June 2011

How a Late Mortgage Payment Affects Your Credit Score

June 8, 2011

Have you ever wondered how a late mortgage payment would affect your credit score? How about a foreclosure or bankruptcy? Well, the folks over at FICO did some research into this question and the results may surprise you. The FICO research looked at three hypothetical consumers with starting credit scores of 680, 720 and 780. [...]

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Why I Use Quicken to Manage My Debt Mountain

June 6, 2011

Debt sucks.  There’s just no prettier way to say it and for the past four years, I’ve been dealing with more non-mortgage debt than most Americans will ever see.  You see, after being extremely stupid and attending a private university for five years (to obtain a four year degree no less), I took on the [...]

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How Much Do Health Insurance Companies Spend On You?

June 5, 2011

In 2010, proposed rules were issued and approved by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for measuring the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR). The MLR is part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a law that puts into place comprehensive health insurance reforms that is intended to hold insurance companies more accountable, will lower health [...]

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3 Easy Ways to Invest with Vanguard

June 3, 2011

Recently I reviewed Betterment, an online tool that makes investing in stocks and bonds very easy. As easy as Betterment is to use (I opened an account to give it a try before writing the review), however, I did have one big complaint – cost. In response to the review, Jon Stein, the CEO of [...]

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Save More Than 90% with Restaurant.com

June 2, 2011

The day I moved out of my parents house and down to Miami, I learned a few hard truths.  Did you know that when you go out to eat, there aren’t always two people to pick up the check?  Well if you didn’t, you do now and eating out more than once in a while [...]

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UPside Prepaid Visa Card Review

June 2, 2011

Update: The UPside Prepaid Visa is no longer available. However, the no fee is an excellent alternative. While I’m guessing you don’t spend your free time evaluating the prepaid credit card industry, there is one organization that does. Called PayBefore.com (you pay before you use the card), it hands out annual awards to the best [...]

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Is Dave Ramsey Right that Credit Cards are Evil?

June 1, 2011

According to Dave Ramsey, and I quote, “Responsible use of a credit card does not exist.” He then goes on to add that there “is NO positive side to credit card use.” These quotes come from Dave’s website in an article entitled, The Truth About Credit Card Debt. When I hear this extreme view, my [...]

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