Financial Advisor Locator

The first thing we did when we decided to get out of debt was reevaluate our budget. We knew that we had to change the way we spent our money before our financial situation could change.

The amount of information out there on budgeting is overwhelming. There are lots of trite and obvious articles out there (like this one) that give such groundbreaking (and condescending) advice as “Incurring debt is easy but getting out of debt is not.” or “Reducing the luxuries will always be the best place to start for you to make some real savings with the least impact on your lifestyle.”

I’ve even read articles recently discouraging people from budgeting because, “You know you should budget, but you also know you’re not really going to do it.”

I vehemently disagree with this logic. The NUMBER ONE reason people are in so much financial trouble right now is that they are not willing to put in the work and sacrifice needed to save money, wait for purchases, or do without some things altogether. The simple act o

Read full post…

A credit card is a life support system for a shopaholic! Everyone is now taking advantage of credit card these days. It is made of plastic and has magnetic stripe. The purpose is to facilitate its customers by lending money to them when they are out of cash for their expenditures on the behalf of promise of future payments. Whether it’s shopping or for some emergency purpose, customers can always take advantage of this plastic money. It has simplified the transactions in every walk of life. As the name implies, the banks and private organizations give credit to customers.

Credit Card! A Big Responsibility

Where credit card is helping people in many ways on the other hand credit card debt payments is a big responsibility for everyone. Credit card has surely made our life much easy as we just need to show the card to the intended person and we are done with our work.

Read full post…

The Penalty Box

High sticking in the NHL will get you a minimum 2 minutes in the penalty box.

Same rules apply for cross-checking. In more severe cases, the penalty can be doubled that.

The bright side to all that is after the penalty time expires, you are allowed back on the ice to play again.

Hopefully, with no harm to the team.

In retirement planning, this is often not the case, especially when it comes to your 401k.

If you find yourself in a financial emergency, you might consider withdrawing money from your 401k.

It might seem logical to use your own money to help yourself out of a financial bind, but there are penalties and taxes to be paid on money withdrawn from a 401k before retirement age.

Before considering this option, it is wise to be familiar with the taxes and penalties that will be charged.

The government considers a 401k strictly for retirement funding.

Read full post…

You wouldnt think a vehicle that tops off at 8 miles-per-hour would be displayed anywhere near the North American International Auto Show, an annual event characterized by one of our car editors as known for its musclebound bravado and over-the-top stunts. But in the lobby of Detroits Cobo Center, attendees there to see cars like the 190- to 200-MPH Falcon F7 were nevertheless impressed.

Only the vehicle in question wasnt exactly one youd drive to impress your dateor stuff with family for a jaunt to the shore. It was the Craftsman CTX, a new, high-end line of yard and garden tractors that range from the $3,000 model 25004 (42-inches) to the $6,500 25007, a 54-incher.

One feature the tractor line shares with autos is traction control, which powers the rear wheels independently for greater stability.

Read full post…

This document basically outlines what you owe, to whom and why and how this debt will be settled. You will most likely be familiar with some of the contents from several forms you may have filled out for a personal or home loan or whatever type of credit.

This agreement is a sample template and is of a universal temperament.

Read full post…

In 1978, a group of farmers in a Chinese village called Xiaogang wrote a secret contract and hid it in the roof of a mud hut. They were afraid the document might get them executed. Instead, it wound up completely transforming the Chinese economy.

On today’s show, we travel to Xiaogang, and hear the farmers’ story.

Subscribe to the podcast. Music: 陈慧琳’s “希望.” Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Spotify.

Debt consolidation is one way to simplify your debts if you have them with more than one lender. Credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans – many people borrow money at some point or another. However, having debt in too many places can be a real headache, as can dealing with lots of different lenders.

A debt consolidation loan consolidates all of your unsecured debts into one, leaving you with one monthly payment to make. It can be an ideal solution to the problem of complicated debt repayments if:

• Your credit record doesn’t prevent you from taking out a loan large enough to cover all your unsecured debts.

• Your debt consolidation loan has a lower APR (Annual Percentage Rate of interest) than your current debts.

• Your earnings are stable and you can afford the monthly repayments for the full length of the debt consolidation loan.

• You aren’t struggling to keep up with repayments at the moment.

Read full post…

For some reason, I had presumed this was a modern phenomenon.  Apparently not. From Bastiat in 1848

But, by an inference as false as it is unjust, do you know what the economists are now accused of? When we oppose subsidies, we are charged with opposing the very thing that it was proposed to subsidize and of being the enemies of all kinds of activity, because we want these activities to be voluntary and to seek their proper reward in themselves. Thus, if we ask that the state not intervene, by taxation, in religious matters, we are atheists. If we ask that the state not intervene, by taxation, in education, then we hate enlightenment. If we say that the state should not give, by taxation, an artificial value to land or to some branch of industry, then we are the enemies of property and of labor. If we think that the state should not subsidize artists, we are barbarians who judge the arts useless.

I get to teach one class a year in the senior economics class at my kids school.

Read full post…