Shopping for the Best Credit Rates does not hurt your credit score.

Shopping for the Best Credit Rates does not Hurt Your Credit Score

If a loan officer tells you that you shouldn't shop for the best interest rates because it will hurt your credit score, don't believe them. They're just giving you a line to keep you from comparison shopping.

Whenever you shop for rates within a short period of time, the credit scoring agencies lump these requests into one inquiry. For example, if you apply to four different mortgage lenders within a two-week period, it would count as just one "hard" inquiry against your score. Don't drag out your search too long or the credit scoring company may end up counting the inquiries separately.

Also, don't apply for a new car loan or a new credit card just before you apply for a new mortgage. You will lower your score and you will likely end up with a higher interest rate on your mortgage.

Free Credit Report.Com


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7 Steps to a Financially Healthy Marriage

7 Steps to a Financially Healthy Marriage
compliments of Michael Aschberger

Money is one of the great battlegrounds of marriage. It's the factor responsible for the most divorces, and according to a survey by Money magazine, the subject married couples argue about more than any other topic except one (that honor is reserved for household chores).

Financial stress can come from many sources, but one of the most difficult is when one spouse is a spender and the other a saver. We come into marriage with attitudes toward money deeply engrained in our psyche, and they're not easily changed. But don't despair - if you find yourself engaged in a struggle with a spouse who is your opposite when it comes to saving and spending, there are steps you can take to achieve balance and harmony.

1. Agree to be a team. You got married to spend your lives together, so it shouldn't be difficult to start with this understanding, even if it may seem hard to reconcile with your money behavior. To be a team, you have to act like a team, and that starts by giving up individual possessiveness about money: there's no "your money" and "my money." It needs to be "our money."

2. Agree on your goals. Start your teamwork by articulating your long-term goals, they're the most important and the easiest to agree upon. Long-term goals might include living the lifestyle you want in retirement and educating your children. Be sure to be specific. A goal isn't a dream, like "a comfortable retirement" or "a good school for the kids." Articulating specific long-term goals involves knowing how much those dreams are going to cost and precisely when they will occur. You need dates and dollar figures.

Once you've reached an agreement on your long-term goals, try to set the same kind of specific plans for your intermediate- and short-term goals, like your next vacation and your savings and retirement account balances for the end of the year.

3. Practice full disclosure. Being a team means each of you is empowered to act on behalf of the other with implicit approval. That requires that each of you have full command of the facts: how much money you make, how much you owe, and how much you spend. Share the balances in any individual accounts you may hold, like checking and credit cards. You need to be completely honest with each other, even if you make a mistake now and then.

4. Budget and pay bills together. Create a monthly budget (spreadsheets are ideal for this) that compares the total of your bills and expected out-of-pocket expenses with every penny of incoming and available cash. Include an itemized list of your debts and scheduled payment amounts, as well as your asset accounts and their balances.

Thoroughness is a key determinant of your success, so don't overlook anything, especially significant one-time expenses like gifts or big nights out. Create a catch-all category of out-of-pocket expenses called "miscellaneous" for the little things you might forget - or those that are small and hard to pin down.

Pay your bills at the same time at the same place, and then update your budget spreadsheet as you do. This means revisiting your monthly budget at least once a month. Print out two copies and keep them somewhere you can each easily glance at whenever the need arises.

5. Update your checkbook(s). One way spenders rationalize their behavior is by keeping themselves in the dark - unaware - of how much they really have to spend. If you're going to be faithful to the budgeting process in Step 4, you have to keep careful track of your cash on hand, and that means being sure your checkbook entries are up to date.

6. Agree on spending rules. You and your spouse need to agree on how much you can spend on purchases without consulting the other. Beyond this preset amount, you should talk about the purchase in advance and adjust your budget spreadsheet accordingly.

7. Create a financial plan. Everybody should have a professionally prepared plan, but for couples with polarized spending and saving habits, it's especially important. Apart from the fact that a professional can provide the expertise and tools you may lack, he/she will serve as an impartial third party to help you defuse your money debates.

Read other articles like this.


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The Rule of 72 ...how to figure out how long it will take your money to double

Isn't is funny how you can meet a person in life and in an instant they can change the way you look at something! Here is what happened to me!

