Finance Book

Millions of people are over-extended financially. They max out their credit cards and dig a financial hole that seems impossible to escape from. If you find yourself in that situation, there are some strategies you can use to reduce your debt and free some money each month.

If you are having financial problems due to excessive debt levels there are only two alternatives. You must bring additional money into the household to pay down some of the debt or you have to reduce your expenses. This article will deal with reducing expenses. The first thing you need to do is change your spending habits, create a spending plan for yourself. Here are 5 strategies to get you started:

1. Stop spending money on items you don’t need. Before buying those new shoes at the mall, ask yourself, ‘Do I really NEED them?” The key word here is ‘need.’ Most people spend much more money on things they want, as opposed to things they need. Only buy things you need until your debt problems are under control.

2. Take inventory of your monthly spending habits. Most people have no idea how much money they spend each month. They forget the little things like that coffee in the morning, the soda or drink in the afternoons. These little meaningless expenses can really add up at the end of the month. Keep a small pocket journal and write down everything you buy during the course of a month. You’ll be surprised at how much spend on frivolous things hat you don’t really need (and can do without).

3. Reduce your expenses by using public transportation if possible. Talk to colleagues about starting a carpool. At the grocery store, buy generic and store brand products. Use coupons whenever possible. Drink tap water instead of expensive bottled water and soda. There are thousands of other ways to reduce your expenses, use some of them.

4. Sell some of the items you no longer use or need. Have a yard sale or open a sellers account on Ebay. Millions of dollars worth of used items are bought and sold on Ebay every day.

5. Stop using your credit cards! Use your credit cards for emergencies only. Get into the habit of paying cash.

Check out my newest ebook for the details on how to slash expenses and put money in your pocket to reduce debt!

By: Jo Mark

It would be nice to believe that there is some magic ‘cure’ to all our debt problems. Kevin Trudeau would like you to believe that in his latest book Debt Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About. In the first article in this series, I described what happened when I ordered Debt Cures online and my initial review of the first few chapters. In this article, I will continue my review of Mr. Trudeau’s latest book.

Picking up where we left off – chapter seven – a chapter that should have just been left out of the book entirely. It covers the basics of credit scoring and credit reporting. Chapter eight is similar, it tells you what goes into your credit report. You can go to the Fool, Bankrate or Yahoo Finance website or a host of many other sites and get this same information.

Debt Cures rehashes much of the same information already found in most debt, credit and finance books. Despite Kevin Trudeau’s claim that it is groundbreaking and never before been released secrets, you can find the same info by doing your own research online. So it all depends on how much you value your time. You can spend time searching for this same info or you can find it all in one resource such as Debt Cures. Having said that, he does adds some tips and tricks and if you use just one of those tips then the book will have paid for itself in spades.

And when it comes to credit card debt and curing our debt problems, when the amounts of money involved can be quite substantial, using one of these tips can potentially save you thousands of dollars. The only question is are you willing to put in the work to get it done and make it happen? Are you going to make the calls to your credit card companies and ask them to lower your interest rate? Are you going to order your credit reports and credit scores and dispute the inaccuracies?

So no matter which financial book you read, if you do nothing and do not take action, you cannot call any book a scam. Even if it comes from Kevin Trudeau.

Moving on to chapter nine and ten. These chapters continue on with getting copies of your credit reports and credit scores and getting rid of errors. Once you fix the errors in your credit report, your credit score will go up and you will save money on any loan you take out – home, auto, refinance, etc.

He also recommends monitoring your credit report. This will protect you from identity thieves and make sure no new surprises appear on your credit report the next time you check it.

Chapter 11 offers tips for improving your credit score overnight. One of his tips include boosting your credit score by using less of your available credit on each credit card. He recommends you only use 35% of your available credit on each card you have. Using more than this will lower your score.

One tip from chapter 11 offers a strategy to eliminate negative items on your credit report. This tip has about a 50% chance of succeeding when dealing with debt collectors and erasing negative items off your credit report. If this one tip works then you’ll have easily paid for the cost of Debt Cures several times over.

Chapter 12 is only six pages long but it contains the 2 magic words that several people have asked about. I have a feeling that you may be disappointed about what the 2 words are. But then again, if you know someone who has been affected by this then you’ll understand why Kevin hyped these two words up so much. There are few things that can ruin a credit report and credit score faster and wreck havoc on your life than these 2 words.

