Financial Wisdom

Our economy is struggling right now and you don't have to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to notice. We've got all the symptoms and we face them every day. They are: high gas prices, increased foreclosures, higher pricing on basic goods and services, and increased airfare costs. Elected officials bicker and fight over who to blame for all of this and while they do, we are left to attempt to pick up the pieces. What can we do about the economy? Can we really do anything to have a positive impact on our economy?
You can write federal and state lawmakers to encourage them to make smart financial choices for the country, but then we've got to worry about if they read or listen to what people have to say. Besides writing lawmakers, you could reshape the economy by understanding and implementing what I call, Financial Wisdom. Financial wisdom is essentially making wise financial decisions. If America was making wise financial decisions ten years ago then our economy would be much stronger. This should teach us all to make wiser financial decisions on an individual basis by seeing the mistakes of past generations. Each day brings another chance to make wise or unwise financial decisions.
Here are some examples of bad or unwise financial decisions:
• You are struggling to pay off $20,000 worth of credit card debt. Good news is, your job just gave you a 15% raise. So, you decide to celebrate your raise by purchasing a $1500 computer.
• There are creditors calling everyday. You play the lottery and win $15000 dollars. You've had your eye on a new boat so you decide to "grab it" while it is still on sale.
• You get a coupon for $100.00 off a big screen TV purchase at Rent to Own. You go buy the big screen TV and it ends up costing you 50% more over the life of the contract.
As you can see, life's situations and events can sometimes prompt us to make unwise financial decisions. When making ANY decision that could potentially affect your finances in a negative manner, STOP-THINK-REACT. This process used to make financial decisions is going to make it very much unlikely that a bad financial decision will be made. By stopping, you eliminate the chance to make a financial decision in haste. Thinking about the situation will enable you to make a wise financial decision. By incorporating this simple Stop, Think, and React financial decision making approach, the same situations presented earlier will result in a different outcome.
• You are struggling to pay off $20,000 worth of credit card debt. Good news is, your job just gave you a 15% raise. So, you take 10% of the raise and dedicate it towards paying that debt.
• There are creditors calling everyday. You play the lottery and win $15000 dollars. You call your creditors and pay them off. If you have any money leftover you consider paying an extra months rent.
• It is a nice day, and you decide to take your hot rod out for a ride. You feel like testing its horsepower so but you realize that a speeding ticket could cost you money and make you take time off work to go court, so you just cruise at the speed limit.
As presented, using financial wisdom can keep you from making unwise financial decisions that can cost you a lot of money and/or cause more stress and anxiety in your life. Making wise financial decisions ensure that you don't go bankrupt or lose your house; which are things that continue to hurt the economy. The increased number of bankruptcies and foreclosures only sinks our economy further into decline. I encourage you to do your part in improving our struggling economy - use financial wisdom from now on in your everyday life.

Jeremy G. Preston is a financial coach who loves to help his clients reach financial success and runs a Financial providing tips on saving money and wealth management. Jeremy is also the author of E.I. = $ "10 Steps to Become Economically Intelligent and Live a Financially Successful life". A book that describes how to effectively eliminate debt and accumulate money savings in 10 Easy Steps. Get on track to a better future and checkout this book today.

Credit Bureau

In the modern world, people have become very accustomed to all things related to finances, such as credit bureaus, credit scores, credit history, different kinds of loans and interest rates, just to name a few. Namely, there comes a time in everyone's life when they simply have to learn something about these financial terms, as we all need some kind of financial help from time to time. Well, one of these financial terms is a credit bureau. The reason why you should familiarize yourself with this term is the fact that absolutely everyone has to be interested in what a credit bureau has to say about them, as this is of great importance for everyone's financial future.

What Exactly Is a Credit Bureau?

