As an investment advisor, is not only my job to help my clients in the best of money properly, but I am there to educate them as well.  This can be something as simple as showing them how to budget their money or how to pick out good investments.

One of the trends that I’ve noticed in the past couple of years, is that we are getting more and more people coming in for poor credit debt consolidation loans.  This is mainly due to living beyond their means and using credit cards as a toy, not a tool.

So I have started to offer a class to my clients on how to reduce credit card debt without declaring bankruptcy.  What we do is teach them how credit cards work and introduce them to the concept of debt diet plans.

By following a structured debt diet, we have been able to reduce the number of people who are struggling with credit card debt to a 10 year low within our organization.  Not only has this increased our business as advisors, but it has also increased customer satisfaction our clients experience.

For me, I just loved to have the opportunity to help others out to be able to live life responsibly and not struggle with their finances.

Things have sure been different this time around when I have tried to start a new business.  You see, a couple of years ago, I went bankrupt due to horrendous medical bills - I had no choice.  But the result of that decision was that I lost everything - my business, and my credit.

So now, a couple of years later, when I am trying to rebuild my life, I have run into some roadblocks.  We are trying to open a little music store in a local mall, but we have run into some issues such as financing and getting a merchant account.

Unfortunately for me, my bankruptcy is a strike when it comes to most merchant account providers and they want nothing to do with me.  But, I have found some high risk merchant accounts that will let me apply with no credit check at all.

So, I have applied and hopefully I will be accepted.  Otherwise, I might just have to scrap the idea for our business altogether.

A couple of years ago, I found myself without employment for the first time in my life.  You see, I was laid off from my job at a meat packing plant, and I was unable to find a place to work.  I did have some savings that carried me through the first couple of months, but after that, I was in trouble.

Thankfully, I had a line of credit that I was able to use to keep me from starving, but it took six months for me to get another job, at which point I was in trouble.  I was in debt up to my eyeballs, and I was looking at going bankrupt - something I really didn’t want to do.

It was at that point I found out about bill consolidation loans and how they could help me out of my predicament.  Though it meant that I would have a long road ahead of me to set things straight, I knew that it was the right thing to do.

I just finished making my last payment and I feel better knowing that I didn’t have to go bankrupt.  Now that the burden of debt is gone, I will be able to get on with my life.

I’ve been a loyal Costco shopper for many years and I spend quite a bit of money there.  Usually, I just pay with cash but lately I have felt that maybe I am missing out on some of the rewards I could get if I had an American Express card.

The reason that I would need to have one of the American Express credit cards, is that Costco only accepts that card for credit card payments.  So it would make no sense for me to get a VISA or a MasterCard as they will not be usable at my favorite shopping store.

I know that they offer their own in-house credit card but I thought I would go see if there are better ones available to me.  I began to read reviews from a credit card reviews website so that I could get a better idea of what was out there, as well as which cards are good and which ones are the best.

I have set aside one night later this week to go through the best of the best and finally pick the credit card that I’m going to apply for.

My boyfriend, who is a finance major, assigned me the task of finding out who Michael Dinich is. He talks about Mr. Dinich constantly and said that I would learn more about why he admired the guy so much if I researched him on my own, rather than having my boyfriend tell me about him.

I went to his Your Money Matters website and started reading all about the guy. Not understanding finances like my boyfriend, even I soon came to the realization that this man was a bit of a God in the finance world. He certainly seemed to know what he was talking about.

In addition to understanding that this man really cared about the people he was helping, I found out that he also really cared about the environment and did everything he could to help protect it. I now read all of the daily articles on his site and am happy that it has brought me and my boyfriend closer together, as we always have something to talk about.

There are a vast number of college student credit cards available, so if you are entering college, it is important that you be informed of which ones are the best ones to sign up for. They all seem like a good idea at the start, but it is critical to compare things such as interest rates and what kinds of rewards are linked with the card.

The first few weeks of school, a new student will be offered many different student credit card applications. Some students make the mistake of signing up for all of them. It may seem like a good idea to have thousands of dollars at your disposal, but it is really a trap. This money will all have to be paid back and what you borrow could be owed in double by the time you are finished school and all the interest has been added.

Though I don’t necessarily think that credit cards for students are all bad, I think it is something that all students should take the time to think about and be able to make an informed decision. It is not a bad idea to get one or two cards to build up a credit rating, but it is critical that the time and thought have been out into deciding which ones to get.

The first credit card that I ever signed up for was a gas credit card. I was going to be doing some traveling one summer for work and my dad suggested that it might be a good idea to have this. He said that I could even use the card for emergency repairs to my vehicle and he would feel better if I had one.

The reason for the gas card is that it would help me out if my car broke down or if I needed fuel, but I would not be irresponsible and tempted to go and rack it up at the department store. In fact, I think I would have a lot of difficulty maxing out this card, as anything I could buy on it would bore me to death.

The funny thing is that I have a friend who has several gas credit cards and they are all maxed out. He does own a nice collection of tools, though. He is the least handy person I know and will never use the tools. He only bought them because he could and now he is in debt because of them. What a funny guy.

I can remember as a young adult going with my parents to the bank to get my first car loan.  They were also there when I invested my first money, bought my first stocks, and sat down with a financial planner for the first time.  They were instrumental in getting me started in my journey, and it seems fitting that I would be with them when they reached the age of retirement.

Well, it has finally come time for my parents to retire, and they have asked me to come along to help them out.  They asked if I could accompany them to a meeting with their financial advisor and accountant to help them make sure that everything would be kept straight.

We spent the better part of an hour learning about the required minimum distribution that was required for my parents to take out of their IRA account each year.  It seemed pretty straight forward (once it was explained to us) and we were given a worksheet to fill out to find out what the minimum would be for them.

The accountant mentioned some tax benefits of a Lump Sum Distribution, but that part of the discussion kind of went over my head.  We have scheduled another meeting with them in a weeks time to discuss any questions that we can think of over the week period.

I am very happy to be in a position to help my parents out with their finances - it is like returning the favor for their help they gave me.

I was going through my investments the other day, as I am in preparation for tax season and doing up my taxes. Tax season is always a fun time for me, and if you can’t sense the sarcasm there, I don’t know what is wrong.

This year, in particular, is going to be quite a headache. I am new at dealing with profit systems and it is scaring me a little bit. I know I can do it, but it seems a bit daunting to begin with.

I need to be able to separate the real profits from the other profits. Some days I think it would be best if it was all left to the accountant, but then, I would never learn anything, and I would like to be able to do it all myself one day.

Looking through some business reviews gave me a better idea about where I needed to be putting things and in which columns they belonged. I am, of course, just doing a rough draft. I will leave the real thing up to my accountant.

My husband lost his job a year ago, and he has not been able to find anywhere else to work.  He did receive a small severance package that ran out about six months ago, and we have been struggling ever since.  You see, I have only been able to find part time work at a diner, and that is barely putting enough food on the table.

What is worse is that we have been using payday loans to get money before my payday in an effort to pay some of each bill each month.  This has shrunk the amount of money I bring home and that has hurt as well. 

Kurt, thought that we could maybe take advantage of the money we have tied up in the house, but when we went to the bank, they would not give us a home equity loan because of our low income level.

We were running out of ideas, and money - we needed a solution before we lost everything.  Thankfully, the help came in the form of a flyer that had information about debt consolidation loans, that would reduce our monthly payments and help us get out of debt.  We are going to apply for one after the holidays, and I hope that it will be the answer to our prayers - if not, I don’t know what we are going to do.