Personal Finance Tips
In Partnership With ReliefLoans.com

Next to winning the lottery, a debt consolidation loan is a debtor's dream. With one monthly payment and a fixed monthly payment schedule, you can actually see an end to those monthly payments.

In reality, consolidating bills isn't always easy. If you have a lot of debt, it can be hard to find a consolidation loan at a lower interest rate. And if you're not careful, you can end up deeper in debt than when you started.

Your goal in consolidating your debt should be to lower your overall costs. To accomplish this there are two things to keep in mind:

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When you say "end of the year", most small business owners think of two things immediately.

The "second" is the holidays. The "first" is taxes!

While almost all of us pay taxes quarterly, we still have to file in January. That means November and December are spent getting ready.

When you're gathering all your information together for your accountant, don't forget about these regularly overlooked deductions.

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I decided to write this article today after closing a home purchase loan for a couple that had some major credit issues.

They got into the house with ZERO down payment, and only had to bring $600 for the closing costs.

Their situation was pretty bad; I'm talking about a bankruptcy 2 years ago, thousands of dollars in outstanding collections, charge-offs and debt to income ratio of 49%. By the way, we left all of their outstanding charge-offs and collections open which means they didn't have to pay any of them off! So many think they won't be able to qualify for a mortgage loan.

Many will keep thinking they can't qualify until they read this article.

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In 1757, Benjamin Franklin published "The Way To Wealth", a basic summary of his 25 year "Poor Richards' Almanac." In "The Way To Wealth", Honorable Mr. Franklin states the following:

"Then since, as he says, the borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor, disdain the chain, preserve your freedom; and maintain your independency: be industrious and free; be frugal and free. At present, perhaps, you may think yourself in thriving circumstances, and that you can bear a little extravagance without injury; but, For age and want, save while you may; No morning sun lasts a whole day..."

There's a chock full of great wisdom to be gleaned from this paragraph of text. I encourage you to read it carefully, and absorb as much as you can from this man. He was, after all, just a man. But a great man. In fact, Benjamin Franklin believed that you are no different than he. He also believed in hard work, and perseverance, and the value of time management. These basic precepts, if mastered, could lead you down the same path of immense wealth as Benjamin Franklin.

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Stupid ideas come in all sorts of packages. Bad debt, various loans, purchase decisions, and delayed savings. Most people reach the age of 65 with little or no savings. They live off social security and what little else they have. It is no wonder the golden arches are filled with workers in their golden years.

Anything that wastes your money and prevents you from becoming debt free can be a stupid idea. The only way to save and invest money is to not send it to creditors each month. Only when it is yours to keep can you put it aside to work for you as hard as you have worked for it.

It is not your job in life to make your creditors rich. The goal is to make you rich. If you are going to make that happen, stay away from bad decisions. Decisions made in the absence of good, or even any, information. Time pressured, desperate decisions are seldom made with enough information.

Anything that slows down spending and requires you to think twice before parting with your money is a good idea. Fill out a Purchase Checklist for any decision that requires spending more than what you have in your pocket. Some questions you need to answer: Cost; is it on sale; can you pay cash; where will the money come from; do you know the cost of credit if you don't pay cash; with that cost added in is it still worth buying; is this a need or a want; could you justify this purchase to another person; and would you accept these reasons from someone else?

Stupid ideas abound when ignorance, greed and pride, (definitely not the common sense triplets) form the basis of your decisions. Ignorance is simply an absence of knowledge or information. Greed is nothing but wanting more than you should. Pride is caring what your neighbor. or someone you don't even know, in an advertisement, thinks of you.

So, understanding there is no winner in the contest to see who is the most stupid, here are some things to avoid in your financial life.

Bad Debt.
Defined as any debt other than a home mortgage, education loans and some business debt. Bad debt should be avoided. If you have it, getting rid of it should be your number one priority. Then get rid of your other debt. The more money you can put away as opposed to sending to your creditors will make a dramatic difference in your financial progress. These particular types of bad debt need to be avoided at all costs.

