Help for Homeowners Facing the Loss of Their Home
For most families, a home is not only a significant financial investment but also a source of pride. The loss of a home, due to unexpected events such as unemployment, can be financially and personally devastating.
If you have been laid off or are facing unemployment, you can keep your home - - if you know the right steps to take. The Department of Housing and Urban Development/Federal Housing Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Labor and the mortgage industry have worked together to produce important basic information - - and key links to local groups and organizations - - that can help you get through difficult times without losing your home.
Facing Money Problems
- Loss of job
- Cuts in work hours or overtime
- Retirement
- Illness, injury, or death of a family member
- Divorce or separation
If your family is facing any of these changes and cannot pay your bills, now is the time to look closely at what you owe and what you earn, eliminating unnecessary spending and reaching out for help if you still can’t meet your financial obligations. Taking action now can help you protect your family from the loss of your home. This page was created to help you find advice, information, and web links that will help you keep your home.
The Credit Practices Rule
If you are one of the millions of Americans who borrows money, buys items on installment credit, or cosigns for another person’s debt, you may want to know about the Federal Trade Commission’s Credit Practices Rule. The Rule, which became effective March l, l985, prohibits many creditors from including certain provisions in consumer credit contracts. It also requires creditors to provide a written notice to consumers before they cosign obligations for others about their potential liability if the other person fails to pay. Finally, it prohibits one method of assessing late charges
Take Control of Debt
Remember the definition of net worth (wealth)?
Assets – Liabilities= Net Worth
Liabilities are your debts. Debt reduces net worth. Plus, the interest you pay on debt, including credit card debt, is money that cannot be saved or invested—it’s just gone. Debt is a tool to be used wisely for such things as buying a house. If not used wisely, debt can easily get out of hand. For example, putting day-to-day expenses—like groceries or utility bills—on a credit card and not paying off the balance monthly can lead to debt overload. Lots of people are mired in debt. In some cases, they could not control the causes of their debt. However, in some instances they could have. Many people get into serious debt because they:
· Experienced financial stresses caused by unemployment, medical bills or divorce.
· Could not control spending, did not plan for the future and did not save money.
· Lacked knowledge of financial and credit matters.
Tips for Controlling Debt
· Develop a budget and stick to it.
· Save money so you’re prepared for unforeseen circumstances. You should have at least three to six months of living expenses stashed in your rainy day savings account, because as the poet Longfellow put it, “Into each life some rain must fall.”
· When faced with a choice of financing a purchase, it may be a better financial decision to choose a less expensive model of the same product and save or invest the difference.
· Pay off credit card balances monthly.
· If you must borrow, learn everything about the loan, including interest rate, fees and penalties for late payments or early repayment.
I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go.
New Years Debt Resolution
Get Yourself Into Financial Shape Many of us make a New Year’s resolution to improve our physical condition. But how about your financial shape? These are sure signs that you need to revamp your finances:
Your credit cards are maxed out and you’re only paying the minimum. Failing to settle your bill in full can lead to whopping finance charges. And if you skip a payment you can be on staggering late fees in addition to the interest.
An increasing amount of income goes to paying your debts. Only 10 - 15 percent of take-home pay should be spent on fulfilling credit obligations.
You’re using one card to pay off another. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you squaring away your debts. All you’re doing is borrowing more money.
You decide that your next trip to the doctor will have to wait. If you’re jeopardizing you health because of a lack of money, it’s time to reevaluate your credit situation. (more…)
Debt is The Master of Souls
Wholeness requires separation. In order for you to experience yourself as being whole, you spend most of your live experiencing being separated, trying to get back to wholeness.
One of your most creative ways of moving away from happiness has been through consumer debt. Your fixation with spending, gives you little time to contemplate being whole, until it hits you in the face with a debt load that you can no longer manage.
The Black Plague of the industrialized world is debt for consumer goods and services. No matter how you may reason it, going into debt to buy a big screen TV or stereo system, a new boat, or lawn furniture, just is not necessary. You have been taught that all of these things are necessary to be happy and successful. You have moved away from happiness in order to feel it again by learning how to be miserable. Now that you are up to your ears in bills, you think that you would be happy again, if only you did not owe all this money. (more…)
How much credit card debt do you have?
The average American family is now over $7000 in debt just on their credit cards. That debt generates an interest charge of over $105 each month if your card charges the average 18%. If you have missed a payment or made a late payment (even by one day!), you may be paying up to 27% interest or over $157 each month. Most credit card companies require a modest payment towards the card balance. Modest meaning from $10 to $20 a month. To pay off a $7000 debt at $20 a month you will not pay off this debt for 29 years. (more…)
Figuring Out Your Debt Problems
Do you live with high levels of stress every day because of your debt problems? You are just like the majority of other American consumers. Debt problems can be burdensome on an entire family. The good news is that there are ways you can eliminate your debt sooner than you ever thought possible.
Understanding The Real Rate of Return
There is one indicator more than any other which determines the health of an economy and it is the Real Rate of Return. Furthermore this is the simplest of all indicators to understand because it determines the safety of assets. Next time you hear the TALKING HEADS discussing the nuances of the markets, filter what they say through your own understanding of the Real Rate of Return.
Beefing Up Your Credit Score in 5 Easy Steps
We know more than ever about how credit scores are calculated. Learn how to clean up your record, polish it to a new gleam and reap the financial rewards.
So you?ve had a few problems getting the bills paid lately, and you?re wondering what you can do to repair the damage.
You?ve got plenty of company. There are more than 30 million people in the United States with credit blemishes severe enough (score under 620) to make obtaining loans and credit cards with reasonable terms difficult.
Or maybe your credit is OK, but you’d like to make it better. After all, the better your credit, the lower the interest rates you can score on mortgages, car loans and credit cards.
9 Deadly Trading Mistakes!
The following are a list of nine things you want to avoid at all costs. Anyone of them can literally destroy your financial dreams and goals!
1. Trading with money you can’t afford to lose.
One of the greatest obstacles to successful trading is using money that you really can’t afford to lose. Examples of this would be money that is supposed to be used to pay the mortgage, bills or your child’s college tuition. This is sometimes referred to as “trading with scared money” and there is a very good reason for that. Ultimately what happens is that when someone knows in the back of their mind that they are risking the rent money, they trade out of fear and emotion versus logic and no emotion.
If you are in this situation I highly recommend that you stop trading until you earn enough to put into an account that you truly can afford to lose without causing major financial setbacks. You can start with as little as $2000 and trade stocks under $30.