How Do I Get My Credit Score up to 800?
You don’t have to be a millionaire to know what achieving that financial ranking means.Being a millionaire means you have crossed a huge economic threshold. Doors open. Opportunities are offered. Rewards are granted. You aren’t invulnerable, but you ...
Eliminating Debt Without Paying: Fact or Fiction?
Paying credit card bills can feel like fighting a fire. You put out one flame and another pops up. Eventually, you just want to get away from the flames.A lot of people think the best way is by filing bankruptcy, mainly because they can escape without ...
What to Do If You Can’t Afford Car Insurance
For most Americans, going carless is unthinkable. You need one to buy groceries, take kids to school, visit a doctor’s office and see friends and family from time to time. Unless you have a very good friend willing to serve as your chauffeur, living without ...
Complaints Abound for New Student Loan Ombudsman
A drowning person wants somebody to throw them a life preserver. People drowning in student debt might have just been thrown a bowling ball.The government’s new student loan watchdog is ill-suited for the job, critics say. That doesn’t mean you’re ...
Millennial Dilemma: Pay off Student Loans or Invest and Save
When you graduate from college with a costly, new diploma, instinct tells you to latch on to the first decent job offer an employer throws your way, and then whittle down your student loan debt as best you can.But what about investing those first earned ...
In Era of Trump, Has Bankruptcy Stigma Lost Its Sting?
With Donald Trump being credited or blamed for virtually every imaginable good or ill (depending on the observer, of course), we in the world of personal finance and debt management can’t help but wonder:What do regular folks make of the president’s ...
Debt Consolidation for Payday Loans
About 55 million Americans don’t have emergency savings, so it follows that when emergencies happen, they turn to payday loans.Approximately 12 million consumers use payday loans and typically pay $15 for every $100 borrowed. The annual percentage rate ...
I Can’t Pay My Cable Bill: What To Do
Another month, another budget-crippling cable bill. When will it ever stop?The average cable bill is now $103.15 a month and is increasing year after year, despite more competition. What do you do when you can't pay your cable bill anymore?It can be ...
Dangers of Using Student Loans to Buy a Car
When the federal government handed out the first student loans in 1958, the message was simple: This money is to be used for education purposes, meaning tuition, books, fees, supplies and living expenses such as room and board.No mention was made of using ...
How to Avoid Jail When You Owe Back Taxes
A very rich person once said, “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”Her name was Leona Helmsley. Guess what? She went to jail for not paying taxes.So can you, though the odds aren’t as high as Helmsley, the hotel tycoon who ...
