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In the U.S., the bankruptcy laws recently changed in order to make it more difficult to declare bankruptcy. While before bankruptcy wiped the slate clean, now people with certain income and other characteristics are required to enter into a payment plan of some sort as part of a bankruptcy settlement. Instead of starting with a clean slate, this means people in the U.S. now have to pay back a portion of their debt(s). Furthermore, certain debt like student loan debt and IRS debt is not, and never has been, dischargeable in bankrupcty in the U.S. (more…)

Lately, I have been reading some financial books, including Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach (who also wrote The Automatic Millionaire) and the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books. Some of the points made in the books deal with the fact that many people don’t save or invest for retirement. David Bach especially stresses retirement savings, and the difficulty that comes with saving for retirement when living paycheck to paycheck. Of course, it seems like both common sense and a huge problem: if you simply don’t have money left at the end of the month, how can you possible save any for the future. When it comes to putting groceries on the table or funding an IRA or 401K, it definitely seems like there is no question as to which should take precedence. (more…)

I am updating the side bars- I am very happy to say, I paid off one of my loans in full! Over the past 3 months, I have managed to more than triple my income by finding freelance working, and I made about $10,000. This allowed me to pay off the remaining balance! I am finally starting to make some progress with my debt. And, I did it without taking a job that I wasn’t interested in, and managed to find work I like. Knock on wood, I have to say, I’m very happy right now!

Over the past year, more houses have been for sale in my neighborhood than I have ever seen. I’m sure that it is just because they are sitting on the market longer, not necessarily that more people than usual are moving, although I suppose that with the economy the way it is, maybe both of these reasons are factors and more people are in fact moving. However, in the past three weeks, three different houses that were for sale have been sold. One of the houses, which is right down the street from me, was on the market for over a year. I’m waiting until the information comes up online to find out exactly how much they received for it, but as long as it was a somewhat reasonable offer, I think it is a good sign. (more…)

When shopping online, it is always useful to look for coupons to help make your purchase cost less. Almost every site has some type of coupon available- whether it is a free shipping coupon or a percent off your purchase. New customers especially are often given special offers or deals for opening up a new account. However, it can be a time consuming prospect to find all of the different coupons for all of the different stores. I have a few deal websites that I use on a regular basis, but I don’t have a great source of online coupons that I use, so I was excited to try MyCoupons.com to see if it could offer me what I was looking for. (more…)