Money and Bills Blog

Empowerment For Financial Literacy and Awareness - Make Money, Save Money, Pay Your Bills!

Debt Settlement Can Be A Tax Nightmare!

When hard economic times happen, debt settlement can seem like a very appealing option. Maybe you lost your job, your income was reduced or you had your income affected by a large medical expense.

For these reasons, you may have fallen behind on your bills and the creditors are now on your back!

You failed to pay your debts and now one of your creditors has lost hope getting you to pay up. For reasons known to them, they’ve decided to stop trying to collect their debt and may have decided to write off your debt.

While you may be feeling relieved, what seems to be a good fortune to you may turn out to be a tax nightmare!

Below, are some things you need to be aware of regarding settling or having large amounts of debt forgiven. If you’re not 100% sure on how this affects your financial situation you to need to seek out a finance professional for help!

Believe it or not, I was in a similar situation during the last great recession of 2008. If it was not for my CPA, I would have had some big tax problems and possibly owed over 100,000 dollars to … READ MORE

Wave Apps Cloud Based Accounting, an Honest Review!

We’ve all experienced the pain of having to track receipts or reconcile our bank accounts with our monthly bank statements, then send if all off to the CPA for our yearly tax filings.

Because this pain exists we need to pick our accounting software wisely, and there is a saying over at Wave Apps, it reads: “Let’s not complicate this!”. The price is not complex either; it’s FREE!

I started using it several years ago, and in the next section, I will share with you some amazing things it has done to make managing my finances a dream come true.

Before we begin you need to know a few things about this software:

It’s cloud-based which means it will work on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computers.

It’s best utilized by small businesses with up to 10 employees.
To use the built-in credit card processing and payroll services you will have to pay money. Here’s a link to the Waveapps Pricing Page: Wave Accounting Pricing

Why did I switch from Quickbooks to Wave Apps?

Back in 2007, I found myself for the first time in need of using accounting software. I had no idea where to start, but since Microsoft … READ MORE

How Volunteering Can Boost Your Earning Potential

Volunteering your time has a variety of benefits: you get to help others who are in need, you get to meet new people, and you may even open the door to new career opportunities. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to meet like-minded people and can also put the experience on your LinkedIn profile to attract employers and recruiters.

Did you know that 20% of managers acknowledge that they’ve hired candidates because of volunteering experience?

ALL OF THESE BENEFITS CAN DIRECTLY WORK IN YOUR FAVOR TO BOOST YOUR CAREER AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES; THUS BOOSTING YOUR INCOME POTENTIAL!

How Do You Find Volunteer Opportunities?

1) Search Engines

If you know the exact organization in your area that you’d like to volunteer for, you can usually find volunteering opportunities and information on the non-profit’s website. Just use a search engine like Google and search for the “city name” and keywords such as “volunteer” or the “organization’s name” if you know it.

Most non-profits are largely dependent on volunteers, so they typically make it easy to find volunteering information on their websites. Look for words like “Get Involved,” “Volunteer,” or even “Donate,” to find … READ MORE

5 Lessons For Building & Keeping A High Credit Score

What’s the best way to build credit? The secret to building and keeping a high credit score is done by forming good habits when it comes to managing your credit and overall finances.

A lot of people think that just using credit cards (or loans) and paying them off every month is all that is required for having and building good credit. The truth is this! It’s a good start, but there is much more you need to know about in order to keep a good credit rating once you get it!

We’ll discuss what you need to know in the below lessons.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to increase your credit score by doing the following:

  • Limiting your credit applications
  • Building a strong credit age and payment history
  • Keeping a low credit utilization
  • Using auto-payments to help make on-time payments
  • Filing disputes when errors appear on your credit report. The dispute process keeps the credit bureaus in check.

Maintaining a strong a strong payment history is mandatory no matter what!

Lesson #1: Limit Your Applications, Choose Wisely

Every time you apply for new credit you get a small ding on your credit score, whether or not you get approved. … READ MORE

My Favorite WordPress Plugins

Once you set up your WordPress blogging site you’ll need to add additional functionality at some point. This is where plug-in’s come into play. WordPress Plug-ins will allow you to customize WordPress without having to code anything.

You’ll be able to add in features for contact forms, spam control, social media buttons, meta tags, and much more. Below I’ll list my favorite WP Plugins, many of them I use on this blog.

Here’s A List Of My Favorite WordPress Plugins

Advanced Excerpt – With over 100,000 active installations, the Advanced Excerpt plugin is handy for providing an excerpt on each one of your posts when someone is browsing them by category. I have mine set to do the excerpt for the first  200 words of each post. Then the reader has to click “read more” to view the rest of the article by clicking into the actual post. Without that option all the articles would just run together as a long page when viewing by category, that does not look nice.