A credit bureau is basically an agency that is in charge of collecting credit information about both individuals and businesses. In a nutshell, this agency takes all the information related to your credit history, your financial data, the public records and all other relevant information and creates something known as a credit report. Now, even though many people wrongly believe that a credit bureau simply has to be their enemy in the financial world, this couldn't be further from the truth. What an agency like this does is they create a report on how a person or a business pays their debts, how often they get or do not get into financial trouble, and all the other information related to the financial aspect of one's life or of a business. All of this is done in a strictly professional and unbiased manner, which implies that a credit bureau really has nothing to do with you receiving a bad credit report.

Why Are There Credit Bureaus?

To start off, let's just say that these agencies are there to help lenders determine who is eligible for a loan of any kind. What this means is that lenders or can easily determine whether you will get a loan or not, as well as how high your interest rates will be, by requesting your credit report from a credit bureau. Now, this really helps your creditors, but it can also help you if you understand the whole concept of credit reports, and if you do your best to make your credit report as good as it can be possible. The best way to do this is to be on time with all of your monthly payments.

How Many Credit Bureaus Are There?

Due to the fact that these financial agencies have to keep track of the financial information of more than 170 million people, there are over a thousand smaller and bigger credit bureaus all over the USA. However, all of these agencies are owned by the only three major US reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. This means that all of these agencies will provide you with your free annual credit report, and this report is something that you should always take very seriously.

Why Is Reviewing Your Annual Credit Report so Important?

As it has already been mentioned, the three major credit bureaus are responsible for creating credit reports for more than 170 million people, which is a lot of reports. Owing to this fact, there is always a possibility that your report will contain some false information. However, even though this should be seen as something normal, you should always make sure to correct this mistake, as it can result in you not getting an important loan. Therefore, if and when you notice that some information in your annual credit report is not valid, you should contact the credit reporting agency immediately. In order to rectify this error, you will have to provide the agency with relevant proof to support your claim, which will result in the agency in question removing the false information from your credit report

Things to Do With Your Personal Loan

Life happens to everyone. There will probably never come a time in everyone's life when they will have to think about getting a personal loan. You get loans for your house and cars, why not your life? With the negative connotation surrounding it, many people feel getting a loan for personal use is bad and do not understand the benefits. We have put together a list of a few times in which obtaining a loan may come in handy. In the end it is completely up to you to decide what you do with the loan but we suggest if you borrow more money then you should spend it wisely.

You went out of your budget and bought your dream house. That is fine, but it takes up a lot more money than you were planning to allocate to a mortgage every month. Now because of this your money is tight every month and does not allow a lot of wiggle room for surprises. Well surprise, your AC is out. Your repair man says that he will have to update the whole system as well as all of your insulation. You can finance with their company but the interest rate is astronomical. What are you to do? You could use a personal loan. A personal loan is great for life's little surprises. It will help you fix that AC unit and not have you waste more money in high interest.

You were in the corporate world for years and after all of the economic burdens our economy is facing you get laid off. In your new found spare time you have developed a fail proof business plan that you want to get started but don't have all of the capital to back it up. Instead of getting a loan for a small business, you can also look at personal loan rates and use that money instead. Check out the rates and you can decide which option is best for you.

After you got your degree, your dream job didn't pan out the way you thought it would. Now you are looking at student loan payments, car loans, credit card bills, and you are still expected to keep a roof over your head. First things first, make sure that you are living on a budget that strives to accomplish paying off all of your debt. If you need a little extra help a personal loans will help. How will taking out another loan help your debt? Well instead of paying interest to 5 different places you can use your personal loan and pay off those bills. Now you only have to focus on one bill, one interest rate.

Taxes In Home

Taxes are so annoying. How awful is it that you have to save all of your documents for seven years? There almost always seems to be no point in doing taxes ever because you are always going to have to pay out and not give back no matter how hard you try to make it work. That's why you should hire a tax planning and return preparation service. They will help you budget out your year and be able to save for your taxes at the same time. They really work to make you save the most you can and pay out the least that you can so you can keep the money you worked hard to earn and should rightfully be able to keep.

