Do Not Coupon!

What?! Everyone says to snip coupons to save a little bit of money here or there on groceries. How could any sensible savings advice say that this is a bad idea? Well, the answer lies in a few flaws in the system of using coupons.

First, lets start with when it is acceptable to use coupons. If you are in the grocery store and have a list of items to get with you, you might come across a coupon in the store for an item already on your list. If this scenarios happens to you, then go ahead and snag that coupon with a smile on your face. That was a planned purchase that you just saved a little bit of money on.

However, if you clip coupons ahead of time because the deals just look too good to pass up, you are doing it wrong. Coupons are meant to save you money on things you need, not make you spend on things you didn’t care about to begin with. Do not coupon unless something is already on your list and you just happen to come across a coupon for that item.

Stock Up On Condiments When You Are Out To Eat

Although you really shouldn’t be going out to eat if you are trying to save money, most of us cave on that at some point or another. The ease of just grabbing some fast food is too big of a temptation for most of us to resist. At least while you are doing something like that, you could take the time to get some extra value out of it.

Fast food restaurants hand out condiments like they are candy. You will find all kinds of packets of your favorite sauces just waiting to be grabbed up. If you are already a paying customer, you can presumably take as many of these as you would like. While it would be impolite to snatch up the entire tray of ketchup, nothing is really stopping you from grabbing maybe an extra ten or fifteen packets to take home.

Get Friendly With Your Neighborhood Thrift Shop and Their Staff

If you are serious about saving money, you cannot pay full retail price on the things you need. Retail stores mark up their items to a great extent in order to cover their overhead costs. You end up paying way more than what the item is really worth. This does not have to be the way to do things.

Get familiar with your local thrift shop and maybe even the pawn shop. These are the places where the bargains reside. People turn over goods that have only been very gently used, and these shops will mark them down to incredibly good prices. You can find some real treasures buried among all of the rest of the items that are floating around in these types of stores.

Try to strike up a friendship with some of the staff at these types of stores. They can help point you to some of the best deals in the whole place that others might have overlooked. They might even give you an even better price than advertised if they are authorized to do so.

Skip The Decorations

It is amazing how stores can convince us that we have to decorate our homes for this holiday or that. They can really get on a roll and make us spend a lot of our hard-earned money just to try to keep up with our neighbors. However, you should not cave to that pressure. Let the neighbors deck out their home for the holidays while you slip a cup of hot chocolate and smile about the money you have saved.

Save Leftovers and Reuse Them as New Meals

It is estimated that around half of all of the food produced in the United States is wasted. A figure this high means that we are all responsible to some extent. It is easy to just toss out a small amount of remaining food from last night’s dinner. However, the person who is serious about saving money would never do this. Instead, use even a small amount of food to make another meal in the future. You might just be surprised by how many combinations there are.

The post 5 Unusual Ways To Save Money appeared first on Your 650 Credit Score.

Make Extra Payments

Perhaps the easiest, and most direct, way to pay off your car loan early is to make extra payments. If you can afford to pay two car payments per month, you’ll cut the length of your loan by more than half. If you can’t afford that, you might be able to make a one time payment to decrease the principle amount on your loan. Generally speaking, anything you can do to throw extra money at the loan will help you out financially.

One way to make this sting a bit less financially is to dedicate part of your tax return to paying off your car. Even if you can only throw a few hundred dollars at the loan, you’ll still be reducing the overall length of your debt. Sometimes, even a small gesture can pay off huge dividends.

Split the Payment

This has become an incredibly popular solution with some lenders. Instead of making extra payments every month, you’ll be able to split your existing payment into bi-weekly payments. You’ll end up paying exactly the same amount most months, but you’ll end up making thirteen payments a year instead of twelve due to the months that have five weeks in them.

The bad news about this plan is that it doesn’t really help you reduce your interest payments, nor does it help you save money on your car loan at all. What it will do, though, is cut your total payment period by about six months if you have a standard sixty month loan. It’s a good way to get out of the loan quickly, even if you can’t get out any cheaper.

Refinance

Of course, one of the things that really holds back most car owners from paying off their vehicles easily is interest. If you bought your car at a high interest rate, there’s a good chance that the majority of your payment is going straight to interest. If you have improved your credit score, though, you may be able to refinance your vehicle. While this is often done to reduce one’s monthly car note, it’s actually incredibly useful for those who want to pay off their vehicles quickly. You can keep your same payment level once you’ve refinanced, but now more of your payment will go towards paying off the principle balance.

