This resolution is an imperative move I need to make this year. With the engagement, wedding, honeymoon, and the prospect of buying a house coming up, I really need to get my finances together this year and work on improving my credit score. Thankfully, I’m not horribly bad off, but with another party involved (my honey bear who couldn’t care less about credit related things), it’s time to kick things up a notch. Sometimes it’s a little hard to talk to my boyfriend about credit and money becuase it gets him down and he clams up. He’s not a financial mess, mind you. He pays the bills on time (mostly _), keeps his check book balanced, and respects his financial obligations. The things here is that his employment history is… er, pretty dynamic. He’s had a number of jobs and is always pessemistic about whether or not the one he currently has will last. His income is lower than mine, so he becomes distressed when finances are discussed. Neither of us has any sort of savings to speak of, and since we’re getting married this year, well, it’s about time we merged our finances.
If you’re under 35 and living paycheck-to-paycheck (like me!), drop EVERYTHING and get your mits on this book! It’s a financial roadmap miracle for our age bracket. I saw Suze Orman speak, went to her website, and she offers lots of practical, no-nonsense advice on how to move past being broke and becoming a financially independent person forever. Between this book, talking with my boyfriend, and doing some careful planning/budgeting, I really feel like I’m well on my way to getting my crazy finances under control.
Here are some sites that I find helpful in slowly clawing my way to this goal:
Suze Orman’s YF&B site has a great personalized action planner, lots of good advice and links, and plenty of other YF&Bers to swap stories with! The catch? You have to have a copy of the book (or know someone who has a copy of the book) in order to log on because one page contains an access code for the site.
Share Builder is awesome, local Bellevue-based company (also featured on PBS’s Serious Money program) is aimed at young investors. Low fees and no frills are the order of the day here. Fine with me.
4.0% APR ON A MONEY MARKET SAVINGS ACCOUNT?! It’s true. At Emigrant Direct’s website , you can open a money market savings account with 3.5% – 4.0% APR and no minimum balance. They’re currently offereing the highest APR on a savings account in the US of A.
Know your FICO sore? Well, if you don’t, it’s time you do! The infamous 3 digits that determine our financial lives.
Why pass up something for nothing? It’s now federal law that each of the 3 major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian) MUST provide a free credit report each year (NOTE: this is just the credit report, not your FICO score) to all US citizens in this current climate of rising identify theft. Is all of your information correct? It’s free once a year. Use it wisely and make sure you know what’s going on.
I’ll post more helpful links as I find them! :-)
