The stack of bills is huge; the bank account is flat. You’re focused on changing both situations. When you’ve committed to getting out of debt and building up saving, the great debate surrounds which comes first: pay off debt or start saving now? The debate is almost as long running as the chicken and the…
Is your safety net made of plastic? Is your disaster plan based on borrowing on your credit card to carry you through an emergency? More clients than I can count want to keep a credit card out of their bankruptcy, “so it will be there in an emergency”. They’ve been conditioned to feel naked and…
After debt, you’re looking at a long road to rebuilding your credit. It’s a Catch-22 in many respects; your credit score will go up if you start paying your new creditors on time, but you’re not going to easily get new creditors unless your score is high enough. People who hire me to file for…
With the economy in continued free-fall, even the debt collection agencies are starting to get worried. Don’t get caught in a scam. It happened just before dinner, as these things usually do. He was sitting down at the table when the phone rang. Before he could get in a word edgewise, my client was subjected…
When I was a kid, the family car gave up the ghost without warning one summer evening when it was stolen and then torched by the fine human being who elected to take it for a spin. Unfortunately, my father didn’t have a chunk of change sitting around to get us a new set of…
Aristotle said that change in all things is sweet. What he neglected to discuss, however, was just how hard it is to modify our ways in even the slightest. We’re creatures of habit, taking comfort in the cause-and-effect of chain reactions that we’ve worked through time and time again. I see my clients wince when…
For thousands of years, people have chased the key to never-ending youth. Drink of the water of the Fountain of Youth and you’ll be young forever. Though we’ve never found the elusive spring, we all act as if we have. Big mistake. Cathy’s talked about the problem of having too little time once the bills…