debt

How to Refinance Any Debt

April 17, 2013

Photo: santheo What do you think of when you hear the word refinance? If you’re like most people, you probably think of refinancing a mortgage. In my weekly newsletter, however, we’ve been talking about how you can refinance any debt. I’ve encouraged my newsletter subscribers to write down every debt they have, including the interest [...]

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5 Debt Lessons from the Wizard of Oz

April 3, 2013

Breaking free from the clutches of debt is one of the most difficult yet rewarding challenges in all of personal finance. So when my good friend Ben from Money Smart Life had an interesting twist on debt he wanted to share, I jumped at the chance. Oh, and he’s a recently published author on the [...]

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The Debt Movement–It’s Time to Stop the Insanity

January 4, 2013

Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self–Nathan W. Morris Debt can destroy lives. I saw my parents struggle with mountains of debt when a business failed. I have friends that let debt drive them into bankruptcy. And my wife and I once had our share of debt. We had it all. We [...]

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Reader Question: Should You Invest or Pay Off Student Loans?

November 12, 2012

The question I receive more than any other is whether you should pay off your debt before investing. In response to my article on paying off debt versus saving for retirement, a reader asked the following question: I recently finished grad school with about $180k in debt, most of which is at high interest rates [...]

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Reader Question: What it Means to Pay the Lowest Balance First

July 25, 2012

In the past we’ve talked about the debt snowball. Basically it’s a simple way to accelerate the payoff of your debt. The key to using the debt snowball effectively is to either (1) have extra money to put toward your debt above and beyond the minimum monthly payments, or, if you don’t (2) once your [...]

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Saturday Night at the Movies: Declaring War on Bad Debt (Braveheart)

February 11, 2012

Saturday Night at the Movies uses great films to explore some aspect of personal finance. Published Saturdays at 7 PM, get your front row seat by subscribing to The Dough Roller. Sir William Wallace was born in the 1270s (the exact date is disputed). Barely reaching the age of 30 before his death, he led [...]

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How a Debt Snowball Can Reduce and Then Eliminate Your Debt

January 25, 2012

Welcome to our week-long series on crushing your credit card debt. In this third of five articles, we look at how to supercharge your get out of debt program with the Debt Snowball. Let’s cut right to the chase. Using the debt snowball method can save you thousands of dollars in interest payments and significantly [...]

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Stop Saving and Start Paying Off Debt NOW!

April 21, 2011

Have you looked at interest rates recently?  I mean, local brick and mortar banks are offering less than half a percent and if you check out banks like Citi, Bank of America and Chase, you’d be lucky to earn 10 cents on 100 bucks.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for saving money and keeping [...]

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How to Build an Emergency Fund

April 17, 2011

Last week I wrote about how my wife and I paid off a lot of debt in less than five years. An important part of getting out of debt for us was an emergency fund. A lot has been written about the importance of saving for a rainy day. But most of what you’ll read [...]

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