Partake in a little self-reflection. A misaligned mindset toward spending and shopping—compulsive or otherwise—can severely affect your financial and personal well-being. If you think you might have a problem with shopping or spending, there are several questions you should ask yourself:

-Do I feel guilty about shopping?
-Is my shopping causing financial trouble?
-Is my shopping, spending, and accumulated debt leading to feelings of helplessness, anger, confusion, fear, or depression?

Make a plan and stick to it. The reason so many New Year’s resolutions fail is that we simply state the thing we want to improve and then never create a plan for helping us get from point A to point B. Most people don’t like to plan unless we’re talking about something fun, like a vacation. But actually, planning for your financial future is a little like planning a vacation. You’re organizing your money and time so that you get to do all the great things you want when you get there. Look at it that way, and you might actually enjoy the process.

Get rid of your four-wheeled debt. Too many people define necessities by what those around them have. A brand new car is not a necessity, although some people try to make it one by saying, “I need a way to get to work.” Guess what? There are plenty of far less expensive used cars out there that will also make it to your office. If you take out an auto loan to buy a car that you really can’t afford and you take a similar approach with other consumer items you don’t truly need, you’re going to have great difficulty saving money and accomplishing your goals. Moreover, you’ll probably feel stressed all the time—which is a poor trade-off for the (short-lived) “new car smell.”

Start making your purchases based on need, not emotion. It can be easy to give in to all of those advertisements telling us how much we “need” that new car, expensive gym membership, or trendy outfit. Marketers play on insecurities, fears, and guilt and suggest that you can feel better about yourself by buying their products. You won’t be able to overcome spending and consumer debt until you recognize these pressures and how they corrupt your buying decisions.

Research before you enter the store. Prior to going shopping for necessities that aren’t everyday purchases—say, a new refrigerator—do some research first. Your research will help you identify brands, models, and so on that are good values. You don’t want to make an expensive mistake.

Watch your food budget. Dine out less and keep stock of the groceries you already have. Learn to cook if you don’t know how. Try to keep a healthy inventory of groceries at home. This will minimize trips to the store and the need to impulsively dine out because your cupboard is bare. Try to do most of your shopping through discount warehouse-type stores, which offer low prices for buying in bulk, or grocery stores that offer bulk purchases. Saving on the amount you spend on food will help you put more money toward paying off your debt and eventually setting money aside for investments.

Become more energy efficient. Check out opportunities to make your home more energy efficient. Adding insulation and weather-stripping, installing water-saving devices, and reducing use of electrical appliances can pay for themselves in short order. Many utility companies will even do a free energy review or audit of your home and suggest money-saving ideas.

Watch what you are paying for insurance. Many people overspend on insurance by carrying coverage that’s unnecessary or that covers small potential losses. Coverage of small losses, such as $100 or $200, is not useful for most people since such a loss wouldn’t be a financial catastrophe.

“It won’t be easy getting out of debt, and it’s certainly not something you will be able to achieve overnight,” says Tyson. “Like losing weight, it’s something that takes constant dedication but has a great payoff in the end. Whenever you lose focus or feel like giving in, think about the wonderful benefits of financial well-being. Once you’re out of debt, the money you are able to invest will mushroom into substantial savings that will allow you to get more for your money,” concludes Tyson.

This article was brought to you by www.RISMedia.com

I don’t care for payday loans usually, but I completely understand why a person or family may need one in the time of an emergency.

If you are looking into a small emergency loan, I would only recommend Online Cash 911.

Here is a direct link: Up To $1500 With No Credit Check

This company is very secure with your personal information and is great if you have bad credit, because they don’t require a credit check.  In today’s economy, it’s completely understandable, if a person or family is living paycheck to paycheck and emergency funds are needed.

Now, didn’t mean to sidetrack there, but the purpose of this post is to let you know that payday loans can be reported to the major credit bureaus and show up on your credit report.  Most likely, if you pay it off before the loan is due, it will never show up on your credit report.  In a case where you cannot pay off the entire balance of the loan, then payment history will report to the major credit bureau’s.

If you are looking to use the payment history of your payday loan to help increase your credit scores, this will help.  Although, it is best to use a regular credit card, because even the worst credit cards charge less interest than the payday loans.

It’s important to our readers that you find all the mortgage advice and credit advice you can possibly find.  So, I have taken the time to list a few places that you should visit and soak up all the mortgage advice you can take.

Hope this helps!