Avoid Missing Payments

The easiest way to stretch out the length of your loan is to miss car payments. Skipping payments will cost your more money in interest and fees than it is worth, and will often cause you to pay for your car longer than necessary. There are many loan originators who will “forgive” a missed payment every year, helpfully glossing over the fact that doing this actually lets them net more money. If you want to pay off your car as quickly as possible, you’ll need to pay your bill in a timely manner every month.

Increase Your Payments

Finally, you always have the option of paying more than the minimum monthly payment. While it might not seem financially rewarding to pay more for your car in the short term, it’s good to remember that putting more money towards your car each month does help you knock out the principle balance more quickly. Consider rounding up all your payments to the nearest fifty dollar amount to put your money to work. You’ll end up paying a bit less in interest over the life of your loan and you should wind up paying the loan off a bit earlier by raising your payments.

It’s entirely possible for you to pay off your car loan early and get out of debt, but doing so will often require sacrifice. You must be willing to pay more, to pay more often, and to look into programs that help you get the most out of your loan. While you might have to pay more in the short term, following the tips above will help you not only pay off your car faster but also help you to spend less on the vehicle overall. While you might miss your money now, there are few better feelings that knowing you have paid off your car and are no longer having to deal with that debt.

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With so many intuitive, easy-to-use budgeting apps for our smartphones, managing the household budget is literally at our fingertips. However, some of the options out there are better than others. Here are our picks for the best budgeting apps of 2017.

1. You Need a Budget ($5 per month or $50 for a one-year subscription)

This app helps users make a financial lifestyle shift by teaching the art of zero sum budgeting, supported by the maxim of “giving every dollar a job.” Their versatile software allows you to set a budget, track expenses, and analyze trends, making it easy to reach financial goals such as paying off debt or saving for a trip.

2. Mint (free)

This free app has long been the gold standard of online budget tracking, designed by the creators of QuickBooks and TurboTax. It pulls all your accounts into one place to track bill payments, available funds, debt, and other facets of your financial picture. Mint also provides user-specific financial advice and a free credit score.

3. Clarity Money (free; iOS only)

Clarity Money was released in January this year and has already become a well-reviewed favorite thanks to its gorgeous design and extensive, intuitive features. Clarity Money stands out for its beautiful, eye-opening charts and grafts and overall friendly vibe (including fun features like a daily financial quote).

4. Level (free)

This app is ideal for a person who wants to track his or her daily discretionary spending and savings goals. Each day, the app tracks your spendable money by subtracting income, expenses, and savings goals from bills. When you log in, you’ll see a simple chart that indicates your available funds for the day.

5. Digit (free)

If you have a handle on your budget but struggle with savings goals, Digit could be the answer. With Digit, a savings account is automatically set up for you when you register. It removes money from your account based on savings goals and puts it back in your account if it’s designated for a specific bill. For example, tell Digit to sock away a certain amount from each paycheck for your mortgage payment, and it will do so, then automatically put it back before the due date.

Whether you’re new to budgeting your money or a seasoned financial guru, these great 2017 budgeting apps can help you get your funds under control and put goals within your reach.

Did we miss your favorite budgeting app? If so, leave a comment below with why we should consider your favorite budgeting app for this list.

The post Best Budgeting Apps for 2017 Reviewed | Personal Finance Apps appeared first on Your 650 Credit Score.

1. Baby Step 1: $1,000 Cash in Savings

This new savings account will be the “baby emergency fund.” This will be your family’s cushion in case of unexpected events like medical bills or car repairs.

2. Baby Step 2: Use the Snowball System to Pay Off Debt

With this step, list all your debts from smallest balance to the largest. Start with the smallest balance and put all extra money toward paying it off. Once it’s off your shoulders, put all your resources into paying off the second largest debt, and so on.

3. Baby Step 3: Build a Full Emergency Fund

Ramsey recommends having three to six months of household expenses saved in a full emergency fund, so once your debt is paid off in full, work toward this goal.

4. Baby Step 4: Begin Investing

Have a fully-funded emergency account? Now it’s time to get serious about saving for retirement. Set aside at least 15 percent of your earnings and start planning the golden years you’ve always imagined. Matching employer 401K plans are your best bet, followed by Roth IRAs. Each should be invested in a mix of growth, aggressive growth, growth and income, and international mutual funds.

5. Baby Step 5: Save for College

If you have children, it’s never too early to put money aside for higher education. This should be the next priority after your retirement fund. Consider putting the money in 529 college savings funds or Coverdell ESAs (Education Savings Accounts), both of which have tax advantages.

6. Baby Step 6: Pay Off Your Home

You might have never dreamed of leaving a mortgage-free life, but with the first five steps completed, you’ll be able to get there by putting extra money into paying down the remaining principal on your home.

