As I’ve said before my wife and I make all our purchases on a credit card and pay off the balance each month. I’ve been doing this since I graduated college and on this paticular card have never carried a balance. I have also never missed a payment and I’ve not been late on a payment either. I was close once and had to pay the bill over the phone and pay a small fee but I’ve still came out way ahead on the credit card rewards.

Currently many credit card companies are offering 0% interest rates for over 1 year and many of them even offer this same interest rate on purchases. Many credit cards are offering lower fixed rates for the life of the loan and many great rewards program.s

Be advised that there is fine print with all credit cards and be sure to read this. There are many terms that you must be advised about before you transfer the balance. Some charge a fee, usually 3% but a maximum amount, usually $50. Most of the time you will still save a lot of money on the lower interest rate, but be advised of these terms.

Be responsible and in control of your personal finances and take advantage of any offer that will benefit you financially.

For those of you who plan to make the resolution this year to manage your money better, start with the most simple tool of personal money management, a budget. Start by making your budget realistic and simple. Creating realistic a realistic budget will help keep you motivated and accomplish your financial goals.

First, examine your current financial situation. Make a list of all your financial debts including credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, auto payments, mortgages, etc. Be sure to also include their balances, interest rates and minimum payments. Total up the balance and you might be amazed at just how much debt you have. Maybe this will be enough to make you realize how important it is to create a budget and stick to it.

Next, analyze your current income situation. How much cash does your total household bring in each month to spend on living expenses, bills and entertainment. You may realize here that you don’t have enough cash coming in to live the lifestyle you have.

The next part is going to take some effort. You need to analyze your spending for one month. Write down every penny you spend for one full month. This includes all your utility bills, entertainment, vending machine visits, bad habits, EVERYTHING.

After you have completed these steps you will have enough information to create a simple budget and spending plan. You need to divide all your spending into several different categories. There are many places to find sample budgets with specific examples of these categories. Distribute your household income into each of the categories. Start with all the mandatory expenses such as mortgage, car payments, groceries, gas, etc. Once you have these categories filled the remaining money should be divided into categories such as clothing, entertainment, eating out, etc.

Some of you may realize you have run out of money before you get to the enertainment and eating out categories. If this is the case you have the option of finding free entertainment, not eating our or getting a part time job to fund these categories.

Make your personal budget experience fun and easy. Don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t work the first month. Adjust categories to suite your needs and if necessary find other income sources. Don’t let this New Years resolution be one that is forgotten!

Almost every bank these days offers some type of automatic savings plan. You can easily modify the amount you want transferred and also setup how often you want it transferred. I personally use ING Direct to manage my savings and it’s very simple and easy. With just a few clicks ING Direct allows me to setup an automatic savings plan for multiple accounts.

Currently I have 3 different accounts setup at ING. The first is our family savings account. I have a small amount automatically withdrawn from our checking account each week and deposited into this account. I also have two other accounts setup for our two girls. I have a small amount withdrawn from our checking account each month from our checking account and placed in separate ING accounts. Since it always comes out I don’t have this money in our budget to spend.

The best way to save is make it a habit and there is no better way than with an automatic savings plan. ING Direct is just one of them many great banks that offer these programs. If you don’t already have an account with them take a look. They also offer very competative savings rates to help with your savings plan!

Is it really the responsibility of lenders to take care of us and make us pay or financial obligations? Do they need to babysit us and make sure we send our payments in each month? Or is it our responsibility as adults to make sure that before we take out a loan, we can actually afford to repay the debt?

I think that credit cards, banks and other lending institutions are great financial tools if used properly and responsibly. If an excellent credit offer comes your way and you can responsibly control your finances then take advantage of the offer. I have personally used a credit card for over 6 years to pay my monthly expenses and paid the bill every month. I have never been late on a payment or missed a payment (on this card, I was late one time on another card), therefore I have came out way ahead since I get 1% cash back on all purchases.

If used properly credit cards, banks and other lending institutions can be great financial tools. If you are looking for a place to find some great deals on credit cards you may want to take a look at www.requestcredit.com. Be smart, be responsible and be successful!

About 2 months ago my wife and I stumbled on some land where we would love to build a future home. It’s a one acre lot in a very nice neighborhood. Right now because of the price we weren’t really in a financial situation where we could comfortably afford a payment on this particular piece of land. We however called the listing realtor just to check into the situation. After talking to the realtor we decided to pass on the land even though the price was a pretty good deal.

We were disappointed but forgot about the land for about two weeks, when the realtor called us back. He informed us that the price had dropped about $10,000 on the property and the land owners were eager to get rid of the land. It was a foreclosed property owned by the bank and they needed to liquidate it for cash ASAP. He suggested we make an offer that we thought we could afford.

We got our hopes up again that we could buy the land and build our dream home. We talked to our bank about financing the lot, but realized we had to have 20% cash to pay down on the land. This was basically a new rule as a result of the current state of the economy. A year ago and we could finance 100% of the loan, but that’s probably why the land was foreclosed on in the first place. Anyway we had to find a way to come up with the money.

