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Credit Counseling: Swimming Out of the Mess

Finance

I once read a news story about a horse that slipped into a manure pit.

Some people–much like the unfortunate horse–are up to their necks in a mess, paddling for all they’re worth, wondering how to get out and panicking about the apparent hopelessness of their situation.

The mess I’m referring to is–of course–debt.

Fortunately, there are some life preservers out there.

The simplest option is a debt snowball.   You just list all your debts in order from smallest balance to largest.  Then, focus all you energy on paying off the smallest, while making minimum payments on the rest.   When the smallest debt is paid off, throw that money at the next smallest balance.   Eventually, all of your debts go away.

What are your other options?

There are debt consolidation loans, debt consolidation programs, horrible debt settlement plans, and even bankruptcy.   There’s a whole shark-infested reef of options, some of which will make things much, much worse for you.  What to do?

Take a look at credit counseling.   Credit counseling is designed as a way to educate debtors on their options, and how to pursue those options.  A good counselor will look at your income, your debt, and your spending habits and help you understand what went wrong and how to avoid it.

The trick is to find a good counselor.

First, search for approved and licensed counseling organizations here.

Once you have a list of candidates, you can start trimming it using these steps:

  • Ask them for information.  Good agencies will send you information about itself and its services at no charge.  If the balk, run.
  • Are they nonprofit?  In many places, credit counselor must be nonprofit to operate legally.  Whether or not it’s a legal requirement, consider making it your requirement.
  • Ask about their fees and get it in writing.  Is there a setup fee?  Monthly fees?
  • Will there be a signed agreement?  If there is, be sure to read it, first.
  • How do they train their counselors?  What are their qualifications?
  • How are the employees compensated?  Do they get bonuses if you sign up for certain services?  If they do, go elsewhere.  Their first priority should be your needs, not getting a bonus.

Once you’ve found a company you’re comfortable with, schedule a counseling appointment.  At the appointment, you can expect to go over your finances in detail, including your income, expenses, debt, and financial goals.  You’ll review your options with the counselor and build an action plan.

From there, your job will be to stay on the plan and get yourself out of debt.

Have you ever met with a credit counselor?

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Things You Should Buy Online to Save Money

Finance

Article written by money supermarket.

Sometimes the price you pay in-store for a product or service can change dramatically if you find the same product online, and in most cases the price in-store can be considerably higher. There’s nothing worse than getting home from a shopping trip thinking you have a bargain, until you realise that you could have saved a lot more had you have waited until you got home. Here are a few examples of things you should buy online to save money:

    1. DVD’s and Blu Rays

All movies, whether on DVD or Blu Ray format, are generally cheaper if bought online, it’s a fact that I have learned over the years. I’ve always found that searching the sites of film selling giants Amazon and Play, I can always find a movie that little bit cheaper and some considerably so. There are also some websites such as dvdpricesearch that compare prices of all of the big merchants for you; it’s a great way to save time and money.

    1. Flights and Holidays

In my opinion, the day of buying flights face to face is slowly on the decline, I seem to find considerably cheaper prices by searching online at home. I think the main reason for this is that, travel or holiday agents just do what we do, they search online for the best prices, and unless they have any exclusive deals then they will just be getting the same prices as us. I tend to use some online travel comparison websites that again do the searching for you; however, some work better than others so make sure you do your research.

    1. Books

I always purchase books online, whether in the standard physical format or in the form of an e-book. Books are just one of those things that always seem to be cheaper, with the likes of Amazon and Borders available online and offering fantastic discounts. There are also many websites that sell niche or rare books online that can be considerably cheaper than going direct to a book seller.

    1. Auto Insurance

Auto insurance is one of those things that we all hate purchasing, but if you want to drive your vehicle on the road, then by law we have to spend our hard earned cash on it. Getting your auto insurance online can save you a lot of money. Using price comparison sites, you only have to fill in one form as if you’re applying for one quote, you will then be provided with a list of pricing options available to you.