You will be able to do your taxes and pay out less. They will find so many ways for you to make tax write-offs so you will not have to pay the government extra money they don't deserve of yours. You can always do a little bit of planning ahead to make sure everything runs smoothly. Having a professional there with you to watch over you and guide you really helps too. They will let you know exactly how much you have to spend, what you need to save, and what you can write off.

They will teach you things such as writing off your tithing at church. Did you know that every penny you give away is eligible as a tax write-off? Did you also know that gas mileage, lunch meetings and even some vacations are considered worthy? How about if you have your roof redone on your house? Part of that is a tax deductible too. These people will explain everything to you so you have a fair chance.

There are things that are questionable if they are a write-off or not. If you make donations in cash and there is no record of this, you won't get money back, but if you lend a small amount of cash to a friend it is considered eligible for consideration.

Tax planning services are everywhere but not everyone knows they are there to help. They really try to write for you what you deserve to be written off fairly and quickly. The purpose of these services is to save you money and save you from going to jail or getting in trouble with the law. Finding one is easy enough if you look in your local listing.

Treating Bipolar Disoder

Bipolar Disorder, also called manic-depression, is one of the major mental illnesses described in the DSM-IV-TR. It is characterized by episodes of depression and mania. The first article in this series, Understanding Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder, defined these episodes and discussed the different types of Bipolar Disorders. This article will inform you of some of the treatment options.

Typically, a person with Bipolar Disorder will need a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Many people see a practitioner for medication and think that it will be enough to cope with the symptoms of the disorder. In order to really understand the disorder, therapy is pertinent. Medication can help manage, but not cure, the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder. Most people are left experiencing continued symptoms, even when taking medication. It is for that reason that I strongly advocate that a person attend therapy.

A trained therapist can help you identify behavioral methods to manage symptoms of depression and mania. A common type of therapy used with Bipolar Disorder is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is a type of therapy that teaches a person to understand the thinking that is behind some irrational emotions and behaviors. It can also teach a person to change behaviors in order to positively affect thoughts and feelings.

Another important technique for managing Bipolar Disorder is relaxation exercises. A therapist will teach you to relax in order to manage some of the anxiety and physical discomfort that can accompany the disorder. Breathing exercises, visualizations, and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) are common relaxation exercises that will improve your ability to manage symptoms.

Mindfulness is another way to manage some of the negative emotions you may experience. Mindfulness is a technique that teaches you to recognize and be present with your emotions without over/under reacting to them. It is very useful to those experiencing depression or hypomania.

Supportive therapy is often needed as well, particularly when the diagnosis is first made. My motto is, "smart people have therapists." It is wise to have an objective, knowledgeable person to talk to as you learn how Bipolar Disorder affects your life. A therapist can help you process the emotions you are experiencing and come to accept the diagnosis. Supportive therapy can also help with important things such as establishing a healthy routine to help manage symptoms.

Having a healthy daily routine is very important to both managing and recognizing symptoms. The better able you are to maintain a daily routine the easier it will be to notice if an episode of depression or mania begins. Also, a routine will help you keep yourself in balance.

Keeping a daily mood chart is one way to notice if your mood begins to change and if there is any trigger or pattern to your mood changes. A therapist can help you identify the important aspects to include in your daily chart. Seeing your mood begin to change is one way to help yourself manage the symptoms and keeps you from being 'blindsided' by an episode.

Diet and exercise can also help to treat Bipolar Disorder. Exercising daily can help decrease the number of depressive episodes you experience. Likewise, a low carb, high Omega 3 diet can help stabilize mood swings. You can speak to a physician, dietician, or therapist to learn more about dietary options.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is another fairly common way to treat Bipolar Disorders that are not responding to medication. ECT involves electrical shocks to the brain done in a controlled environment by a trained doctor.

It is not expected that you know how to manage the symptoms of this disorder just because you have been diagnosed with it. Never be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help from friends, family, physicians or therapists. People with Bipolar Disorder can live healthy, productive lives when treated with the right medication and taught behavioral skills to manage symptoms.