22 posts tagged “financial health”
This week, I paid off a credit card or two and it felt so good! We have a few more that we're working on, mostly with small balances, so they'll be paid off in no time at all. However, we do have one line of credit that we opened up to pay for my new hearing aids when we couldn't pay for them in full. I misread the fine print and didn't realize how high the interest rate and finance charges are. I almost fell over when I opened the first bill!
That unpleasant surprise has led me to compare credit cards and investigate balance transfers, because I will be damned if we'll pay that high of a finance charge every month. It's ridiculous. I know we can get a better rate with a different bank. Heck, we might even be able to finagle a 0% credit card offer! Our credit is mostly repaired from when we messed it up years ago, so I have confidence that we'll be able to get out of this ludicrous arrangement.
Note to self: look into new banks before the end of the payment cycle!
How do you keep track of your bills and their due dates? For a while now, we have worked off of a spreadsheet that consists of two components. The bottom half of the spreadsheet lists all of our debtors, the monthly payment and the due date in addition to our monthly income. This way I have it in black and white what is coming in and what is going out. This gives me a general idea of how much we have to play with every month and when to fit each bill into the payment schedule.
The payment schedule is the top half of the spreadsheet. This schedule is basically a repeat of the information down below, except I only list what is actually being paid out. I do this for every pay day and keep a rotating 6 weeks worth of bills going at all times.
Keeping this spreadsheet is a great way for us to stay organized and on top of our bills. If there is an extra bill, I can more easily switch payments around by looking at a glance at the spreadsheet. When we get paid, I open this document, open up Quicken and then start entering payments into Quicken as I go down the list of everything that needs to be paid.
By using this method, we haven't missed a payment in a long time. This system also makes it less intimidating and scary to do the bills because there are usually no surprises. I know well in advance how much money we're going to have left over each pay day today and I can forecast out how long it will take us to save for the things we want to get.
Do you have a method to your monthly bill paying duties? Share!
As you may know from my previous posts, when I was active in my addictions, our credit really went by the wayside. We fell way behind in paying our bills because the priorities were so screwed up. Money for alcohol? Check! Money for bills? Umm, no, that will eat into my partying budget.
I know lots of people ended up in the same shoes we did - with bad credit - but not everyone got there through the same means. However it happened, the fact is, there is work to be done to repair your credit once it's been banged up. And the fact also remains that life goes on and big ticket items still need to be bought. When we were in the midst of our credit nightmare, our car died and we needed to buy a new one. We weren't sure we would be able to get a loan anywhere.
Fortunately, there were options available to us like bad credit auto loans that helped us get back on our feet financially. We were able to secure financing through this means and get ourselves a new car. That experience gave me hope that we could being to rebuild our credit and once I got into recovery for my addictions, that is exactly what we did. We have been rebuilding, one step at a time, for the past 5 years now. Our record is still not perfect, but it is definitely much better than it used to be! And it's great to know that no matter what our report shows, there are options available to us when we need them the most.
We have been talking about getting new cars for a little while now. Both of our cars are about 2 1/2 years old and we are at the middle point where what we owe is equal to the trade-in value, so we want to get new. We've been receiving a lot of those offers in the mail where a dealer sends us a check for $30K and says all we need to do is go on down to the dealership and present it and a new car could be ours. How tantalizing! However, I noticed there is no mention of an interest rate on the loan that's accompanied with this "incredible" offer.
Reading up on money news today, I see that this has become a popular scheme to get people into the dealerships to buy cars and charge them outrageous rates. Lots of people are falling for it, apparently! Thankfully I know enough to not fall into that trap, partially because of my own common sense and partially because I stay abreast of financial news and know about these kinds of scams. And now you're aware, too, if you weren't already.
Disclosed
I know it's only February, but I'm already thinking about the projects I want to do around the house this spring and summer. If I had my druthers, we'd be getting an in-ground pool, a new, screened-in patio and a hot tub. The prerequisite for getting a pool is that about 10 trees need to come down, so that cost gets added in there, too.
We don't have the cash for all of that (who does?), so we'd definitely be looking at going the route of remortgages or taking out a home improvement loan. There's just no other way we could make that happen without the help of some loans from the bank. From what I've read, Secured loans are popular with people who already have mortgages since there is so much collateral. I'm not looking to sink myself into debt for the rest of my life, but I would like to live a little more luxurious life. For me, this is one of those dilemmas where I say, "Do I want to be debt-free and live without the finer things or do I want to go into debt and enjoy a higher quality of life?"
Every once in a while the banks and credit card companies are fun and not so serious and do something cool. Check out these credit cards by Mint. See the unique shape? They're the first company to change the shape of credit cards in over 37 years in the UK. Pretty cool, huh? The bonus is, if you get a card with them - just to have that cool card in your wallet - you also can do 0% balance transfers and 0% purchases until December 2007. Now that is one sweet deal.
Be sure to check out their gift cards, too, they also have the same, unique shape!
Yeah, dealing with income taxes is a pain, but a necessary part of being a grown up. I'm just about done my preliminary online tax forms, but will go over them with a fine-toothed comb in the coming weeks. Even if we end up owing, I think it's important to face it head on and figure out a plan in case we have any tax debt.
The thing I really need to do is look up some tax services and Tax Help info to make sure we don't fall into any holes next year. I'm pretty sure we're getting a refund this year, but I'm scared we're going to end up owing next year. I want to make sure I'm prepared for that or, even better, prevent it.
A few years ago we ended up owing thousands of dollars. That was a huge financial burden and we really had to explore a lot of options to get that debt paid off. It was painful and a lot of our other bills fell behind because of it. I wish I knew then what I know today - that there are much better options available to me than letting my bills go unpaid. Live and learn. Do yourself a favor and don't make the same mistakes we did.
Since it's the post-holiday season, people are going to be looking for ways to repair any financial damages they did in the previous months. January always seems to be the time to say, "How can I save more money with my existing income and bills?" and the creativity starts to set in.
Transferring your credit card balances is something to seriously consider. You just need to make sure you do your research with whatever company you go with when you make the transfer. Read the fine print. Know when your new, great rate will no longer be applicable, look for hidden fees and costs, etc. In other words, be smart and keep your eyes open at all times so you don't get burned.
I recently came across a mortgage site that seems almost too good to be true. No closing costs, no hidden fees and offering popular options like the 1% Payment Option ARM or Fixed Interest Only loans. That site is Lenox Home Loans and I'm delving a bit further now to see what they're all about. Exciting - to see a good competitor enter "the ring".
There have been some studies that have shown people are more likely to opt for home equity loans rather than spending on their credit cards. I believe that, although I do think some people are still taking advantage of special offers like 0% balance transfers. I think either option can be okay so long as you stay on top of all the related credit card news and make wise choices. I talk about that so frequently on here because I believe it's true - having credit cards or debt isn't a bad thing, but you just have to be smart about it.
