Jill Russo Foster

Are you confused because you have multiple credit scores?

This might explain how many scores and why they are different

https://www.dailyworth.com/posts/4404-the-total-amount-of-credit-scores-you-have

Will you owe taxes?

Here’s more information, but your tax professional will know for sure

Do you like your privacy?

Do you want your browsing information sold?

I Challenge You to Track Your Expenses

Have you ever written down a budget to see where your money is going? Well, we did this earlier this month and everything looks fine, meaning that we make more than we spend.

That means we can pay our bills – great! That’s check one. Check two – are we saving enough? No, we we’re not, but where do we get the money? We won’t find extra money to save until we find out exactly where our money is going.

If you want to do this process with me, follow these steps:

1. Write down a couple of short and long term goals, so you’ll be inspired to do the work.
Short term goals can be planning for a vacation, buying a car, paying down debt, saving for something that you want, and starting an emergency fund.

Long term goals can be saving to purchase a home, saving for your children’s education, retirement planning, and paying off debt/mortgage. What are yours? Imagine what you want or need and write it down now.

2. Track every penny you spend. That means finding a way to record your spending as it happens.
Don’t wait until the end of the month and use your bank statement or receipts. A single store can fall under many spending categories and receipts don’t always list items by name (or by names that you can decipher). Don’t think for a minute that your grocery store trip can be lumped under food. You may buy your pet food there, as well as cleaning supplies, shampoo, or even magazines.

I know this sounds time consuming, but it’s worth it. You can carry a pen and pad with you and write down everything by hand. Another way to track your money is by using a phone app. Choose the way that works best for your lifestyle.

3. Write your totals in a budget worksheet to see where you stand.
Once you see a month’s worth of numbers, than you can begin to analyze what is going on. With this clear picture, you can make changes – lower bills to save money, get rid of unused services, check out the competition to switch etc.

Tell me what you have discovered with this exercise. Next issue, I will tell you what we have changed.

If you would like to receive my inter active budget tracker, just sign up for my free bi-weekly newsletter here.

Save

Is your city on the list of highest or lowest credit scores?

Want to check this out?

Should you take your 401K with you when you leave a job?

This will help you decide

Has your information been compromised?

Another day another security breach.

The Importance Of Insurance

We all know we need insurance and probably have all the standard ones in place – homeowners / renters, auto, and umbrella. But it’s those special ones that are in question for us. I am referring to travel, car rental, pet, extended warranties, home warranties and more. We think we don’t need them, but do we?

We just booked a vacation and we have the option to add travel insurance for a reasonable fee. Do we do it? Is it a waste of money? Fortunately, we don’t have to make this choice for a few months. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you my initial research.

	Reasons you might need the coverage	Reasons you might NOT need the coverage
Travel / Trip Insurance	Non-refundable vacations You are taking an expensive vacation with lots of opportunities for losses Your health insurance will not cover you where you are going (anything from a doctor’s visit to medical airlift)	Your credit card that you booked your vacation with gives you the insurance coverage you need If your travel plans are refundable / changeable without or a minimal penalty You can financially afford the cost / loss
Car Rental	If you don’t own a car and therefore don’t have auto insurance If you are going to a location that your car insurance will not provide you the coverage	If you have this coverage on your current auto policy and it extends to your rental car
Pet	If you are the type of person that would do anything for your pet, regardless of the cost	If you can afford to pay for the services
Extended Warranties	If you want peace of mind knowing that your electronic device is covered If you are a person that tends to lose, break or damage things	If your budget can handle the cost of replacement on short notice
Home / Car / Appliance Warranties	If you want peace of mind knowing that you are covered	If the cost of the insurance is more than the cost to replace / repair If your budget can handle the cost of replacement with short notice

As you can see, I have suggested many things for us and you to think about before you make your own choices. Let me know any thoughts I have omitted and what helped you decide.

Save

What To Do When Money Is Tight

There are times in our lives that we are not able to pay all our bills. Maybe we have lost a job, had a medical illness or other life circumstance. Not being able to pay your bills is one more stresser added to the mix.

I will give you my advice, but please know that you should check with your professionals for what is best for you and your situation before taking any action.

There are several types of bills categories we have:

Utility Bills – You may have noticed that these typically don’t appear on your credit. Yes, you are correct. When your utilities are paid on time, they don’t appear on your credit report. When you are late, most utility company will report the delinquent payment information to the credit reporting agencies. Or even worse, they may send the account for collection and that will appear on your report.

Credit Cards – This is a double-sided question. You want to be able to have credit in case you need it but you can’t afford to pay the credit card. The best possible option when you can’t afford to pay your bills, is to be able to pay the minimum amount due on all your credit cards each and every month. If not, then you want to contact your credit card companies to work out an agreement. You don’t want your credit card companies to send your account to collections and/or small claims court. Both these options will negatively affect your credit.

Non-Credit Bills – These are debts you owe that don’t appear on your credit usually (i.e. your auto mechanic, cell phones, tax bills, medical etc.). You might be thinking that you can ignore these bills, but that’s not the case. Not paying these can lead to judgments and judgments have serious consequences on your credit report. Try to work out payment arrangements to keep this from happening.

In difficult times when money is tight, you may need to access your credit to get by. You will need to keep these tips in mind so that you have that option available to you. Even when you are unable to pay your bills as you have when you making more money, these tips will come in handy.

Save