Mortgage Advice Forums- I personally subscribe to this forum and help answer questions that people may have.  Bruce Brown, the creator, is very good at responding to everyone’s questions and concerns when looking for mortgage advice.

Zillow- Great place to get all kinds of advice, not just mortgage or credit advice.  Zillow has been around for awhile now and has been very popular with real estate in general.  If you haven’t heard of them yet, take the time to browse over the available advice and go from there.

Mortgageloan.com – I personally get many questions from the site, because of the amount of people that go to it for questions and advice.  Great place to soak in some more mortgage advice and mortgage news.

Lexington Law – Credit Report Repair - Credit advice for anyone that needs help with correcting things on their credit report.  What’s great about them is that you can call their 800 number and talk to someone that will tell you if they can help you or not, right from the start.

Ask Max – Very helpful information when it comes to credit advice.  There is also advice about paying off debt or debt consolidation.  I even browse this for myself from time to time.

Equifax - Not just a place to pull your credit report.  They have a learning center that is very educational for credit advice.  It also very important you look into identity theft protection, since this is the highest form of theft today.

There is still one mortgage program that allows you to refinance without having to verify your credit scores. 

 Yes, you can have a credit score in the 500′s, or even lower, and still get approved for a mortgage refinance.

The only program that allows this approval is called a FHA Streamline Refinance.

What is a FHA streamline refinance?

It’s similar to a regular mortgage refinance, but your current mortgage loan that is being paid off has to a FHA loan as well.  So, you are basically going from an existing FHA mortgage loan to a new FHA mortgage loan.

Now, a streamline does not allow you to take any additional cashout.  The purpose of the streamline refinance is to lower your existing interest rate, if available at that time.

What are the benefits of doing an FHA stramline refinance?

The most popular reasons why someone would qualify for a streamline versus any other mortgage loan are the following:

• No credit score verification is necessary.
• No income verification is necessary.
• No asset verification is necessary.
• No home appraisal is necessary.

This program has become extremely popular for these types of people:

• If your homes value has depreciated to the point where you owe more on your mortgage than the home is worth.
• Self employed person.  It’s always difficult to verify income for these people.
• People with low credit scores.  As long as you are current on your mortgage.

The FHA streamline refinance will continue to be one of the most popular mortgage refinance programs on the market.  The mortgage rates continue to be at historic lows,  so anyone currently in a FHA mortgage loan will benefit from refinancing into these lower interest rates.

If you would like a second, or even a third, opinion on the refinance you are looking to do, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  On the top of this site, you can check out the list of states I’m able to help someone with financing.

I believe we all make a new years resolution, whether we share it with others or not.  Personally, I made a resolution to work smarter and not harder, so I can spend more time with my family and do more things I personally enjoy.

We all have heard that lenders have tightened their guidelines when it comes to lending money.  This doesn’t just go for mortgage loans, but auto loans, credit cards, etc.  Right now, it’s more important than ever to understand your credit report and do what you can to correct what can be corrected.  The higher your credit scores, the better your chance of getting approved, along with paying the less interest on any money you need to borrow.

If you already made a new years resolution, that’s ok, because there is nothing wrong with making a second one…heck even a third!  Make working on your credit one of those resolutions.  Even though I specialize in working with bad credit, I always like to see a past customer come back to me with much better credit scores, so I can work on getting them the best interest rate and save them the most money!

Over the years of working in this business, I would recommend a couple of credit repair companies.  One of them doesn’t even charge you until they show you results, now that’s service!

Make it a great year and I wish you and your family the best!

Credit Repair Consultants, Inc. - This is the company that doesn’t charge, until they show you results!

Lexington Law – Credit Report Repair -  Another great company and I believe many are attorney’s.

Sky Blue Credit Repair -  This is another company worth taking the time to look into.

How is this possible?  One, if not all, of those three things can prevent a person from being pre-approved for a mortgage loan in Wisconsin.

Well, good news, there has been a mortgage program that has been around for awhile and now it has started to become more popular than ever.  The recent events of our economy has eliminated many mortgage loans that used to allow the no down payment option, or at least a low down payment.

We hear more and more, everyday, that banks are tightening their guidelines and have made it more difficult for people to get pre-approved for mortgage loans in Wisconsin.

Well, I will continue to remind everyone that the option of a no down payment mortgage loan is still available.  Better yet, we don’t see this program going away…ever!

Visit the nations #1 site for foreclosures and find homes for half the price.

