Anyone earning fixed incomes needs a personal budget plan. Or I would much rather call it a spending plan. It emphasizes proper spending, which means you need to have a plan even before you open your wallet and handing your card to the cashier.

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to setting up your customized personal budget plan:

First, list your fixed, unavoidable expenses in a spreadsheet and put the dollar values you are committed to paying each month for each item. That means rent or mortgage amortization, homeowner’s fees, all out-of-pocket insurance fees, tuition fees, etc. Remember we’re talking about fixed and unavoidable, so your gym membership fee isn’t part of this definition.       Continue Reading

When it comes to financing your college education, scholarships can be a big help.  An academic scholarship is money given to you because you’ve excelled in school.  If you received an academic scholarship, it would be because you had an acceptable GPA and excelled in your studies, and the college or university wants you to continue studying at their institution.

What Kind of Academic Scholarships Are Available?

Academic scholarships, also called merit scholarships, are as varied as the organizations that offer them.  You can get scholarships from a school you’d like to attend, because you went to a public school in a geographical region, because you’re a minority, or even for being left handed!       Continue Reading

If you have ever found yourself in credit card debt, you have probably been a victim of the credit card company tricks including fluctuating interest rates and finance charges. In most credit card contracts, there is a universal default clause that allows your credit card company to increase your interest rates with no notice and for no particular reason.

Your rate can increase due to a late payment, because you took out a loan or anything else that the creditor might deem risky and an impact on their repayment schedule. You can ask for a lower interest rate, but that’s chancy, and the creditor is under no obligation to make any change in your rates.       Continue Reading

Perhaps now more than ever before, consumers need to vigilant about protecting their hard earned money and go about spending it as wisely as possible. One of the most lucrative sectors in all of the financial industry, credit card companies are literally making billions of dollars each and every year by charging their unknowing customers one costly fee or hidden charge after another.

Searching for Hidden Charges

Until the credit card industry is one that’s completely governed by state or federal laws, we must make it a point to being diligent when it comes to protecting ourselves and our money. Although new laws recently enacted are supposed to curtail the practices that have cost consumers countless dollars such as rampant over-the-limit fees, the industry is likely to respond in kind with different sets of fees, less reward programs, and fewer promotional offers.       Continue Reading

When it comes to trying to get a new car or a new house, there is nothing worse than having bad credit. Poor credit ratings show that you were extended credit and you either charged it all out or failed to pay back what you owed. When companies look at bad credit reports, they have a hard time believing that you will pay them back when you failed to pay everyone else back. Luckily, there is such a thing as Bad Credit Repair.

Starting Off Smart

Of course, the best thing to do is to avoid getting bad credit in the first place but sometimes things fall completely out of our hands and issues grow out of control. Maybe you lost your job and barely had enough to buy food. Or maybe you went through a divorce where your spouse damaged your credit behind your back without you even knowing about it. Then again, there is that possibility that you simply were not responsible with your credit and finances and you hurt your credit all on your own.       Continue Reading