On Surviving A Personal Financial Crisis - And Other Personal Finance Subjects Like Loans, Credit, Debt, Debt Management, And Saving Money

So the great recession is coming to an end. At least the experts say it is. I don’t know about you but I am still in survival mode. I am still cutting coupons, cutting expenses, and finding new ways to make alternate money. Buying gas grills and planning barbecues was the last thing on my mind. But, one thing I realized, recently, is that with all the money stresses, worries about buying clothes for my daughter, paying for her college fund, retirement, and whether or not I’ll have a job next week, life had become pretty dull. So doing the research on which gas grill to buy was a much needed distraction.

One thing you cannot forget about, is why you are stressing. For me, at least, I stress about money issues because I love my family. I want them to live stress free. I don’t want them to worry about money. If they want to pursue a hobby Click Here To Continue Reading...

It is really interesting that very few people think about refinancing their auto loan to reduce their expenses. I do not know about you, but I always feel like I am getting taken for a ride when I buy a new car. I usually do a pretty good job negotiating what I will pay for the car. However, I almost never think about negotiation the interest for the loan. If you are paying an interest rate above 7 or 8 percent you may want to consider refinancing your car loan. If you do not have good credit you can still refinance, bad credit auto refinance is not as had to qualify for as you might think.

Qualifying for a loan refinance is much easier than qualifying for a new loan. Basically, it is easier because you have a proven track record paying the loan. A few things to keep in mind. Refinancing anything especially a car loan should not be taken Click Here To Continue Reading...

Although the economy is coming out of recession, the actually economic recovery is going to take years. This is especially true for consumers that have had their financial lives decimated by layoffs, out of control interest increases and other fall outs from the credit crunch and real estate market meltdown. One repercussion from the recession that will likely be with us for possible decades to come is the number of consumers that are saddled with bad credit ratings.

Millions of people in the United States and other countries have had home foreclosures, car repossessions and have been late by 30, 60 and 90 days on other debt payments all due to little fault of their own (e.g. they lost their job). Most of those people are going to have to have to figure out how to refinance with bad credit. Bad credit refinance may be a reality that many of us will not be able to avoid.

If you have not Click Here To Continue Reading...

Reducing your monthly mortgage payments can be a great way of wringing a little extra income out of your budget. If you are barely keeping your head above the financial waters, then that few extra hundred dollars a month could be just enough to get you going. If you are doing pretty well in these tough financial times you could use the extra income to pay off other high interest rate debt. Or you could use the extra money to start that emergency fund you have been thinking about. In any case you may want to consider a 40 year mortgage.

A forty year mortgage is simply a 30 year mortgage whose amortization has been extended for ten more years. You will pay a little more in interest, about .25% to .50% interest than a regular mortgage. But, the extra cash flow you may realize could be exactly what you need to get you through tough financial times. The biggest drawback Click Here To Continue Reading...

On this site I have written a lot about how to save money by controlling your bills, understanding where you are spending your money, controlling costs, and how to think about preparing for a financial crisis. One thing that has only been touched on briefly is the importance of creating extra income. Although the economy is beginning to recover from the recession it will be a while before the job market recovers. How can you go about increasing your income until you can get a new job or until you are returned to full employment? What are some money making ideas that will help you earn a little extra income? How can you go about creating your own money making ideas that are simple and easy to implement?

There are the usual money making ideas; like, mowing lawns, picking up odd jobs. There are a lot of online articles that tell you the Click Here To Continue Reading...

Preparing for a recession, and surviving a recession for that matter, is all about doing more with less. During good economic times we tend to not look at our personal finances as closely as maybe we should. During good economic times we tend to over look the little increases in our fixed expenses. But, during bad economic times like recessions we also tend to look over some pretty obvious candidates for cost cutting. Or for that matter, we tend to over look places where we can save money. The following are 10 recession tips that I may help you to come up with some other ideas for saving money with banking and other personal finances.

Recession Tip 1: Deposit your money you want to save in a savings account at a bank that offers higher than normal interest rates. Most of the time banks that offer the highest interest rates, are banks that are based Click Here To Continue Reading...

No one can truly, or should I say consistently, predict when a recession will occur. If recessions were predictable their impact on the economy could be easily mitigated. There are indicators that allude to the possibility of a recession. But, each recession that has occurred throughout history has had slightly different root causes. The impact of a recession is undeniable. But, how hard a recession will impact the economy is not predictable. How far and wide a recession will stretch is not predictable.

So, how do you prepare for a recession when you cannot predict when a recession will occur? How do you prepare for a recession when you cannot predict its full impact on the economy? How do you prepare for a recession if you do not know if it will affect you.

On my way to work one morning, stuck in rush hour traffic, I looked out at the people in the other cars. I was struck by a realization, that although the people around me are all affected one way or another by the recession it was affecting them each in their own individual way. Following that line of thought, I realized that the idea of surviving a recession would probably have a different definition for each person. While some people have been directly affected by the recession, other people only know of the recession in news stories. People that know someone that has been directly affected by the recession, either themselves, friend or family, would look at surviving the recession in a completely different manner than someone that only knows of the recession from reading news articles about the recession or watching the nightly news. So that got me thinking about how surviving a recession would be defined by different Click Here To Continue Reading...

Most people, myself included, never think about preparing for a recession. It simply never crosses our mind. Well the time has come. Financially surviving a recession takes preparation. It does not matter if the economy is already in a recession. If you have not already set out a game plan now is the time.

The biggest thing about recessions is that they are like snakes. You know they are dangerous. You know they can be deadly. But, until you get bit by a snake you don’t think about preparing for the consequences. But, once you’ve been bit, you will take the necessary precautions to avoid being bitten again, or at least mitigate the consequences.

If you are prepared for a recession then the you should be able to prosper during the recession. Being able to prosper during a recession is where you want to be financially. In my lifetime there have been five recessions; 1973, 1980, 1990, 2001, and 2008. Of the first four how often did you wish you had been in a position to take advantage of cheaper real estate or cheap stocks. If you were old enough to have understood the opportunities, and I guess cared, then you remember thinking about wanting to have been in a position to take advantage of the financial opportunities that a recession can bring. Most recessions in modern history have been very short only lasting a year or two. But, before the 1960s recessions usually lasted for at least five years. Can you imagine an economy so bad that it takes five years for it to recover. The longest recession in U.S. history lasted Click Here To Continue Reading...