Articles: Get Out of Debt, Manage Your Money, and Live Debt Free

Bad With Money? You’re Not Alone

Have you ever felt like you are bad with money? Or that you just don’t have what it takes to finally get your finances under control?

You are not alone.

But it IS possible to stop being bad with money, and become better at it! (It’s also possible that you might be better at it than you realize.)

So let’s talk about what it means to be bad with money, and what you can do about it.

You can feel like you’re bad with money, actually be bad with money right now, or both.
Read more

Starting an Airbnb: Tips from a Host

If you’re looking for ways of making extra cash, starting an Airbnb could fit the bill.

It doesn’t have to be a whole house, either. If you have a spare bedroom in your house, a camper you’re not using, or even some land that would make a good campsite, those could work too!

You just need to describe whatever you’re offering accurately.

In my case, I decided to try renting out a vacation home on Airbnb. I’ll share my experience here, along with tips I’ve learned along the way that can make starting an Airbnb easier.
Read more

Want to Boost Your Credit? Try These 7 Apps

Like it or not, your credit score is one of the most critical numbers in your financial life. Financial institutions use it to measure your ability to take on debt and repay it. While it’s not a perfect measure of how you handle money, studies show it does have some predictive power when it comes to a borrower’s risk of defaulting on debt payments.

Lenders reward those with good credit scores with lower interest rates on home loans, better credit card offers, and even lower insurance premiums. During the 2008 financial crisis, one study noted that less than 1% of those with a 720 credit score or above defaulted on their debt. However, more than 30% of those with a score less than 600 fell behind on payments.

Fortunately, there are many ways to improve your credit score. Just like studying for the SAT, as long as you know what to focus on and are willing to put in a little effort, you can almost always achieve a higher score.

These seven credit building apps can help.
Read more

The Power of Incremental Change

Today I want to talk about the power of incremental change. So let’s start with a definition: incremental changes are small additions or subtractions of things that occur in regular amounts over time.

To give a silly example, if you normally ate one potato chip with lunch, and added one extra chip each day, by the end of a year you’d be scarfing down entire bags of chips. One chip + one more chip per day eventually equals a whole lot of chips.

But incremental change can do more than overload you with salty snacks. It can change your life. Especially when it comes to money.
Read more