Keeping Your Options Open?

Life can be a very interesting journey and we all only get one go to get it right. Some may get a better start than others but still we pretty much get the same journey.

If you are one whose journey is not filled with rose petals when maybe it might have been a few years ago, all is not lost! It just means you have to learn new things or adjust some old habits. I believe we should always keep our options open for new opportunities to make our journey better, would you agree?

My thoughts are like this: if you have the chance to get new knowledge that would make your family's life better, which is more important - your loved ones or your ego?

One of the biggest fall-outs to the economic meltdown has been FICO scores. Where a score of 720 and above used to be a very good score, now credit-givers are looking for an 800 FICO. There are some factors which affect your score in ways you would never think it would and others make sense. While trying to help a gentleman and his wife work out a solution to their lowered credit availability and much lower household income, I found the husband was truly unwilling to accept that he needed assistance in making adjustments to his thinking as much as he did to his old spending habits. He clearly felt that what he knew about credit - which, by the way, was how it was treated pre-2007 - was superior. Using his logic, he kept doing the same things and these mistakes were killing his wife's FICO.

To get a basic idea of what could affect your score adversely, you can read this article I found on Yahoo! Finance: "Common Credit Card Mistakes". Using your cards can be a good thing; just be aware not paying back on time definitely is a score killer.

Even understanding that the "experts" may get things wrong, it still makes sense to adjust your thinking if your income changes to the extent you cannot have the lifestyle you had before the change.

Keep your mind open to new ideas and concepts; lifelong learning is what makes this journey so much more fun!

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Ben Franklin

I'm looking forward to a fantastic 2010 and hope to see you all there too!

Ta~Jax

Holidays are for Making Happy Memories!

I absolutely love the holiday season and the happy memories I associate with it: baking, decorating, and family time!

And, there are the favorite movies and songs that you have to hear at least three times...who can resist Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Adam Sandler, Chevy Chase?

The one thing I don't want to remember, for certain, is spending more than I had when the envelopes come in January!

How you handle it today is going to be determined by the current situation of your finances and what you believe is in your future. SO, what happens when the envelope comes and your expectations are a little shorter cash-wise?

Your first inclination is to probably pay the minimums. I bet you put "getting out of debt" in your top three on your New Year's resolution for 2010, didn't you?

Well, here's a little something to help you with that resolution: "Ignore the Credit Card Minimum Payment".

I've shared a lot of the concepts in this article, over the years, with my clients, high school classrooms and community groups to help them put together a debt-freedom plan, so you know I use them in practice and not just repeating this!

If you don't know where to start, I have a recommendation to give you as well! In a partnership with Equifax, Primerica has designed a very easy, affordable and completely secure program for you to design and implement your own freedom card! This program is also including up to $25,000 of Identity Theft protection. Here's your link: DebtWatchers.

The DebtWatchers program allows you to monitor your credit report, check who's looking at your credit and improve your FICO.

From my family to yours, I wish you the best holiday season with the warmest and best memories yet!

We love comments so you can leave one here or email me at dfebtcure123@gmail.com.

Happy Holidays! ~ Jax