7. Baby Step 7: Build Wealth and Give

With the mortgage gone, you’ll be able to give generously to loved ones and passion projects, invest funds in businesses and accounts, and achieve your lifetime goals, whether that means travel, philanthropy, or relaxation.

These Baby Steps are the cornerstone of Ramsey’s popular financial course, Financial Peace University, which has helped more than 4.5 million people get out of debt, and stay out.

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When lenders are considering your creditworthiness (aka if they should lend to you), they consider many factors. However if you’re looking to improve your credit score, it’s important to understand the 6 biggest factors that impact your score.

On-Time Payments

High Impact on Credit Score

Are you reliable? What’s your track-record for paying what you owe on-time? This is a big one.

Think about it; if you lend your brother-in-law $500 for the week and he promises to pay you back next week – but he doesn’t, and you need to follow-up for a month until you get your $500 back – you’re going to think twice about handing him some cash next time he’s in a pickle. If he’s late once you may loan him some cash again. But if it happens twice then you’re most likely going to make some excuse about how you don’t have the cash to lend him for the third request.

The same thought process, relatively speaking, is true of creditors in the financial world. The better your track-record of paying on-time, never late, and even early, builds confidence that you are a trustworthy borrower who will be reliable in the future if they were to lend you money.

A payment that is 30-days late, or more, is typically reported to the credit bureaus and will reflect negatively on your credit score. This has a very high impact on your credit score.

Age of Your Credit Accounts

High Impact on Credit Score

How old is your oldest credit account? If it’s more than 25-years old you’re as good as it gets. 8–25 years is great, and 2–7 years is considered average. Anything under 2-years old and it’s considered a newer account and may be seen as a potential liability as it’s track-record is so short.

It is important to never close credit accounts if you don’t have to. Have an old credit card from college that doesn’t offer many perks or a high enough limit? Don’t close it. Instead let it sit and continue to age as that will bolster your overall credit score. Note that some creditors will close down old accounts with no activity. To avoid this, just be sure to use that card once every 3–6 months for a tank of gas or lunch (then pay it off right away) to keep the account open and active.

Percent of Available Credit Used

High Impact on Credit Score

How much credit you’re using matters. Do you have one credit card with a $10,000 limit, but have kept a balance of $5,000 on it? That means you’re using 50% of your available credit, which is a strong negative indicator of your creditworthiness. In an ideal world you should always pay off your revolving credit accounts each month to keep your used credit ratio low, but more importantly to avoid debt trouble and getting behind on payments.

TIP: If you request a line of credit increase every 6-months, most creditors will extend some sort of increase if you have a good credit history with them. This typically does not appear as a “hard-pull” of your credit, as the creditor does an internal “soft-pull” to your report. By systematically increasing your credit limit, you increase your available credit ceiling, thus lowering your available credit used percentage. Once you successfully receive a credit line increase, simply set a reminder on your smart-phone or web-calendar to request a new increase 6-months out.

Recent Inquiries

Low Impact on Credit Score

When lenders see several inquires on your report it may be seen as a sign of risk. What’s the financial change that warranted all of these sudden inquiries? Is there an external variable that will be causing this customer to need to borrow more? Additionally, if there are several hard pulls but no accounts opened it can be seen as a red flag as it may be perceived that other lenders looked into the customer’s credit history, but did not approve them for the loan or line of credit. If one lender didn’t approve you, why should another?

You’re typically in bad shape if you’ve had more than 5 hard inquires in the past 2 years, but only 1-2 and you’re in good shape!

New Accounts

Low Impact on Credit Score

Have you opened several new credit accounts in recent years? That can cause an issue from a lender’s perspective. Try to limit the number of credit accounts you have and space out your new accounts if possible.

If you have $10,000 in available credit but try to open 4 new accounts at $2,500 limits each for another $10,000 in buying power, it’s going to raise some major red flags. Is the customer facing financial trouble, are they going to over-extend on this credit and become insolvent? Or perhaps there is some large purchase they’re trying to make but clearly can’t afford at their current income and credit level?

Remember to slow-roll your new accounts. Slow and steady without major jumps or changes is the recipe for maintaining a higher credit score here.

Available Credit

Low Impact on Credit Score

As a general rule if you have more than $50,000 in total available credit this shows lenders that you’re managing your credit responsibly, and other creditors are entrusting higher limits to you. If you have less than $2,500 in available credit, however, this is below average and you should work to increase this limit as soon as possible. In general, the more available credit you have at your disposal, the better it is for your credit score. Just remember to remain responsible with your heard-earned dollars, and that increased credit lines do not mean your budget can necessarily afford increased expenses.

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