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Debt and Your Emotions: How to Cope
If you’ve been in debt – or tried to battle your way out of it – you probably are all too familiar with the feelings of guilt, fear and depression that can come with it. This situation is so common in the United States that medical professionals have given it a name: “debt-stress syndrome.” When stress about debt becomes overwhelming, it can affect your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing... -
Credit Card Grace Periods: A Quick Guide
If you’re like most people, you’ve heard of a credit card grace period – but you might not be totally sure about how grace periods work and how they can potentially save you money. That’s why I decided to dedicate this week’s post to the grace period – what it is, how it works, and how you can qualify. First Things First: What is a Grace Period?... -
Busting Debt Myths: Seven Common Misconceptions
Is it possible to “inherit” debt? What happens to your credit score if you pay off a decades-old debt? Are debt collectors obligated to listen when you ask them to stop calling you? Debt is a complicated topic, and there’s a ton of information – and misinformation – out there related to debt, credit, and debt collection practices. But how do you separate the real facts from the half-truths?... -
Six Ways Stores Get You to Overspend
You went to the local big-box retailer to pick up a couple of very specific essentials. It should have been a quick – and relatively inexpensive — trip. Once you got to the store, though, that “quick” trip turned into something else entirely: You got what you came for — but you also bought six bargain-priced DVDs; two industrial-sized bottles of shampoo; and, for reasons you don’t fully... -
Always Broke? Here are Seven Reasons Why
If you’ve ever tried to stick to a new budget or build up your savings account, you know that it’s not always easy. Saving is hard – even for folks with steady jobs and regular paychecks. But why is saving so hard? What is it about saving that can trip up even the most responsible, rational among us? We tell ourselves that it’s just too hard to save... -
Delaying Your Spending Can Take a Big Bite Out of Your Credit Card Debt
When you’re struggling with high-interest credit card debt, you’re always looking for new ways to bring down your balance faster. There are quite a few debt-repayment strategies to choose from, including a couple of my favorites: the snowball method and the snowflake method. Both of these are fairly flexible and can be combined with other savings and debt repayment strategies (in fact, you can even use them together!). ... -
The “Snowflake Method” Turns Spare Change into a Powerful Debt Reduction Tool
Chances are, you’ve heard of the “snowball method” for paying down credit card debt. In a nutshell, the snowball method encourages you to tackle credit card debt by focusing on one credit card at a time. By prioritizing which card you pay first and increasing your payments over time, you build up enough debt-repayment momentum to get all of your credit cards down to a zero balance. The snowball... -
Got Debt? Here are Seven Ways to Reduce Your Debt by $100 This Week
Looking for a way to put a serious dent in your credit card debt? It would be nice to wipe that high-interest headache away in one payment – but if you’re carrying a large-ish balance, that may not be possible. That said, there’s no reason to settle for just making the minimum payments, either. With a little creativity, you can start taking good-sized chunks out of your balance –... -
Debt Repayment Strategies to Avoid
You probably know by now that I’m a pretty big advocate of responsible credit card use. I don’t think credit cards are bad – but I do think that if you’re going to use them, you have to use them carefully and responsibly. Don’t overspend. Don’t treat them like cash or like an extra source of income. And, most importantly, don’t carry a balance – you should be able... -
Return of the Living Debt!
What Everyone Should Know About “Zombie Debt” It’s been five years since that fateful day when you settled your outstanding balance for that gym membership. You thought that old debt was long dead and buried. You’ve started a new life; rebuilt your credit. You’ve learned your lesson about irresponsible credit use. Things are different now. And then, one day, the phone rings. It’s a debt collector ....