March 12th, 2012 — Debt Consolidation
Giving your child the gift of a college education is one of the greatest things you can do for them. The education they receive can provide a world of knowledge and open doors to fantastic career opportunities. Unfortunately, getting a college education can prove to be very expensive. Here are a few tips to help you save money for your child’s future tuition:
Stick to the Savings Plan
You should plan a savings strategy well in advance and firmly adhere to it. Maybe you want to only save $25 a week. Perhaps you can afford to set aside even more. Either way, staying consistent with your savings plan can ensure that you will have all of the money you need when it’s time to start making the tuition payments.
Open a Savings Account
Putting your money into a savings account is one of the easiest ways you can save for your child’s college education. You will know that the money is securely in the bank and has been specifically designated for going toward the education fund. Plus, savings accounts earn interest over time, giving you even more money.
Invest in a Qualified Tuition Program
These programs, also known as 529 plans, will allow you to start making payments for your child’s education in advance. One of these plan types will allow you to start making payments at a certain school under their current tuition rates without any price fluctuations. Another plan allows you to make tuition payments redeemable at any accredited school, although tuition rates are not guaranteed to stay the same. Either plan will allow you to make gradual payments over a longer period of time.
Take a Part-Time Job
You may already have a hectic work schedule, but taking a part time job can definitely help you get the funds you need for your child’s tuition. This part-time job can be worked on the weekends or any other time you may have off from your other career. If your child is a teenager, they can also get a part-time job to work when they are not in school as a means of contributing to their college fund.
Don’t Borrow Money from Fund
Even though it may be tempting, borrowing money from the college fund can greatly diminish its amount. It can be difficult to pay back the money once it has been taken out for use. The temptation can become overwhelming if you have the money sitting in a cashbox or piggybank at home. Keeping the money in a bank or other financial institution will likely make it less tempting to withdraw any funds.
Following these tips is a great way to get started on the road to saving money for your child’s college education. Sending your child to college can be stressful enough, but having enough money for tuition can help alleviate some of the worries.
Richard Barnes is a writer and student earning his political management degree online.
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March 12th, 2012 — Debt Consolidation
When trying to get the financial aspects of your life in order, one area that impacts all the others is your credit history. When you have a good credit history, it helps you save money on deposits and interest rates. It can also help you get approved easier for loans and credit accounts when you need them. Your credit history is compiled into a single number known as your credit score and lenders use this number to come up with information on a quick glance. If you want to take control of your financial life, it is important to know what your credit score is and know how to improve your score. If you want to build a great credit score, there are a few steps that you should take.
Always Make Payments on Time
Perhaps the best thing that you can do to help your credit score is to always make your payments on time. According to Fair Isaacs, the company who created the credit scoring model, your payment history is the biggest factor in determining your credit score. This means that every time you pay your utility bills, credit card bills and loan payments on time, you’re taking steps to improving your credit score. While it does take some time to develop a positive payment history, each payment helps a little. If you’re always making late payments or completely skipping payments, it will hurt your score tremendously. With today’s technology, you can simply set up your payments to be made automatically so that you won’t have to worry about making any late payments.
Pay Down Balances
Another step that you need to take if you want to build a great credit score is to pay down your balances. If you have multiple credit accounts and they are all maxed out, your credit score will suffer. If you can get the balances on your account down to about 30 percent of their available credit limits, this will help boost your score.
If you have several credit cards or other credit accounts, do your best to pay down the balances to this level. Then when they get down to this level, make an effort to avoid allowing debt to increase past this threshold. If you charge something on a credit card or on another type of credit account, make sure that you pay the balance off as quickly as possible. If you always allow balances to sit on your accounts, it will look like you do not know how to handle your finances.
Use Your Credit Wisely
When you’re trying to build a good credit score, you cannot afford to sit on the sidelines when it comes to utilizing credit. Some people think that if they never use their credit cards that it will somehow help their credit. In reality, never using credit will hurt your credit score. While you should not rack up big bounces on your credit accounts, you should use them sparingly. For example, you may want to make a small purchase on one of your credit accounts every month. Then when you get the bill, pay off the entire balance right away. By doing this regularly, it will show that you know how to handle credit responsibly. Over time, this will help you develop a positive payment record and boost your score up.
