In examining your financial condition and setting financial goals, you succeeded in nailing down where you are and where you’re going financially. But it’s important that you conduct these exercises at least annually. Keep the cash in a checking account, and watch it disappear! Wouldn’t it be better to put all the money you’ve saved on that extravaganza toward financing your child’s pay college education? (more…)

The median price of a home as you read this article was running over $200,000. Don’t forget to throw in maintenance, insurance, and property taxes. To see if you can afford a home, with a mortgage, why not do the calculations that lenders do—before you get in over your head? (more…)

Renting a home or apartment is an issue of broad interest. That’s because, whether you’re still in school or not long removed, chances are fairly good that you’re renting, are thinking about renting, or, at the very least, are giving some thought to changing a renting arrangement. Obviously, this article can’t go into the particulars of all sorts of rental situations if nothing else, market conditions are drastically different across the country but we can touch on some major points to help with your rent (more…)

Taxes are an everyday expense of life that allow your local, state, and federal governments to provide important services. Taxes pay the bills for those services such as Medicare, Medicaid, the military, the national debt, police and fire protection, public schools, road maintenance, parks, libraries, and safety inspection of foods, drugs, and other products. (more…)

There are plenty of good reasons to save your money away for a rainy day. Because you never know what’s coming and when the unexpected happens, it’s great to be financially ready. Its so much better to save money while you’re making money than to struggle and panic when your income dries up.

Many people never save a penny. (more…)

We can all make it out of this recession, but we all must do our part to get out of it. George Clason wrote in the foreword of his book The richest man in Babylon: Our prosperity as a nation depends upon the personal financial prosperity of each of us as individuals.

It is easy to point the finger to everyone about the economy, but are we doing what needs to be done in our own yard? We hear expert telling us to saving money for the future and others telling us to spend for the economy. Who is right? In my opinion, they both are. The problem is not that we save money too much or spend too much. The problem is that we dont save or spend at the right places. (more…)

When you loan money or charge an item to a credit card, you are using cash loan or credit. Credit is an arrangement to receive cash, goods, or services now and pay for them in the future. Consumer credit is the use of credit for personal needs. It is also an indicator of consumer spending and demand. A common form of consumer credit loan is a credit card account issued by a financial institution. (more…)