Auto title Loans Payday Loans Rent To Own Stores 125 Loans Credit Cards Pawn Brokers
If you find yourself even considering using any of these call a friend and have them talk you out of it.

Other bad ideas include some of our habits.
This is not moralizing here, just a hard look at how bad habits drain your financial resources.

Smoking, alcohol consumption, buying coffee and a donut on the way to work, lunches at work, and anything else which has become a habit can cost you a tremendous amount of money per month. Money you could be putting away. Make a fast calculation of what you spend each day on these habits. Then times it by the number of working days in a month (usually around 22). This is the money you waste each month. You need to put it in your pocket not someone else's. And let's face it, you will feel better too.

There are plenty of people willing to benefit from your stupid ideas and bad decisions. If you find you have already embraced some of these stupid ideas, change your choices. Don't compound your mistake. If you make a stupid decision, you don't need to stick with it. Learn from it and move on. Decide if you are going to have some burned fingers or a ruined life. Live and learn from the burned fingers, let someone else ruin their life.

About the author:Article courtesy of David Wilding at DebtAttack.com.

Visit for other ideas to combat debt. Print out and use our Purchase Agreement to save you from further debt. Contact us at mailto:=info@debtattack.com.Copyright 2004 debtattack.com

Gas prices are on the rise again! Here are some tips to help you
conserve gas and save money as we approach summer gas prices.

1. Keep your car tuned up. Cars in poor running condition use
more gasoline.

2. Plan trips well to avoid unnecessary driving.

3. When you run your air conditioner you get much worse gas
mileage. Use your air conditioner sparingly. If you have a lower
setting, use it. Turn it on until the car gets cool, then turn
it off and let the fan circulate the cool air. Never run your
air conditioner with your windows open!

4. Keep your windows closed when traveling at high speeds. Open
windows cause additional drag and lower your gas mileage. At
high speeds, an open window can use more gas than many air
conditioners (especially if they are on a low setting).

5. Check your tire pressure. Over-inflated tires can actually
reduce your fuel efficiency, so don't overfill.

6. If at all possible, change your work start time to avoid
gridlock. Stop and go traffic hurts your gas mileage.

7. Take unneeded items out of the car. You don't need to carry
snow chains around with you in the summertime. Just make sure to
put them back in when winter comes around.

8. Try not to idle your engine for long periods of time. If you
are stuck in traffic and you don't think you are going to go
anywhere in the next five minutes, you may want to turn your car
off.

9. You no longer need to warm your car up for long periods of
time, especially new cars. New cars are made to run when cold.

10. Don't travel at fast speeds in low gears unless you need the
compression to slow down.

11. Try to drive the speed limit.

12. Try to accelerate slowly when leaving the stop light. It's
not a competition with the driver in the lane next to you. The
fastest person through the intersection just gets to spend more
on gas.

13. No need to buy the highest priced gasoline. Most cars are
built to run on regular unleaded. Check you owners manual or
consult a mechanic. I have had many tell me that the more
expensive gas is a waste of money.

14. Revving the engine needlessly wastes gas. There is no need
to rev before you turn your vehicle off.

15. If at all possible, try to arrange car pools with co-workers
to share the cost of commuting to work.

16. Walk, bike or run to your intended location whenever
possible.

17. When the price is sky high, don't fill up. Wait for the
price to go down before you fill up your tank. Filling up your
tank when the price is peaking lets gas companies know that you
are willing to pay ridiculous prices for gasoline.

18. And last, the biggest and most important step towards saving
money on gas is always try to purchase vehicles that get good
gas mileage. The difference between 20 miles-per-gallon and 40
miles-per-gallon is huge.

About the Author:

Fisher Swanson is a regular contributer to The
ThriftyFun.com News. ThriftyFun publishes information about thrifty living. Send an email to thriftyfunnews-on@thriftyfun.com to subscribe to TheThriftyFun.com News.