Akismet-AntiSpam – With over 5 million active installations, the Askimet-Anti-Spam plugin is a must for controlling spam on your WordPress contact forms and comments. It’s continuously updated from … READ MORE

Why You Need Good Credit And The Life Benefits Of It!

Why do you need good credit? The answer to this is a simple one. You need good credit not just for fantastic financial opportunities in life, but for a high self-worth as well.

I’m going to elaborate more on this below, and the benefits of why having good credit is so important!

Why Do You Need Good Credit?

Having a stellar payment history and a good credit score above the mid 600’s will prove to the creditors you are going to pay them back when you borrow money. Thus, giving you better interest rates and more favorable terms when you’re ready to finance big-ticket items such as a home, boat, motorcycle or new car.

You also need good credit to rent a decent apartment. Heck, even your new roommate might want to check your credit. Would you want to rely on a roommate paying their portion of the rent with bad credit when you have good credit?

Other things you would not even think of could also be affected, such as getting a new cell phone or a job!

That would really suck if you got turned down for a new job because you had bad credit.

A Long List Of Benefits

… READ MORE

How To Check Your Credit Report/Score and Dispute Errors

Why should you care about checking your credit report for errors? Or know about how to dispute credit report errors when you find them?

Because having good credit makes it easy to rent an apartment, buy a new home, or get a new car loan. But when an error is made on your credit report and you don’t know about it, it can be a big let down and stressful situation. I recently wrote an article about the benefits of having good credit, check it out.

Did you know that approximately 1 in 3 American adults don’t check their credit report regularly for errors? It’s a staggering thought right?

On top of that, the Federal Trade Commission (aka, FTC) even admits in a report that one in five consumers admitted to getting an error fixed. Check out the article here: FTC Study Credit Report Accuracy

Imagine all of the credit report errors that go unreported, ouch. Below, I’ll briefly discuss what you can do to stay on top of keeping your credit report clean from errors.

Step 1: Get A Free Copy Of Your Credit Report

Not many people know how to get a free copy of their actual … READ MORE

My Story: How I Got A 720 Credit Score By The Age Of 21

When I first turned 18, getting new credit was tough. No one (and I MEAN NO ONE) would give me an approval for my first credit card. I even tried getting a new car loan to buy a cheap 1999 Honda Civic DX; I was not approved.

(I really needed that car too, my existing Honda Prelude from 1988 had almost 199,000 miles, and I thought the transmission was going to fall out.)

The most frustrating part of my experience trying to obtain my first credit account was not the constant rejection from creditors. It was seeing my friends getting approved and buying all kinds of things; like High-End Clothes, Sports Cars, Jewelry, and Stereo Systems.

(Looking back I realize that buying those things on credit is a dumb idea. But, at the time, when you’re 18 years old, it’s a different perception of reality.)

Finally, some good news

By the time I turned 19, it finally happened for me. I was at Macy’s doing some clothes shopping and decided on a whim to apply for one of their credit cards. The cashier had offered it to me.

Initially, I was turned down, but then a week later they reconsidered and gave … READ MORE

How To Create A Goodwill Adjustment Letter [sample letter template]

In this article, we’re going to discuss what a “Goodwill Adjustment Letter” is and how it will help you to negotiate the removal of late payments from your credit report.

A Goodwill letter is a written explanation to your creditor for negotiating the removal of a late payment on a delinquent credit account. It can be used for your student loan, mortgage, credit cards, a line of credit, an auto loan, or even a fixed loan. It will also work if the account/loan is with a big bank like Bank Of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, or Discover. And many smaller community banks or Credit Unions.

Below, we’ll review how Goodwill Letters work and what information it needs to contain to be effective.

Lastly, I show you an example of an actual Goodwill Letter that you can customize for your own unique situation.

How Goodwill Adjustment Letters Work

A goodwill letter is a written request to a creditor/lender for the removal of a late payment from your account. If the lender is willing to work with you and they honor the request, they will report an update to the credit bureaus which will clear the negative mark … READ MORE

What Are Credit Tradelines? My Thoughts About Them

Tradelines can be a great way to leverage other peoples good credit to build your own credit.  Below we’ll discuss the details of how this works and why for some it’s one of the best ways to build credit fast.

But, for many, you might find yourself involved in a legal mess or worse, a credit building scam!

Before proceeding, read my disclaimer below.

Disclaimer: You should do lots of research and be cautious with the practice of using tradelines. The banks and credit card companies actually allow the practice, so it’s not an illegal process or anything, but it could raise some ethics and red flags if you work with a company who is dishonest. I ultimately leave the decision of whether or not it’s an ethical practice on to you. Also, I’m not a lawyer or offering any legal advice here. Thanks!

How Tradelines Work (piggybacking on someone else’s credit account)

If you have a low credit score, you can build it up fast by piggybacking on someone else’s credit card account as an authorized user. But, for it to be worth the effort, the credit account must belong to someone with an excellent credit score and … READ MORE

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