    1. Cell Phones

Whether you are just buying a handset or if you’re looking for a monthly cell phone price plan, I always seem to find better deals online than I can in-store. Of course in-store you have the ability to try and haggle but I’ve found that the deals I get offered are never as good as those that I can find online. Online you can also search by provider website which is another great way to save money, and it would take you a lot of time to visit each store!

Jason’s note: I shop online a lot.  I buy things that most people don’t realize are available online.   An interesting counterpoint question: What should you buy in-person to save money?

Decision Making Made Easy

Life

Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom, Walt D...
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Have you ever had to make a difficult decision?   Not necessarily a decision that’s difficult because it’s life-changing, but a decision that’s difficult because there are two phenomenally wonderful, yet mutually exclusive options?

For example:

  • Should you put caramel or strawberry sauce on your ice cream?
  • Should you go to Disney Land or Disney World?
  • Should you subscribe to Live Real, Now by email or RSS?
  • Should you take the job with the stellar benefits package or the higher salary?

These are all real decisions that you may be called on to make.

For most decisions, there are some alternatives that are easy to discard.

MadDog 20/20 isn’t a good alternative to caramel sauce on your ice cream.   The local BDSM museum probably isn’t a great choice for a family vacation.  Sending me hate mail is obviously worse than subscribing.

Then you’ve got some choices that are both okay, but one is clearly better.    You’ve got free airfare and hotel.  Do you go to Topeka, or Paris?  Neither is horribly, but I think the choice is obvious. You’re going out to dinner.  McDonald’s or…nevermind, this fits the first category.

After you’ve discarded the obvious bad choices and the okay-but-not-great choices, how can you decide between what’s left?

This is the point that starts to cause stress.  What if you make the wrong choice?  What if you regret it forever?   What if you’re still not happy?  Gridlock.

The reason your stuck is because it’s not apparent which is the better choice.  All of your experiences and knowledge are telling you–on some level–that the options are identical in terms of your life, happiness, and goals.    It truly does not matter which one you choose.  You will probably be equally happy, either way.

Given that it doesn’t matter, you have two choices for making the final decision:

  1. Pick the one you want.   The rational decision is a tie, so make it an emotional one.   Does one job match your dreams, but with a bit more risk?   Has one vacation destination been a goal since you were little?  Do it!
  2. Flip a coin.  If the decision doesn’t matter, leave it to fate.  That way, if it doesn’t work out, you can always blame the quarter.

The one thing you don’t want to do is wait.  Failing to decide is still a decision and one that is guaranteed to keep you from being satisfied with your choice.   Don’t wait until you have all of the possible information, because that kind of perfect world doesn’t exist.   Get to about 85% of fully informed and run with it.  You’ll usually be happier making a decision–even the wrong one–than sitting back wondering “What if I had done that?”

How do you make hard decisions?

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Saturday Roundup

Finance, Life, Misc

The float of the King carnival parading in Pat...
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Don’t miss a thing! Please take a moment to subscribe to Live Real, Now by email.

Holiday weeks are supposed to be short, aren’t they?

I’m 11 days into my 30 Day “Compact”.  So far, it has gone well.  Unfortunately, there have been a couple of books launched that I’d love to own, and a friend keeps showing me new gadgets that I’d love to get.   Not shopping at all is harder than it sounds.

The Best Posts of the Week:

Brian Wood, without a doubt, understood the responsibility he took on as a father.    The story makes me get all misty.

On Wise Bread, they asked if you are saving too much.   Don’t save as an excuse to stop living your life.

Free Money Finance will help you save money on travel.

Parent Hacks has a great use for a Google Voice number.  I have a spare, so I think I’ll start using it.

I’m a big fan of selling on Craigslist.  I’ve never sold a car there, so this was informative.

Finally, a list of the carnivals I’ve participated in:

5 Reasons to Quit Saving and Start Living was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Bonding Relationships was in the Carnival of Wealth.

Hippy Month was the Editor’s Pick in the Festival of Frugality!