I meet this guy back in October of 1999...he said something to me that changed the way I thought about money...he said, are you on pace to eat cat food or live a good life when you retire, because you will retire on less money than you make and still have the bills like you have today unless you change your thinking and he taught me The Rule of 72...and showed me how it works...if this blog has taught you something ...let me know!!!

Do you know the Rule of 72 and how it works? The Rule of 72 is an easy way to approximate how long it will take your savings to double. Just divide 72 by the interest rate you earn to determine the number of years it will take your money to double. It shows the way money can grow so much faster with a higher rate of return.*

By using the Rule of 72, you can see why it pays to fight for every extra percentage point of interest you can get. Once you know your rate, use the Rule of 72 to compute how fast YOUR savings will double! So how fast would you like your money to double?

Now let's look at this on the reverse role...this plays into effect when getting a car loan, credit card, mortgage or anything that has an interest rate attached because this is the info the the banks know that you don't...this is also why you should fight for every percent you can get off...once you know the rule of 72, you life will never be the same again...happy shopping...

example...you get a credit card that has a rate of 10%...what that means is ...that $5000 balance will double every 7.2 years that is what has made credit cards so difficult to pay off when paying the minimum payment! pretty crazy info right...you bet ya!

To sum this up...fight to get the highest rate on your saving and fight to get the lowest rate on your payments...

Now please let me know, did you find this info helpful or harmful to your financial future?

Check out these books...you can usually find a good bargain buying used or new books from amazon or your can click on the links on the other side of the page to take you to eBay or half.com.

Suze Orman's The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying (Paperback)

Suze Orman's Financial Guidebook: Put the 9 Steps to Work (Paperback)

...and here are a few more that I found to be very helpful when it comes to setting up a good budget using his award winning envelope system.

The Financial Peace Planner by Dave Ramsey

Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey

Deluxe Executive Envelope System by Dave Ramsey

Financial Peace Jr. by Dave Ramsey ...this is for the kids

This is why I get my books from amazon...because you can always save more...thanks for taking a look...please leave any questions in the comments for me, thanks! ...and if you think that this little information can help another person that you care about please hit the mail forward button below and send away...you too can help someone sleep better at night!

*Investments with higher rates of return may also carry higher risks, including loss of principal and investment gains.

The Determinant of Your Success

The Determinant of Your Success
By: Brian Tracy

Perhaps the most powerful single factor in your financial success is your beliefs about yourself and money. We call this the Law of Belief. It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality.

What Successful People Believe
Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. That we have a tendency to block out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality. What we've discovered is that successful people absolutely believe that they have the ability to succeed. And they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they'll fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.

Positive Thinking Versus Positive Knowing
You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. The most important belief system you can build is a prosperity consciousness where you absolutely believe that you are going achieve your financial goals. We call this positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, you will be successful.

The Foundation of Willpower
Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any success. Willpower is based on confidence. It's based on conviction. It's based on faith. It's based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies of successful people, by listening to audio programs, by reading books about people who've achieved success. The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the willpower to push you through the obstacles and difficulties you will experience.

Beat the Odds on Success
Remember that success is rare. Only one person in one hundred becomes wealthy in the course of a lifetime. Only five percent achieve financial independence. That means that the odds against you are 19-to-1. The only way that you're going to achieve your financial goals is if you get really serious. To succeed, you must get serious. You must get busy. You must get active. You must get going. Remember, everything counts.

Resolve to Achieve Greatly
Self-mastery, self-control, self-discipline are essential for anyone who wants to achieve greatly. And control over your thoughts is the hardest exercise in self-mastery that you will ever engage in. See if you can talk and think about only what you desire and not talk or think about anything that you don't want for 24 hours. Then you'll see what you're really made of. It's a hard thing to do but with practice, you can reach the point where you are thinking about your goals and desires most of the time. Then, your whole life will change for the better.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to build a belief system consistent with the financial success you desire:

First, continually repeat to yourself the words, pictures and thoughts consistent with your dreams and goals. Whatever you repeat often enough, over and over, becomes a new belief.

Second, set a goal for yourself to think and talk only about the things that you want for the next 24 hours. This will be one of the hardest things you ever do. But if you can keep your mind on what you want and off of what you don't want for 24 hours, you can begin to change your entire future.

What people are saying about Brian Tracy
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Author of Sales Speak

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