The Bills Can Wait

Have you ever wanted anything so much that you were willing to put off your bills to get it? A lot of people have and some do it month after month. The worst part of this is that these same people wonder why they are having money problems.

I’m not talking about putting off the bills to buy groceries or pay for necessities. I’m referring to those little things that you just have to have but really don’t need.

This could range from buying a soda or cup of coffee everyday to buying furniture or a car when what you have will work just fine. The bottom line is that if you can afford it and your bills are being paid, then go for it. Otherwise, think long and hard.

In some cases people feel that they are owed these luxuries because they work hard and deserve to reap some of the rewards for their efforts.

This simply isn’t the case. If you have too many bills to allow for luxuries, in most cases, it’s because you have obligated too much of your money. The time to think about this is before you obligate that money.

Your paycheck really isn’t yours. After Uncle Sam takes his bite you still have to pay your bills and necessary expenses before any of that money can be claimed as yours to spend as you choose.

This is why a budget is so essential to managing your money. A budget, set up properly, can prevent you from obligating more of your hard earned money than necessary, thereby leaving you with money to buy the stuff you want.

Putting off any of your bills can put you in a serious financial bind very quickly. However, putting off things like your house payment/rent can have devastating results. Doing this because you just lost your job is one thing but to do it because you want a new couch is unthinkable.

If you are doing this please be warned that it will catch up to you. I can guarantee that it will be much harder to correct the problem than it was to create it.

Take the time to sit down and work up a budget. Make sure to allow for all of the bills and expenses that you have. If there is money left over, that’s what you can use to splurge.

Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy Way and editor of the Budget Stretcher web site. To Subscribe to The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and receive The Complete Budget and Bill Organizer absolutely free just visit his home page at www.homemoneyhelp.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 and is filed under Debt Consolidation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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How Credit Scores Affect Mortgage Applications

With a good credit score an applicant will receive prompt response from many lenders, all of them offering low interest rates and low down payment options. The loan amount offered also may be high. On the contrary a low credit score would result in a lot of rejection from various mortgage financers. Because creditors wouldn’t come forward easily to give credit to individuals that have a history of difficulty in repaying existing loans. After all, creditors take risk when they finance mortgages against the credit history of a debtor. Naturally, they will wish to remain on the safe side and pick up less risky ones that have good credit histories. A good credit score means less chance of missing on payments and therefore less risky.

But there are some real risk takers that will come forward to finance mortgages for individuals with bad credit scores. They would charge high down payments and always high interest rates though. They may also fix additional charges for every little paper work and may charge high closing rates. The loan amount offered will also be considerably less. The individual with poor credit scores will not have much choice but to accept the terms and conditions as there are no other alternatives. This is a tight situation and to avoid this you must have a good credit score.

People with bad credit may fall in to the trap of ’secured loans’. Secured loans are the ones where the loan applicant offers an asset as collateral security. The lender becomes secure about the repayment of the loan and not the borrower. Securing a loan with bad credit score becomes easy only when the applicant is willing to offer some asset as collateral security. This again is a very dangerous situation where an individual runs the risk of losing his entire collateral asset in case of failing to pay the loan installments in time. An individual should always avoid such type of a loan.

Resort properties normally require large amounts of finance which a person with bad credit may find it difficult to obtain. So it is always advisable to keep your credit score high. Incase the credit score becomes low due to unavoidable financial reasons it can be improved upon. There is no need to lose hope simply because a person has a low credit score. If the property that he intends to buy has good equity he should go out and try to obtain finances for it. There are many sub prime lenders willing to offer their services.

For a review of your credit report as it relates to a mortgage loan and a consultation on the best loans available to you, give us a confidential, no obligation and no cost call.