Avoid Mistakes
Throughout the process of handling debt, it is very easy to make mistakes. Once you accumulate a large amount of debt, you may try to use shortcuts to get out of debt. Many companies advertise debt help and make claims about being able to help you eliminate your debt very quickly. In most cases, all of these types of programs will end up hurting your credit score. For example, if you decide to enter into a debt settlement program, your score will be hurt because you are not paying back the full amount of money that you owe. If you file for bankruptcy to get out of your debt, this will hurt your credit score even worse.
As a general rule, you should never take on more debt than what you can realistically afford to pay back. If you are considering making a big purchase or taking on a load of debt and you’re not sure how you’ll pay it back, you should probably avoid the deal.
Handling your credit responsibly will go a long way towards helping you get a better credit score. Once you have a good score, you can start saving money and improving your financial life overall.
Do a comparison at Kanetix.ca to find out which credit card Canada is most appropriate for your needs. Searching for the best credit card at www.kanetix.ca takes a few minutes only.
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March 12th, 2012 — Debt Consolidation
Whilst it might appear on the surface we’re starting to recover from the financial disasters of the last few years the reality is many of us are still struggling. For many of us getting all our expenses paid each month with the money that we have coming in just isn’t possible, you borrow more money to pay off what you already own then the interest from that leaves you having to pay even more.
If you take control of your debts early on it’s much easier to manage but this can be easier said than done. Here are 3 of the more common ways people fall into debt and how to recover from them.
Store Cards
You’ve spent all month eyeing up that top or pair of shoes in your favourite store – finally its pay day and you can actually afford to treat yourself. This isn’t a problem; providing you can actually afford it. It can be so tempting when you get to the check out and you’re told you can save some money off your purchase or even better don’t have to pay anything straight away if you take a store card but it’s not beneficial in the long run.
Typically the interest on a store card will be higher than a credit card and in most cases any initial savings will soon be eaten away by crippling charges. If you can’t afford it now the chances are you won’t be able to afford it next month either so just leave it.
If you’ve already got store cards they need to be paid off as a point of priority which is often easier said than done but in the mean time cut it up so you can’t make the damage any worse. If you are managing to pay it off consistently each month try paying the debt off with a new credit card that offers interest free credit for the first few months to stop the interest getting any worse.
Credit Cards
In this day and age credit cards are almost essential, they’re safer for online shopping and often come with automatic insurance should they get lost, stolen or cloned. This doesn’t mean you should be dependent on them though. Your primary card needs to be your main account debit card so you’re only spending the money you actually own. Keep one credit card that you only use in emergencies, if something goes wrong with the car or the kids kick a football through the kitchen window. Things like these would need to be fixed immediately and can’t wait for pay day but you need to make sure you tighten your belt for the next few months to get them paid off right away.
If you’re struggling with credit card debt or you have several credit cards you need to face the situation head on. Maxing each one out then applying for another one is only going to make the situation (not to mention your credit rating) worse. Shop around for the best value loan you can find and get everything transferred over to one monthly repayment and cut them all up.
Pay Day Loans
The last few years have seen an infestation of pay day loans and they’re advertised everywhere, television, magazines and radio. A payday loan differs from a regular loan as they offer a much smaller sum of cash, they offer it immediately and they charge a crippling level of interest to a point where they’re constantly being investigated for fair trading. To make matters worse these lenders make even more money from selling your data on so you’re being targeted with adverts offering you even more cash.
This is the worst loan you can take out and before you even consider this you have to talk to a free and impartial debt management service, services like Citizens advice, National Debtline and PayPlan can all help you manage your debt and stop the problem getting any worse.
The worst thing you can do with any debt problem is ignore it, it isn’t going to go away, your lenders aren’t going to forget you own them money and the chances of you actually winning the lottery are not big enough for you to pin all your hopes on.
Look at everything head on, know exactly how much money you own and where you owe it, look at your current outgoings and work out what can be cut or where you can make some extra cash. Can you get a part time job? Can you pick up more hours at your current job? Do you really need a takeaway or a night down the pub every week? Find something you can cut and start cutting.
If your money problems have got to the point where you think you’re in real trouble it’s vital you seek debt advice right away from trained professionals.
Jessica writes for Crawley solicitors Bennett Griffin who offer financial and personal law.
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