60-Second Guide to Getting Out of Debt

Imagine being free of debt — no more sleepless nights over mounting credit card balances, no more ball-and-chain of debt feeding your anxieties, and no chance of threats from dreaded collection agencies. You can do it! Here’s the scoop — in one minute flat.

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60-Second Guide to Short-Term Savings

Could you cover the cost of a new water heater if yours were to suddenly go on the fritz? Would you be forced to adopt a Ramen-only diet if you found yourself on the wrong side of your company’s “rightsizing”? And what if your contralto son started puberty, ending his professional opera gig that helped cover tuition for the chichi private school he loves?

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60-Second Guide to Smart Refinancing

The financial industry is fond of rules-of-thumb, and it can regale you with plenty of tales on the topic of refinancing. But there’s a lot more to this big-ticket decision than simply deciding whether to do it based on a minimal interest rate movement or monthly mortgage savings.

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60 second Guide to Cutting Your Taxes

Nobody wants to pay Uncle Sam any more than they have to. But you also don’t want to end up on the receiving end of an IRS audit — or worse. Luckily, there are plenty of perfectly legitimate ways to make sure you don’t pay more than your fair share of income tax. Here’s the quick scoop on ways to save both in April and year-round.

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Get it Done: Save Thousands on Home Financing

Whether it’s your first home loan or you’re refinancing an existing one, new mortgage are costly. The average homeowner pays 3% to 6% of his outstanding principal for a new loan. But you do have options when you’re shopping for a mortgage. Here’s how to get some leverage and use it.

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How Much Home Can You Afford?

Taking out a mortgage is probably the biggest hassle facing prospective homeowners. The bank asks you all sorts of nosy questions about your income and savings, and after you’ve poured your heart out and shared all your money secrets, they might not even lend you as much as you need. The nerve!

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60-Second Guide to Managing your Mortgage

For most homeowners, your mortgage payment is by far your biggest monthly expense. So we think it’s completely justifiable to spend 60 seconds reviewing it. In fact, don’t be surprised if this brief exercise does wonders for your budget. Let’s take a look under the hood and see whether we can find you some savings.

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Get it Done: Boost Your Credit Score in Months

You’re so much more than just a number to us. Still, a lot of folks — from your lender to your landlord to your insurer to your employer — define your character by the three-digit score that reflects what’s in your credit file.

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Don’t Cancel That Credit Card!

Unless your idea of “streamlined” finances is having eight credit cards in your wallet (that’s about how many the average card-carrying U.S. citizen hauls around), you’ve probably considered canceling some of credit cards you don’t use often.

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9 Ways to Pay Off Debt

You can throw the reminders in the Cuisinart or chuck them into a garbage can, but that won’t make the debt go away. Debt hovers like a carrion bird over a dying beast, with annual rates of 20% or more compounded monthly, month in and month out.

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