Personal finance

Not All Credit Scores Are Created Equally

Has this ever happened to you? You and your spouse are eager to buy a car or a home, you jump online to one of the plethora of credit monitoring websites: www.myfico.com www.creditadapter.com www.creditdiagnosis.com www.freescore.com www.privacymatters.com www.truecredit.com www.transunion.com www.equifax.com www.familysecure.com www.freecreditreport.com www.freecreditscore.com www.experian.com www.identitysecure.com www.privacyguard.com www.creditkarma.com You get your credit … [Read more...]

Physical Fitness and Financial Fitness Go Hand and Hand: Part One

An article by BudgetQueen I may stir up a little controversy here. You can be physically fit and not financially fit and vice versa. But if you have mastered one, you have all of the skills to master the other. Bear with me here… Getting out of debt is like losing weight. There is no magic cure. To lose weight it takes a desire to be healthy, a commitment to eat healthier and work out, and the patience to see it through. Almost anyone can get healthier with the above combination. Just like … [Read more...]

Help! I don’t have any money saved for my kid’s college! (Part Three)

An article by BudgetQueen All the planning, scrimping and saving is great, but remember that you are not the one who will ultimately be in charge of this kid’s future – he or she will be. I have spoken to some financially-strapped parents that have given me some great ideas on how they plan to tackle planning for college for the kids, while encouraging his or her kid to be responsible as well. Look through each and find what may work for you. You may even have a better idea of what is best for … [Read more...]

Help! I don’t have any money saved for my kid’s college! (Part Two)

An article by BudgetQueen Kids are great fun. They are unpredictable. They are naïve but sharp. They are completely lazy some times while completely motivated other times. You will be proud one day and then the next say, “What were they thinking?” When I look back at my friends who went to college, I see a wide variety of personalities. I saw kids whose parents paid for everything party like the end of the world was a few days away. I also saw the kids whose parents that were not able to help … [Read more...]

Help! I don’t have any money saved for my kid’s college! (Part One)

An article by BudgetQueen Your kids are getting older and suddenly you panic because you don’t have any money saved up for college. Instead of giving you a sliding scale of how much you need to donate right now and which plan, I want to ask you to ask yourself a few important questions to make sure your savings plan matches your lifestyle. Most of the time people have the best of intentions about savings and then things come up. Like daycare, sports, home repairs, falling on hard times, … [Read more...]