The USDA Rural Development has a housing loan that allows the following:

• No down payment.
• No monthly mortgage insurance. (PMI)
• No cash reserves are required.
• No minimum credit score is required.
• No limit on cash assets.
• Repairs and closing costs can be financed up to 102% of the home’s value.

This mortgage loan program is very good for first time home buyers and lower income borrowers.

Are looking to purchase a home in an area that is eligible?
Not sure what areas and homes are eligible? 

Well, I can help you look up a specific property to determine if the area is eligible for a USDA Rural Housing mortgage loan in Wisconsin.  Go to my contact info page on this site and I would be happy to help you.

I specialize in bad credit mortgage loans and I do all I can to talk about how less than perfect credit can still get you a mortgage loan approval.

Government programs are in full force nowadays and they do not have a minimum credit score to qualify.

I encourage you to leave a comment with your feedback or questions.

Does your local bank give you credit advice after denying your application?

How about this one…”Unfortunately, your loan application was denied. Feel free to try again in the future.”

How about the bank that doesn’t even take the time to call you back and say you have been denied!? This one really upsets people and usually crushes any potential future application from that same person.

If you are denied of your mortgage application, it shouldn’t stop there. The service that is necessary is taking the time to show you what steps to take in order to be approved the next time you apply.

The extra step I take when someone applies for a Wisconsin mortgage loan with bad credit, is how I handle it when the loan is denied. I will take the time to walk you through what I know will help boost your credit scores and get you on the right track. There are different factors that affect your credit score, but my experience has taught me how to see what factors are hurting your credit scores. What’s unfortunate to me is some people are maybe one or two corrections away from getting approved.

Guidance. Let me guide you through what it is that is denying you of your mortgage needs. What’s unfortunate is a local bank’s loan officer that just takes orders and lets the computer system tell them if you are approved or denied. Where is the service in that???

Take my free mortgage and credit advice to your benefit. Don’t just wonder what it is that’s not allowing you to refinance or purchase that dream home of yours. Take action and the free mortgage advice that’s available.

Above is a chart that shows how the credit bureaus value the various parts of your credit in order to determine your score. Source: Fair Isaac Corp.

1. Payment History - Your history of making payments on time helps to increase your credit score the most. Typically, the last 12 months of payment history is much more important than any other history before the last 12 months. On top of that, it is more important to keep the mortgage payments on time than a credit card or energy bill.

2. Amounts Owed - This is the total balances of all revolving accounts over the total credit limits that are reporting. Revolving accounts are credit cards and personal lines of credit that you can draw on at any time and is an unsecured loan. A mortgage is a secured loan to your property and you are not allowed to used the remaining money you have paid down over time.

Example: Lets say you have 3 credit cards. Each of the three cards has a balance of $500, which gives you a total balance of $1500 for all three. Now, the credit limits of all three cards are $1500, so the total of all your limits is $4500. Take the total balance, $500, over the total limits, $4500, and your percentage of usage is 33%. It is said that you shouldn’t exceed 30% otherwise your score will start to drop, because the credit bureaus will thing you are charging more than you can handle.

Here is another thing to keep in mind. Lets say you transferred one of the $500 balances to another card and closed that card. You still have a total amount of $1500, but your total limit is $3000, since you only have two cards now. Take the $1500 over $3000 and your percentage is now 50%! There is nothing wrong with transferring a high interest rate balance to a lesser rate card, but don’t close the card where you transferred the money from. Keep the card open, put it somewhere where you won’t use it. If the credit card company gives you a hard time about not using the account after a certain period of time, then just charge something small once in awhile and keep the balance low, if not at $0.

3. Length of Credit History - This one is pretty self explanatory. The longer you have credit history the better, especially on a couple of credit cards. Opening a new account just to take the 0% interest for a short period of time and then closing it is going to hurt the part of “length of credit history”. To help offset this, you want to keep at least 2 credit cards open for a long period of time. 2 or more years is a good history to have. The bureaus won’t even grade a new account if it doesn’t have at least 6 months of payment history. For those people that are new to credit, like a college student, it is best to start at least one account and keep the balance low and payment history on time. By the time a year or two passes, he or she will have built up a decent credit history, even with one account.

These are also the types of things to keep in mind when trying to rebuild your credit for a mortgage refinance or buying a new home. If you are looking to refinance to get out of an adjustable rate or just trying to get a better interest rate, take the time to use this advice and get the credit scores as high as possible. This way you will save more money every month, along with less interest over the life of the loan.

If you liked this post, you should read Understand The Simple Steps To Build Credit Scores.