If you find it hard dealing with debt collection agencies, you will need few advices from me. Yes, I have experienced their harassment in the past, and I have some very good things to share. If you haven’t paid your credit card bills since last 4-5 months, you can expect some unexpected disturbances in your life. This happens every time you are in debt: you wake up at 6 am and the first thing you notice when you pick up your phone is 8-10 missed calls from the same number. You are, however, not surprised as you know who it is. The point is, why do you have to answer their calls? One of their useful techniques to get back creditors’ money is to call you continuously and harass you until you get the money. Hence, you shouldn’t expect their call to stop suddenly. One simple way to avoid  [...] 

Numerous people today are in miserable financial mess, which requite immediate attention and assistance. Not many are, however, aware about the various options available to them, except for the few popular ones like credit card debt consolidation and debt management companies. Besides, these options too are viewed as not-so-helpful solutions due to various misconceptions incepted by people. One such myth is credit card debt consolidation service would ruin the credit score of an individual. A proper understanding of how a credit score is derived and what are the factors that influence it, wouldn’t have led to such misconceptions. One of the most important factors that affect your score is the available balance of your credit limit. If you use your lines of credit up to the maximum credit  [...] 

We all complain about money all the time, all our lives. I have had my share of grumbling as well. I, however, later found complaining isn’t helping me to achieve my financial goals. Let alone achieving, I was so busy complaining, I never got time to review my goals. And I transformed… from a complainer to a doer, from passive to active, from poor to rich. All that was required was change of habits, because with these habits, it was impossible to be rich. I now look at people and grin; people resisting change, people refusing transformation, people having these habits: Eating out regularly: How do you expect to see a big amount in your checking account at the end of the day if you spend a huge amount just by eating out? You believe you are living life king size. Is this belief helping  [...] 

Getting rid of debt is something that many of us sincerely don’t endeavor to achieve. Postponing debt is what we commonly do, but in the process pay up extra money to the lender as interest. Paying off debt in time requires the presence of resources for clearing the debt as well as the psychological makeup for steering yourself clear of all dues and keeping yourself free. Mental placidity is only achieved when you clear off all your dues. Evading the dues might give temporary satisfaction of saving up your bucks but eventually you’ve got to pay up someday or the other. Here are three factors that can really make you pay up your bills: Motivation “Where there’s a will there’s a way”. If you are motivated to pay up your debts, there’s nothing that can come in your way. As mentioned  [...] 

Development in technology and the need of an exquisite lifestyle were the parents that gave birth to the era of plastic money. Credit card is now a versatile tool used for convenience of shopping, receiving points and discounts. And everyone has at least half a dozen of them. However, this plastic money used as convenience becomes the most inconvenient asset, or rather liability, when one fails to pay the minimum bill every month. The group of people that suffers the most is graduates. They are already laden by debts of student loans and other loans for education where now the credit card debt is adjoined even before they start their work life. Debt enters quite early in student’s life. An astonishing piece of news some decades ago, credit card among high-school kids is quite common these  [...] 

To the seniors, reverse mortgage might look an advantageous option for loaning money. The lenders are not after you for repayment after on and off. On the plus side, you get to stay in the mortgaged property. You need not worry about repayment of the loan at all. If you have the money, you pay back the loan. The lender gets your property after you die. Till you leave your house or sell it off, you don’t have to pay the loan. Since I’m not going to leave my house or sell it off, I need not bother about repaying the loaned amount right? Well, in most cases this is true. But its not that reverse mortgage is the right choice for all seniors. Just consider the situations in which a reverse mortgage is beneficial for you. If you are contemplating a house shift, a reverse mortgaged property might  [...] 

Financial discipline is a matter of personal choice. A person with good discipline may strive to live within his monetary means without any debts and make his finances grow at a healthy rate. A person with not a very impressive discipline may depend a lot on debt and will not know how to utilize and save his monetary resources. Financial discipline is not related to the amount of monetary resources that you have at your disposal. A person earning much less than you, can be more disciplined than you. Many affluent people were seen to spend all their resources unwisely and get into huge debts leading to their fleeing their homes to avoid repayment to their lenders! If financial behavior would have been strictly shaped by legislative initiatives, then some people might not have got the freedom  [...] 

Nothing in this world can be called good or bad. Everything depends on the context and is so very conditional. Take debt for instance, it can be both good and bad depending upon a number of conditions. Though usually debt is looked upon with a prejudiced eye and is usually considered happening due to poor financial status of the debtor, it need not always be so. You can always take a loan when you are not having sufficient funds in hand to further your ambitions which may be a career upliftment, or business expansion or setup. You should have a clear plan of repaying your loan and should be able to stick to it. Taking debts is an art and you should exercise your judgmental skills while doing it. Never be over optimistic while taking a debt even for a positive purpose. When taking a loan the  [...] 

There are very few of us who are immune to debt. Well, I’m one of them. I can proudly say that I don’t owe anyone a dollar to date. Well, don’t be under the wrong impression that I’m trying to blow my own trumpet. It’s just that I’m trying to convince you that life even in the most economically lean times can go without a debt. Only you need to do some good planning. Positive Debt I do agree that under some special conditions you need to debt, and the situation need not be always negative. When you take money on loan for starting a new business venture, for higher studies, for going abroad or for purchasing a new property, you are borrowing for a positive purpose with the intention of earning higher returns from them in future. Borrowing money for funding your further development  [...] 

Foreclosures can happen to the best of us and this is what lenders seem to be enjoying. A foreclosure is not the end of your world. You might have lost some property in the deal but don’t lose heart. You can always buy another. But you should know that credit scores are dependant on foreclosures. If a foreclosure happens then your credit score is going to plummet by a lot of points which ripples a score depreciation of a greater magnitude, if you were to follow the words of the co-chief of Bills.com (a major financial online hub) Mr. Andrew Housser. According to him a foreclosure might lower your credit points by 200-300 which will lower your score by 300 units. Now that figure’s a matter of concern. Without a FICO score of 340 you won’t be able to do much. It will set limits on your  [...]