If you ever need cash, but you’re only carrying a credit card, you can get something called a cash advance. A cash advance is when you get cash from a bank or an ATM, but instead of withdrawing from a checking or savings account, you’re charging it to your credit card. This can be really…
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What is a Short Sale in Real Estate
A short sale is when someone sells a piece of real estate for less money than they currently owe on it. Typically this only happens when the market value of a property has dropped significantly and the owner of the property has fallen behind on their monthly payments. For example, let’s say I’m the owner…
How much could you save every month by dining in more often? Let me be straight with you. I love to eat at restaurants. For a lot of people with demanding jobs and tight schedules, going out to eat at restaurants can practically be a way of life. Would you prefer to watch instead of…
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What is a FICO Score
A FICO score is the most common type of credit score. Ranging from three hundred on the low end to eight hundred and fifty on the high end, a FICO score helps lenders decide whether or not to loan money to someone, and if so, what the interest rate should be. The name FICO comes…
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What is a Credit Union
A credit union is like a smaller, more community focused, not-for-profit version of a bank. Just like at any bank, you can open an account, deposit money, and take out a loan. When you open an account at a credit union though, you’re considered a member, as opposed to a customer. And while banks are…
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How to Shop for Car Insurance
Is your car insurance driving up your monthly expenses? Whenever you get behind the wheel and start driving your car, you’re taking thousands of pounds of metal and accelerating it all to a high speed. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. What would happen if you lost control of your car…
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How to Save Money on Groceries
Could you be spending less money at the grocery store every month? My biggest monthly expense, after paying rent and loans, always seems to be food. According to the USDA, the average couple spends about $625 per month at the grocery store. That’s a lot of money that we’re spending on food, especially if you…
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How to Make a Budget in Excel
Warning: This could change the course of your life forever. It sounds cliche, but learning how to create a budget in Excel or in Google Sheets and actually taking the time to do so on a monthly basis has quite possibly been the biggest key to success in my journey to become debt free. In…