especially when Mom or Dad likes shopping for school supplies just as much as the kiddos! Here are eight ways to save on back-to-school shopping to help equip your kids for school without breaking the bank: Watch for sales – Everyone puts school supplies on sale, but they don’t always put the same things on sale at the same time. Take advantage of rock-bottom pricing on clothes at the local department ..read more

10 Ways to Set Your Kids up for Financial Success You worked hard for your money. Along the way, you learned a lot of lessons about financial success. It’s only natural that you would want your kids to benefit from the mistakes you made and the successes you’ve had. Here are 10 ways to set your kids up for financial success: Start saving for college – A lot of very successful people have trouble financially because of a student loan burden. You don’t have to pay for their entire college tuition, but starting your kids off with a lower loan amount makes things easier for them as they set out i ..read more

Does Divorce Impacted Your Credit Score? Divorce doesn’t directly impact your credit score. In other words, if there were two people with the same credit histories, the same jobs, and the same expenses and debts, but one was divorced and one wasn’t, they would have the same credit score. However, just because divorce isn’t a factor on its own doesn’t mean that the effects of divorce can’t impact your credit score. The most common issue arises when it comes to joint accounts. Accounts that were previously held jointly may either no longer exist or may no longer be joint accounts. When such acco ..read more

Recovering From Bankruptcy Bankruptcy emerged as an alternative to more draconian measures that left people as indentured servants or worse over a run of bad luck or even a period of poor decision-making. For most people, bankruptcy offers a chance to get a fresh start, hopefully with better luck and smarter choices. Still, bankruptcy isn’t a freebie. Bankruptcy is a public record and remains on your credit report for up to 10 years. Bankruptcy may hamper your ability to access good opportunities in lending, business financing, even renting a house, so it is important to start working to recov ..read more

Optimal Credit Score for Buying a House When it comes to getting a mortgage to buy a house, your credit score will play a large role in determining whether you can get a mortgage, and if so, how favorable the terms will be for you. At an abstract level, the optimal credit score for buying a house is the one that allows you to buy the home you want in a manner that you can afford. At a more tangible level, 580 is the minimum credit score one can have in order to get a low down payment loan from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Mortgage scores below 620 are considered subprime. These mo ..read more