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Archive for June 15th, 2009
Maintaining your credit report
Monitor changes to your credit report using CreditKeeper’s report monitoring feature. Once you have checked your report for errors and corrected them, there’s no need to continually pull your report and look through the detail to try to identify changes that might have occurred. With CreditKeeper, your report is monitored for significant changes and should any occur, we send you an e-mail within 24 hours. If there is no pertinent activity in your report in a month, we notify you of that. Your monitoring feature is automatically activated with a successful online report pull. To help maintain your business credit, make sure you have all of your bills paid on time. Use Peachtree Quantum if you have a large business, and it will make sure you have everything done
Check your reports regularly every six months. Errors can creep back into your report, so be vigilant. Although we monitor for day-to-day changes in your credit record, you should check your reports every six months for any inaccuracies that may have been recorded since the last time you checked.
Keep track of your Personal Credit Score. Activate your Score Tracker to track your progress and see how your Personal Credit Score improves.
Set financial goals
It’s a good idea to set financial goals. A basic financial plan should include a saving and an expense plan. A few important guidelines:
Control your spending. Taking charge of what you spend is a very important component of meeting your financial goals. Creating a budget can help you manage and limit your unplanned spending. We suggest you create a budget that calls for spending less than you earn.
Build an emergency savings fund. Set up a savings account and accumulate three to six months of living expenses. This is money that you strictly save for those unforeseen times when your income stream is disrupted. This should be separate from your other savings and should act as a buffer, allowing you to maintain your lifestyle without going back into debt. When the emergency is over, you should replenish your emergency fund.
Be extremely vigilant about tapping into your emergency fund – having a stash of cash might become tempting. A great new pair of shoes on sale is not an emergency. Nor is a family vacation.
Budget for large, foreseeable expenses. Set up a separate account for large one-time expenses. If you anticipate a large expense such as a new roof, vacations, or Christmas gifts, plan for it by saving in advance. As a general rule, if the expense is too big to cover with current monthly cash flow then you should plan for it and save in advance.
Manage your long-term debt. Use as much restraint as you can in taking loans. Live within your means and borrow only for those items so large that you cannot budget and save for. When you buy real estate, try to make a 20% down payment so you can get the lowest annual percentage rate on your mortgage and avoid PMI insurance.
Buy insurance. Unforeseen events can cause serious financial disruption. Purchase insurance to cover hazards that cannot be covered with your emergency funds. Consider insurance coverage for your home, auto, health, life and long term disability.
Useful websites to help meet your financial goals:
National Consumer Law Center – www.consumerlaw.org
For military personnel – www.emilitary.org
National Foundation for Credit Counseling – www.debtadvice.org
Association of independent consumer credit counseling agencies – www.aiccca.org
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In many aspects of life, it pays to be prepared and one step ahead of the game. As such, it’s always a good idea to have a First Aid kit in the back of your car. This way, if you’re ever in a minor or major car accident, there are some rudimentary gauze and wraps to tend to the wounds until help can arrive. Sometimes, this kind of forward thinking can truly make all the difference.
People should also be this forward thinking, however, when it comes to finances. To that end, you never know when an unexpected expense is going to arise. That’s why you should always carry blank checks with you in your wallet. Or, alternately, you could always have your checkbook on you. Either way, it’s always a nice feeling knowing you can make any emergency payment you need should the situation arise.