Help Bankruptcy Blog

Yes, it can get quite tedious to track every cent that you spend, but the rewards will surprise you. Years ago, family’s used to keep track of money spent in little notepads as part of their daily lives. Every family member was expected to be responsible for keeping track of money spent by them every day. This little exercise can be very enlightening for the whole family. No one wants to admit that they spend money foolishly. But, with the help and cooperation of the entire family, you’ll be able to figure out where money is being wasted and how to change bad habits. Once you have a picture of what needs to be changed, you can start saving some of that hard earned money. Perhaps your family will deserve a little treat after all their hard work.

Those beautiful hybrid SUV’s that I see in the commercials and on the road have got me thinking. Can I really save gas with a hybrid SUV? I know the idea of a hybrid is intriguing, and I really need an SUV to haul the kids and their stuff all over, but what is the payback of a hybrid. The price is much steeper than I’m used to paying for a car or SUV or van, so what’s the benefit? Besides the obvious, less gas used, how is that a benefit if I’m paying more for the car initially? I’m sure the manufacturers have it figured out, otherwise the sales of hybrid cars and SUV’s wouldn’t be climbing steadily upward every year. And, if you’re like me and keep your car for it’s lifetime, the research is well worth doing.

It is not easy to prepare for a financial emergency because it is hard to prepare for it. As such, A number of people ignore this completely since they are living day by day just trying to make it. It is important to have an emergency plan because it will help to prevent trouble when something does happen. An emergency situation can cause big financial strain when you do not have the finances to handle it.

Few of us think about what would happen if we get retrenched or suddenly became too ill to work. The thought is simply too terrible to contemplate in many cases, especially if we are living paycheck to paycheck with a job as it is.

Financial Emergencies can lead to Bankruptcy

The fact is, though, that financial emergencies happen to almost everyone at some point and they can have devastating impact to your bank account a huge financial disaster such as sudden unemployment, huge medical bills, a lawsuit, or divorce. Despite this, few people plan for these problems, even though they can happen to anyone.

Personal Finance Tip

You can avoid a bad credit score or financial strain if you know what to do when an emergency arises. Developing an actual written plan can help you by letting you take action to save your credit as soon as an emergency occurs. Some items that could be on your financial emergency plan could include:

1) Listing out all your liquidable assets like deposits.

2) Listing out all the luxuries items that you can live without if there was a problem (i.e. magazine subscriptions, Internet cable, water delivery service, weekend shopping spree).

3) Listing out resources that could help you if you face any emergencies. Maybe you know a lawyer who deals in financial facets of the law. Perhaps an insurance that you have been paying for many years. Maybe your employer offers a severance package. If you find these stuff, write it down. Keeping a list of these resources will make them easier to access in case of an emergency.

4) Other ways you could get money if you had to - jobs you could take, things you could rent out to others.

The bottom line is make a plan. Something must be in place so that when emegency do happen you can handle it without falling into a financial crisis. You will be stressed enough worrying about the emergency situation that finances do not need to drag you down too.

Our CFO where I work volunteered to teach classes about personal finance budgeting to anybody who wanted to attend. The classes were held over the lunch hour in our presentation center which has an over head projector, a loud speaker system and stadium style classroom set-up. It is arranged just like a college classroom. Anyhow, it was so surprising how many employees took advantage of his offer. There must have been almost half of the workers in attendance. This was an ongoing weekly class. He even offered to work with us one on one and with confidentiality. He did this with the company’s blessing, and he did not charge us a cent.

When you are in debt the sad thing is that sometimes the only way out of it is to take out another loan, of course there is always the sting in the tail though.

The problem is when you need a loan, you know they are going to be looking at your credit. If you are frowning as you read this, you know your credit report is not what you want it to be, and you also know that there is something you should be doing about it.

Your problem may be that you don’t know what to do. Many people have no idea how to fix their credit, though some ways are simply common sense. Above paying your current bills on time, what do you need to know to repair credit score?

The first step to repair your credit score is to know what it is and to understand why yours may be lower than what you want it to be. Paying your bills late can affect your score, and having charge offs can be ever worse.

See the bright side of this though. Take this as a lesson to show you the importance of servicing your loans and debts in a timely manner. Also use this as a time to step back and evaluate your life style. Do you really need to take out another loan and get into more debt?

Some times there is a painful answer like selling the Jeep and buying a runner, but the long term gains are immense if you plan properly as you can use the funds to clear your debt and credit rating, or if it were on finance use the spare cash to settle some of your other debt thereby giving yourself a firmer financial footing.