If I missed a carnival, please let me know. Thanks to those who have included me!

Ten Easy Ways to Cut Spending at Home

Finance

With the sorry state of the economy over recent years, most home-owners are looking at ways to cut down on monthly spends without being frugal. These are ten simple steps to save your household £100s without missing out on home comforts;

  1. Invest in ISAs. Taxes are becoming a bigger pain than ever before, the only way to avoid the sting in the governments tail is to invest in ISAs. Although there are standard cash ISAs, Stocks and Shares ISAs offer the opportunity to invest for less. This can be risky so only invest what you could afford to lose in the worst case scenario, however if you invest wisely you could potentially bring in a handy amount of cash at the end of your ISA investment term. [Ed.  For my American readers, ISAs are tax-sheltered savings or investment accounts.]
  2. Do the weekly shop online. A site like mysupermarket.co.uk offers up all your regular shopping goods but compares the price from all major supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Ocado and Sainsburys) to make sure you pay the best price for your weekly shop. It saves you the time and effort of battling through supermarket crowds and paying over the odds for your weekly shop.   Sites such as Topcashback offer money back on your total bill (up for 10%), giving you something for nothing, which these days can’t be ignored!
  3. Homemade not Homepride! It might be the easy option, but ready meals come with a large mark up. By ditching the meals in favour of freshly prepared food you can save yourself a packet and learn a new skill to capitalise on in the future perhaps. Visit local markets for your produce at a far lower price than the local supermarket. So overall, you’re saving money and benefiting from the best, freshest local produce.
  4. Satellite vs. Freeview. When it comes to your TV package you must choose wisely. Packages range from around £50 a month for those who demand all the sports and movie channels, to £13 one off cost for Freeview, dependant on what box you chose. Weigh up if you really need most, hundreds of channels you never watch or an extra £50 a month. [Ed.  My basic currency conversion is £1 = $2.  It’s not perfect, but it is close enough.]
  5. Household insurance shouldn’t cost the earth. Although this is a safety net, not a legal necessity, most households prefer the security of knowing that if disaster strikes, it won’t strike your bank balance. With sites like moneysupermarket.com it is simple to find the cheapest policy for you, only taking a few minutes but potentially saving hundreds.
  6. Ditch the DIY bodging. With the majority of households carrying out regular DIY, hardware stores are raking in the profits when it all goes wrong. We can’t all be natural born handymen and women but with the help of local courses you can be trained in the art of household maintenance for around £100, a bargain when you compare the costs of getting in the professionals to fix DIY disasters. [Ed.  Youtube is also a great resource to learn DIY repairs.]
  7. Auction your clutter. If we’re being honest, we all have that cupboard at home filled with things we really don’t need and will never use! It’s time to be cutthroat and unemotional, get the laptop out and auction everything that hasn’t been used for a year. Don’t use the excuse of ‘it might come back into fashion’ or ‘that’ll come in handy one day’, it won’t and by getting rid you benefit from extra cash and extra space – win/win.
  8. Swap top brands for own brand. I’m not saying settle for foods you dislike, but often you can benefit from supermarket own brands without your taste buds suffering. Items like tinned fruit and veg, bread and butter all taste extremely similar, weather you penny pinch or splash the cash. So trade in your £1.25 loaf of bread in favour for one costing 20p and see if you notice the difference.
  9. Stick to a shopping list. By shopping for a list and sticking to it, it cuts out impulse buys that are responsible for the shock you receive when you get to the tills. Plan your weekly meals and simply buy what you need, cutting waste and potentially cutting your waistline! Also try to avoid 3 for the price of 2 deals on products with a shelf life, as often this results in a bin full of gone off food!
  10. Invest in Skype. To cut down on costly phone bills, use Skype where necessary. An internet let service, it allows you to call and video call people with Skype for free, or phone normal phone lines for a fraction of the cost of using your usual phone line. With free to download software, you would be silly to throw away money on costly phone bills.

Article written by  Moneysupermarket.com.

 

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