When it comes to buying gifts things can get really expensive. There are several budgeting practices that can be adopted in order to save money. Things like sticking with a budget and shopping at discount stores are very common ways that people can make ends meet, but when it comes to gift-shopping there are some common money saving strategies that are constantly overlooked and under-used.

Price Comparison: The prices of items are not written in stone and consumers should take advantage of the flexibility. (more…)

Bankruptcy should always be the very final option when it comes to a solution to save your home from foreclosure. Unfortunately, it is very devastating to you financially as it totally ruins your credit. And many people who use bankruptcy as an option end up going into foreclosure anyway.

Bankruptcy not only ruins your credit, but it can also cost you a job. An increasing number of companies are seeking a credit check on employee applicants. A bankruptcy can actually prevent you from getting hired as you will not be able to explain the reason for the bankruptcy, (more…)

This is a true story. Recently, Chase cut my wife’s credit limit from $18,000 to $1350 or $23 greater than her existing balance of $1327. Initially we thought this was because of a “missed” payment but still, it seemed like an excessive penalty.

We do all our banking through Bank of America’s Online Banking program. The “missed” payment was the result of the payment being sent by the bank to the wrong billing address. After a number of calls to B of A’s customer service, the bank agreed it was their error, reimbursed us the late fee Chase charged, (more…)

The national credit card debt problem, enthusiastically cheered on by the credit card companies, has exploded into a completely out of control catastrophe. Having happily added on every sort of fee that they possibly could - late fees, pre-payment fees, over-limit fees, and so on - they’re suddenly surprised and shocked that many credit card holders have fallen behind in their payments.

In fact, they were seemingly caught so unawares that the credit card companies charged off over 5% of their debt (more…)

In tough financial times, one of the hardest things to do is keep our finances in order. We are used to living a certain type of lifestyle, and when the economy takes a downturn, our jobs and financial stability can be greatly affected. If you have recently lost your job or taken a pay cut, you soon realize that paying your rent becomes almost impossible. Paying rent is the largest monthly expense for most people, and it can be tough to pull together the (more…)

Debt begets more debt. Has there been a truer statement? This is especially true right now during a very hard economic cycle. Most people are struggling to pay their debts and it seems that when you take one step forward, you are pushed two steps back. Here are the ways that this happens (and what you can do to get out of the cycle). (more…)

Save money by spending? Sure, that’s a principle that every purveyor of special offers wants us to believe in. At 20% off, you’ll save hundreds if you only buy enough of whatever. Yeah right!

But there is a way in which judicious spending can help you save money — lots of money. And it’s a technique that I’ve learned from successful dieters and fat loss plans. (more…)

Finance regulation is a popular topic these days as countries all over the world are being asked to take a second and third look at how finances are run in their respective countries and on a global scale. It’s no secret that the financial industry has been dealt some major blows in recent years. However, finance regulation promises that these oversights of the past will be met with laws and rules that will protect the financial sector and help the average person. (more…)

Finance regulation is a set of laws, policies, and regulations which surround the financing market. Most of these laws exist as federal regulations. A smaller percentage of these laws are created as local or state regulations and may not apply outside of the affected state. These policies are designed to protect both the lenders and the borrowers. The main goal of these regulations is to prevent misconduct in relationship to financing any form of purchase. (more…)

I been in a waiting room and like always I picked a magazine from the coffee table to read. Often you can tell a lot about people just by what kind of magazines/books they read. Being interested in finance and related topics I picked an older magazine called Investment Executive’s Money Planner 2006.

I’m reading few articles and I arrived to this article called “Planned Exit” written by Yan Barcelo, (more…)