Few months ago I was terribly infected by the ‘Next Month’ disorder. Not many people believed it’s a fatal disease, as most were infected by it. Every time I received my credit card statement, I would look at the amount and promise myself, next month I will try to reduce it. I thought of dealing in cash, yet whenever I pulled out a card from my wallet to make ends meet, I would stare somewhere between the sky and the mountains, and think, next month onwards I wouldn’t use these cards. When I hear people talking about budget, I promise my self, next month I would definitely plan out a budget. Once I was talking to Ms. Smith, my neighbor, we discussed various aspects of personal finance. I, however, realized she was younger than me, yet she had perfectly planned for her retirement. [...]

Recently, I got a mail from my colleague, Chris, who retired a couple of years ago. Once, I met him at the grocery store and we discussed frugality. Though he didn’t open up much, he sent me an email a week later. He says: “Quite often, I feel frugality is detaching me from the society. And every night, started this since past couple of weeks, I ask my self “Is frugality depleting my social life?” With days, I find myself not being interested in the mainstream society. I have disconnected my TV cable, so I can’t really tell if who won the American Idol, or is it still on. Daily headlines, too, is just a glance on the internet. So, I don’t know much beyond the headline. I don’t eat out much, though I have perfected cooking, I haven’t had a look at the local menus since many [...]

I know most of the people with mortgage are confused and are stuck with the question “When should I consider refinancing my mortgage?” Today, prevailing interest rates are much lower than the time we purchased the house. And we can easily refinance through the existing lender without any closing costs. If you have, however, decided to refinance your mortgage, I would recommend you to pay attention to few factors mentioned below. Interest Rates Ask your self, what is the interest rate you are paying now? What would it change to, if you consider refinancing it? Is the difference quite considerable? Is the interest rate expected to rise in near future? However, it should be noted that even 1% of change in rate can affect your payment quite radically. Type of Loan One of the factors [...]

The most significant factor affecting any US citizen’s lifestyle is the anxiety of maintaining the required credit score (also known as FICO score). And the anxiety is obvious because this score decides whether your request for a mortgage will be approved or rejected. If approved, than the applicable interest rates are influenced by it. Jobs, credit cards, and almost every financial activity or item is the result of one’s credit score. I have spent all the years of my life to keep up this magical figure. According to me, there are five major factors that influence the volatility of the score. Understanding these factors will definitely help any individual to focus on important issues rather than inconsequential ones. Your Payment History: 35% I am not very sure about the exact figure [...]

The Obama government of today seems to be more concerned with the welfare of the consumer. One reform after the other is being made to bring corrupt and stringent practices of business authorities under control. The Credit Card Act of 2009 was one such reform which aims to put an end to the unfair practices adopted by credit card holders. But the credit card world is not the only sphere of consumer victimization. Other areas such as mortgaging, financial aiding, and others are also replete with instances where consumers have been treated very badly by the concerned authorities. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency aims to address and rectify all these issues. One of the first improvements that you can see coming with the Consumer Financial Protection Act is that the statements of your [...]