Your Credit

Avoid Foreclosure at All Costs

As we’ve all witnessed in the media this past year, some homeowners can be very hardheaded when they falls into financial hardship and are facing foreclosure on their home. Typically they will resist offers to sell their home. But while noble, this can also be thoroughly disastrous.

That’s why I think it’s critical to point out to the such homeowner that selling their property may be in their best interests. And if I could make one basic, simple appeal it would be that foreclosure must be avoided at all costs. The reason is that with foreclosure proceedings there also comes a number of catastrophic hassles that normally cause irreparable harm to the homeowner.

For example, if your home is foreclosed your credit rating is going to be devastated for a full decade. Of course, you can also seek protection against the creditors by filing bankruptcy, but bankruptcy has become significantly more difficult to qualify for as laws for filing bankruptcy have become much stricter.

Also, the damage done to a your credit rating due to a bankruptcy would make borrowing money next to impossible. That’s why it is significantly better to sell your property outright on your own terms than it is to suffer the disaster of having your property foreclosed upon.

Protecting Your Most Important Asset

Have you worked hard to maintain a good credit standing? You’ve been responsible about assuming debt, making payments on time, and careful not to have too many credit accounts. What if all your hard work could be erased, without you even being aware of it?

Unfortunately, it’s a modern day fact of life that our credit history can be damaged in a blink of an eye without our knowledge. Credit identity theft is a common crime in our nation, happening every day.

Professional thieves prey on opportunities to intercept your credit information. They use it to either make fraudulent charges to your credit accounts, or even worse, establish new credit accounts under your name.

How to Protect Yourself

Of course, the thieves need access to your personal information. Where do they get what they need? They can be quite ingenious. You could be at risk if:

• Someone peeks over your shoulder while you enter personal data into a phone or an ATM machine.
• The thief goes “dumpster diving” and looks through garbage for documents that include sensitive data.
• The thief steals pre-approved credit card offers from your mailbox.
• You receive emails, called phishing, from seemingly legitimate companies requesting your account number.
• You’ve recently lost your wallet with either credit cards or your license.

Don’t Fall Victim

With a few pieces of information, your credit world can be turned upside down. Even if you aren’t held liable for fraudulent credit payments, getting the incident off your credit report can be difficult and require months, sometimes years of attempts to rectify.

You could potentially lose out on a chance to own a home, refinance your home, or take out other loans. All because of these false credit reports.

So make sure you protect your most important asset: your credit rating. If you’d like more information about how I can help please contact me.

Getting in Debt the Right Way

Are you focused on eliminating debt from your life? Maybe you should instead be focusing on having the right kind of debt.

So when is debt ever a good thing? Debt is a good thing when it adds to your investment profile; when it gives you an opportunity to build your long term wealth. There are many ways you can use debt to secure your financial future.

Before you rush out to borrow money on your credit cards, take a moment to realize that some debt is good, and some debts are bad. Credit card debt will never improve your life, but there are several types of loans that will help you out long term.

The two best types of debt are mortgages and home equity loans. In the past, many homeowners focused on paying off their mortgage as quickly as possible, and home equity loans weren’t even a consideration.

But times are changing. Nowadays, a mortgage or a home equity loan can add to your net worth. The key to this philosophy is using your mortgage or home equity loan to improve your assets.

Think about how most people hurry to pay off their mortgage. Usually, they take out a 15 year loan, or opt to include extra money monthly to be applied to the principle. The idea is the faster you pay off your mortgage, the more secure your retirement will be.

That will certainly pay off your mortgage quickly, but at what cost? If you are fairly young or middle aged, your retirement is far enough in the future that you don’t have to be focused only on it. Instead, when you pay more each month, you have less available money from your paycheck.