5 Free Budget Templates to Get Your Spending Under Control
Teaching Your Kids About Money : Part 1
Tips to Reduce Your Banking Costs As the season for RRSP contributions comes to an end Tuesday, Canadians appear to be cutting back on their saving, and even dipping into those savings, at what may be precisely the wrong time. At the same time as gasoline prices rise and commodity prices soar — suggesting higher food prices are coming in Canada — there’s concern over mounting evidence that Canadians are dipping into their piggy banks.
(more...)
Your credit score is an integral part of your financial life. It is important that you understand what it’s all about. Lenders, landlords, insurers, utility companies and even employers look at your credit score. It is derived from what’s in your credit reports, and it ranges between 300 and 850.
(more...)Some people pay cash for a car, but most of us borrow or lease. Always weigh the cost of borrowing against using your own savings. Example: It may not make sense to hold onto a Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) paying 3% interest, if you’ll pay 5% interest or more for a car loan.
(more...)
A credit score is a really important indicator on how likely you will be to default on a credit card or a loan. Your credit score is determined by a number of different factors, including your payment history, the amounts of money that you owe, the length of credit history, new credit, and what types of credit you are using. Do you pay your bills on time? Do you have any recent late payments? How many times have you been late? Are your cards maxed out, or have you accrued a large amount of debt? How long have you been making use of credit, and have you managed to establish a good credit history? Are you opening new accounts and borrowing more money? How many times have you recently asked for money? These are the concepts that alter whether or not you will be considered worthy of credit or borrowing.
(more...)
A credit score is a really important indicator on how likely you will be to default on a credit card or a loan. Your credit score is determined by a number of different factors, including your payment history, the amounts of money that you owe, the length of credit history, new credit, and what types of credit you are using. Do you pay your bills on time? Do you have any recent late payments? How many times have you been late? Are your cards maxed out, or have you accrued a large amount of debt? How long have you been making use of credit, and have you managed to establish a good credit history? Are you opening new accounts and borrowing more money? How many times have you recently asked for money? These are the concepts that alter whether or not you will be considered worthy of credit or borrowing.
(more...)
Since it’s a new year and more people are resolving to get out of debt, I think it’s about time for a refresher on the debt snowball. Debt snowballs are popularized by Dave Ramsey and a number of other financial gurus as a great way to manage your debt repayment and get out of debt faster. I’m going to walk you through how you’d go about setting up your debt snowball.
(more...)
The rich and famous lifestyle sometimes hides a shocking and shameful secret: hundreds of thousands of credit card debt. On the outside, the glitterati and clan of hyper-visible celebs seem to be living large and rolling high, but just beneath the surface, they may be just as poor as you and me. It doesn’t matter if you have a six, seven or eight figure income, platinum records and enough Emmys to sink a canoe, you can still fall into the trap of spiraling, uncontrollable debt.
(more...)
There’s this pervasive myth going around that paying off your credit card balance in full each month will score you points (literally) with TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. The fact of the matter is that it won’t. And, in fact, you could even be hurting your credit score by purposefully racking up a high balance and then paying it off before incurring a finance charge. Sound crazy? I’ll explain.
(more...)
One of the biggest challenges in personal finance is figuring out ways to reduce the regular bills that we all face each month. These continuous regular expenses simply fill up our budget, leaving us less money to invest for the future – and also less money to spend on things that we enjoy.
(more...)
Many people are rather surprised when they look at their credit scores and see that they don’t match up. A credit score may differ across different credit bureaus, and those scores are often a little bit different than what you see when you get your score from FICO. Sometimes the difference is more than a “little.” In some cases, your might find that your credit scores vary by up to 20 points — or more. Why is this? The answer lies in the fact that credit scoring models differ across agencies and financial institutions.
(more...)