After several hours of discussion we both agreed that we didn’t want to drain our savings and crunch our budget so tight with the current state of the economy. I came up with the idea of refinancing our home to get cash out and pay down on the land. Great idea and our bank agreed. We made an offer on the land, it was accepted and the paperwork started. Until a week ago we were ready to buy the land and start planning our dream home. But the breaks were pushed hard when we found out our home didn’t appraise for enough to get the cash out we needed to pay down on the land. We tried several options but none seemed to work for us.

Again, we gave up hope on the land until a friend at work suggested we try a local hometown bank. Long story short it ended up working because this bank allowed a refinance with a 95% LTV instead of a 90% LTV. We are now in the process of doing more paperwork and hopefully closing the loan in less than 3 weeks.

Throughout the whole process I was so frustrated because I’ve never had a problem borrowing money. My wife and I both have excellent credit and never missed a payment, but for some reason we couldn’t find a solution to this loan. Our debt to income is really good but it still didn’t seem to matter. TImes have changed especially in the financial and banking industry. We can only hope things will be fixed soon!

For most people the problem starts with the easy access to credit. Everyday I check the mail there is at least one and sometimes up to 5 new credit card offer from a different bank or financial institutions. Most of them offering 0% balance transfers for 12 months or a very low fixed rate for the life of the loan. They also offer no interest on purchases for up to one year, this is the worst. You can buy anything you want (up to your credit limit) and not pay any interest on the borrowed money. Sound like a great until the one year is up and you have racked up thousands of dollars in credit card charges that you no longer have to money to pay for. What do you do, open up one of the 0% interest balance transfers for one year credit cards and start the process over.

The next problem for overspending is temptations from friends, family and coworkers. Brother Jim just got a new HD television to hang on the wall over the fireplace. You start thinking about how hard you work everyday and don’t have a new HD television set, so what do you do? You get in your head that you can afford to go buy yourself a new tv, but you need a bigger one than Jim because you work harder. You do need to enjoy your life, but enjoy your life as much as you can afford, debt is not fun!

Finally, overspending is very similar to overeating. Some people buy a new pair of shoes just to feel better about themselves. If you’ve had a bad at work or had a fight with your spouse what can make you feel better than spending some money? We sometimes spend money and buy something that will please us to take our minds off something that is bothering us.

Don’t get caught up in these financial traps. Be sensible about spending your money. Think before you jump into any financial transaction. Ask yourself is this really what I need to do or am I doing this for a dumb reason? Stop overspending your hard earned money and get to the bottom of overspending!

Just because I say line dry doesn’t mean you have to put up an old fashioned clothes line in the back yard. They make in home clothes drying systems that allow you to hang your clothes up to dry in the laundry room instead of using the dryer for every load.

Use this method to dry items such as t-shirts, and other thin material clothing. These items usually don’t require excessive drying anyway so hanging them up to dry won’t take forever. If you do a load of laundry every day try to line dry 2 of those per week. You’ll save about $1100 over the course of your 30 year mortgage. Line dry all your clothes and you’ll save a small fortune.

With the current condition of our economy many people are looking for any way they can to save money. Please keep reading our blog to learn more great extreme ways to save money!

As I stated earlier many of you may already follow this money saving advice, but for those of you who don’t here is some advice. Air conditioning in a home is the single most expense when it comes to your energy bill. Instead of cranking up the air open up all the windows and turn on the celing fans, this can save you hundreds of dollars per year.

If you are the type of person who just has to have the air conditioner on then there is still hope of saving money. Adjust the thermostat a couple of degrees higher and be sure to use the ceiling fans to circulate the air. Even if it only saves a few dollars per month that’s money saved!

Another great option is to get a programmable thermostat. This allows your thermostat to automatically adjust temperatures during the day and then cool down right before you get home from work. There is no point in running the air conditioner full blast when you are not home. You don’t want to turn it completely off during the day because your air conditioner will have to work overtime to cool back down in the evening. You may end up using more energy this way and making your air conditioner work too hard.

What’s the best type of loan to give a clown?
…..

A balloon loan!

There is nothing wrong with buying a bigger home if you can really afford the price tag as well as all the extra expenses. From personal experiences here are some extra expenses to consider before purchasing that new home.

• Larger home means a larger heating and cooling bill. No matter if your new home has electric or gas you’ll be guaranteed to pay some extra cash for the utility bills. The larger the home the more you will pay.
• More furniture or new furniture. Most of the time when you move into a different house you will want at least a couple of new pieces of furniture. If you are purchasing a larger home with more rooms to fill you will probably have to buy even more furniture and furniture isn’t cheap.
• Home maintenance will increase. From cleaning to yard work to structural upkeep you’ll pay more the bigger the home.
• Property taxes will increase. Property taxes are based on a percentage of the value of the home. Buying a bigger home will increase your annual property tax bill.
• Insurance costs will increase. Just like property taxes insurance costs are based on the value of the home. A bigger home will cost a little more to insure. Don’t forget you will also have to increase the value of the valuables inside the home, since you just bought more.

Before you decide to buy your next home make sure you consider all these expenses. Many times people calculate exactly how much money they can spend on their monthly mortgage payment and these extra unplanned expenses can push you over you budget.