How to Raise a Bad Credit Score to Save Money

caution spray painted on wall

Have you ever consider how a bad credit score could be affecting your finances? Credit bureau Experian considers a credit score between 300-579, a bad credit score. If you’re currently working your way towards a debt-free life, then chances are you may not have always …

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How the Debt Snowball Works

girl holding snowball

You may have heard of Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball as a popular method for getting out of debt. We’re going to share how the debt snowball works so you can decide whether it’s a smart way for you to get your debt paid off. The …

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Your Student Loan Debt Doesn’t Have to be Stressful

student loan debt

While the national economy appears to be improving, millions of Americans are still tied down with massive debt loads. For example, total student loan debt has climbed to $1.5 trillion with 44 million borrowers overall. Unfortunately, outstanding debt prevents people from starting a business, getting …

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Are Student Credit Cards a Good Idea?

student credit cards

Graduating from high school to college is a significant achievement for many students. But with it comes a time to try out many things for the first time, one of them being the use of credit cards. Perhaps you have seen banks and financial institutions …

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Upstart: More Than Your Credit Score

credit score

You are more than your credit score – I believe we can all agree with that. However, it seems like many people have a love/hate relationship with their credit score. Dare I call it an obsession? In many of my coaching sessions to help others …

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Debt is a Four Letter Word

four letter word

For most of my adult life, I never really considered debt a four letter word. You know the type I mean. Those coarse, offensive type you start using as a teenager to act cool around your friends. I always viewed debt as a necessity, a way to …

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What Happens If You Don’t Pay Your Student Loans?

debt snow ball

Students loans are beneficial to millions of students across the globe. Most needy students are grateful for this option since it enables them to complete their studies. Governments often organize student loans in many countries, and they usually have very reasonable interest rates. Upon successful …

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Money Blueprint

I have recent had the opportunity to coach a few people with varies financial difficulties. I won’t go into too much detail, but that all have two things in common. They had debt and didn’t know where to begin to get out of that debt.

In my initial conversations with someone I always ask a number of qualifying questions. I like to get an understanding of their current situation. A key for me is understanding “why” they want to get out of debt. If they can’t answer that questions, then I know they might not be ready to begin or simply just need help getting to that answer.

A particular couple, was eager to get started, so much so that they were looking to bypass some of the early steps and jump to automation. When I mentioned the word budget it was like I was insulting their mother with four letter words.

I knew right away they were going to present a unique challenge for me. I stopped with that line of questions and tried a different approach.

What do most people make before they go to the grocery store?

A shopping list.

What’s usually sent out prior to a start of a meeting, so everyone attending understands what’s expected to be covered during the meeting?

A meeting agenda.

What do football players study from?

Playbook (husband answered)

What do you need to build a house?

Set of plans.

What do all of these things have in common?

They help people get organized before they begin working on an activity or work better as a team. So if I now ask you what’s the best way to understand your finances, what would you say?

A budget.

money

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Book Review: Hustle Away Debt

I recently had the opportunity to review the book Hustle Away Debt: Eliminate Your Debt by Making More Money by David Carlson. You may recognize David or D.C. as we like to call him around here. He is the founder of the blog Young Adult …

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