Kevin recommends checking your credit report and monitoring your credit to protect yourself from I_ _ _ _ _ _ _ T_ _ _ _. It is the fastest growing crime in America and affected 9.9 million Americans last year and cost them roughly $5 billion.

Chapter 13 covers cutting your mortgage loan payments down. Money saved is the same as money earned. Kevin offers tips on getting rid of your PMI, making biweekly payments and refinancing your variable rate mortgage for a fixed rate now that interest rates have gone up.

Rising interest rates is a recent topic so Kevin Trudeau including it in this book is a timely addition. He offers a few tips on dealing with lenders who do not want to be flexible with you.

If you need to refinance your variable loan to a fixed loan, do it and save money each month on your payments.

This article covered the middle section of Debt Cures. In the third and final upcoming article, I will finish the review of the book and highlight Kevin’s tips for getting free money from the government, how to rebuild your credit, how to stop debt collectors, and how to build wealth. Stay tuned.

By: Adam Tijerina

Can you cure your debt problems overnight? Are there secrets that the credit and lending industry wish you did not know? Are they doing their best to keep you drowned under a massive pile of debt with no hope of getting out from under it? This article will attempt to answer those questions using tips from the latest book on debt – Debt Cures.

Are there ways to get rid of your debt problems overnight? No, nothing that is legal anyways. There are ways you can reduce the amounts you owe; you can negotiate your debts down if you are facing collections and the credit card company does not want to risk losing all of what you owe them. Kevin Trudeau in Debt Cures says to show them an income statement and balance sheet showing your assets and liabilities and your ability to pay. If the credit card company can see that you have little to pay them then they may be willing to reduce the amount you owe.

If you are a good customer and pay all your bills on time, you can call up your bank and ask for a lower rate. This is the tip you see all over the net and in most of the finance books by Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, Kevin Trudeau, and others. You have to do the legwork and ask for a lower rate. Harass them to lower your rate the way a debt collector will harass you if you do not pay. Keep calling, write letters, send emails. If they refuse to budge, go to a bank that will.

There are several ways that people get into bad debt – medical bills, unexpected car troubles, school books, Halo 3, etc. Some of these reasons are unavoidable and some – buying new TVs, buying a new car, buying the latest iPod – are some that should be avoided if you are trying to get out of debt.

The credit card company has no problem lending you money and increasing your credit lines when you keep paying the minimum payments. They love making 10, 15, 20% interest on the money they lend you. And then if you miss a payment or go over your limit, they get to charge you a $29 or $39 fee. When you add this fee onto your annual percentage rate, you are actually pay a much higher rate of interest than the stated rate. This is when it is hard to dig out of debt.

But you know all this stuff right? Many people do, but there are millions who do not take the time to read their statements and watch out for all these hidden fees that compound your debt problems. They have more important things to do. But when you’re in debt and struggling to pay the bills, you’re full of worry and anxiety and you want a way out. The solution is to take the little time to understand what you are being charged for and control your spending.

The banks do not want you out of debt. They do not want you to pay your balance off every month. They want you to go over your limit, miss a payment or two and they especially want to charge you the highest interest rate possible. How else can anyone explain the Universal Default Clause that more banks are adding to their terms? If you make a late payment to one card, this clause gives any bank the right to charge you a higher rate even though you did not make a late payment to them. How does this help someone who is in a financial bind? It only makes the situation worse and makes it harder for the person making the late payment. And then it starts a downward spiral.

How to get out of debt? Stop watching TV. A.C. Nielsen Co. states that the average American will spend 9 years of their life watching TV. That works out to about 4 hours a day. What does TV watching have to do with getting out of debt? If you’re spending your evenings watching TV and you are deep in debt, you’re going to stay that way. What you could be doing is working a second job or selling stuff on eBay to make more money. What you could be doing is reading books about making money and personal finance.

Conclusion

There are no overnight debt cures. There are tips you can follow to help you reduce your debt and keep your interest rates low. Do not give the credit card companies an opportunity to get you in their snares. Pay your bills on time, earn more money to pay off your debt faster, spend less than you earn, check your credit score and you can get out of debt.

By: Adam Tijerina