21 Little Luxuries That Make You Feel Way Richer Than You Are388,961 views9 months agoChelsea talks about the little purchases and activities we can add to our lives to make it feel more rich and luxurious, even without spending a lot of money. This Lifestyle Fix will show you luxuries that aren't worth the money: https://youtu.be/_0oMLoBB72o.

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Amy CookFollow

Apr 19, 2017 · 4 min read

Do you remember that movie where the distraught girl wanders down the dark hallway toward what is certainly her demise lurking in the corner? Man, that movie gives me nightmares. Not because of the creepy music and the pile of characters, who met an unfortunate fate in the previous scene, but it’s not knowing what’s hiding in the shadows that makes me uneasy. She’s walking down a dark hallway with no knowledge of what her future will bring, and she just keeps on walking, hoping for the best. It’s crazy.

But for many of us, that’s how we handle our financial future. We wander down dark, unfamiliar hallways, and leave ourselves vulnerable to unknown circumstances. Steve Jobs once said, “My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” And, I agree with that. Money may not be the most important thing in the world, but having a smart plan will help you take care of yourself now and in the future, regardless of how scary it may be.

Here are three ways to make sure you’re secure while venturing down the dark hallways of life.

It’s no surprise that one of the most common symptoms of debt is stress. A study by the American Psychological Association says one quarter of us are stressed about money “most or all of the time.” They can’t sleep. They can’t eat. “Eventually, the stress prevents them from functioning at work, at home, and in their daily lives,” Bill Fay, a money expert, says. “Persistent stress of this kind can also lead to serious physical and psychological problems.”

A helpful way to take the mystery out of our finances is a budget. The simple act of tracking your money gives you knowledge, and knowledge is power. “With this knowledge, you’ll be able to start the real work of re-allocating your money to whatever expenditures are most important to you,” Kimberly Rotter, a personal finance expert for creditrepair.com, says. “Watching your progress toward financial priorities not only relieves stress, it also brings great joy.” Rotter added that we can’t make smart choices about how to spend our money if we lack an understanding of where it goes.

In a society where anything can be purchased at the moment with a finance plan or credit, we thrive on instant gratification. But what about your long-term financial goals? Where do you want to be financially one year from now? Ten years? If you want to shed some light on that dark hallway, you need to decide today where you hope to be tomorrow. “You can choose to thrive in your own personal economy by implementing sound financial principles,” said Michael Isom, an investment and wealth protection expert. Your personal economy is built on making smart spending choices, optimizing the earning potential of your money, investing in personal growth, and designing a plan that moves you toward financial goals.

As a movie fan, we hope for a happy ending. Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on chance to secure a happy future for ourselves. The goods news is that Americans are living longer. But that also means we need to prepare for that longevity to ensure financial security. “With these longer lifespans, it’s important to create an income stream that you cannot outlive,” said Clint Brown, a partner at BCJ Financial Group. One of his available tools is an annuity. “Using annuities as part of your income strategy takes longevity risk off the table and can help eliminate other types of risk,” he said. Social Security and pensions are great examples of lifetime income annuities.

Another important tool is life insurance. Securing life insurance today can protect against unforeseen hazards in the future. You want to be there for those who depend on you, but if you can’t, you will know that those you love will be protected with a smart life insurance plan. Talk with a trusted expert to determine the best plan for your family, based on health, assets, lifestyles, etc.

Long-term investing is another option. No drama. No aggressive stranger waiting to take a jab as you round the corner. Long-term investing is a simple, solid practice you should start now to reap the financial benefits later. “In the long run, you’re going to see your portfolio grow in value, especially if you focus on high-quality businesses,” said Devin Peterson, an investment advisor with The Norden Group. He added that focusing on long-term stocks also allows for compound investing, which gives you the option to reinvest your profits over time to generate even greater profit potential.

The future is unknown, but that doesn’t mean it has to be scary. By establishing a budget, defining a personal economy that moves you toward financial goals, and investing in a secure and optimistic future, your story can have a fairytale ending.  https://medium.com/thrive-global/wanna-see-something-scary-take-a-look-at-your-financial-future-678d432c2757 

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Life can be filled with limitations when you have bad credit, and I recently learned how to screw and un-screw myself out of credit nightmare. Putting everything on a charge card turned out to be a terrible decision, and when the government threatened to start garnishing my wages, I was forced to pool everything I had to make a one time payoff on one of my student loans, which actually had a negative impact on my score because I settled. I was bankrupt and I was just starting out. As my score dropped, the banks sent cancellation notices for all of my credit cards—even the ones I always paid on time. It seemed like big banks had just turned their back on me.My husband was forced to face his credit barriers when his car transmission died out of warrantee. When the car salesman pulled his credit to see if he could get approved for a lease, he shook his head in shame. It showed a score in the low 500s, a high debt to credit ratio, and poor payment history because of medical bill charge-offs from when his appendix ruptured.We needed better credit, which I thought meant waiting 7-10 years for negative items to be removed. As it turned out, fixing our credit was painless because there are services out there, like CreditRepair.com, that are meant for people like us. CreditRepair works directly with the credit bureaus and your creditors to help you get unfair items removed from your report and get you back on track for a clean financial future. They understand that life can get out of hand, and that sometimes, trustworthy candidates can get screwed out of good credit scores in the process. Plus, they do all the legwork for you.I signed up for CreditRepair just two months ago. On my consultation call, Skye, my personal CreditRepair representative, worked with me through the process, answering my questions with patience and knowledge. She made me feel confident that together we could accomplish everything I'd sought out to achieve. She explained that for most items she saw on my report, they would send their lawyerly "challenge letters", to which creditors have to respond or refute, or the items get removed. CreditRepair has methods of getting creditors to exercise leniency as well. For example, if you have issues with high student loans, bankruptcy, an expensive divorce, or high medical bills, Credit Repair will alert creditors of this as they did when they mentioned my outstanding student loans in challenge letters so that creditors would potentially give me more leeway.During just the first month of my subscription, I received my first 3 removal emails from CreditRepair! (It means they got 3 negative items removed from my report.) My credit score shot up 22 points immediately as a result, and continues to climb as I follow along on my Score Tracker, the chart which displays your credit score progress each month.As for my husband, he started receiving removal emails from CreditRepair just two days after I did, and within just the first 45 days of his membership, CreditRepair had already gotten 44% of the negative items on his report removed. And he got approved for that car lease from the dealership that scoffed at him less than two months prior! Incredible, and fast results.Turns out, this is the norm. While individual experiences may vary, on average, CreditRepair subscribers see increases in their credit scores month after month. And it's been giving us the fresh start we need to rebuild our future.Update:The folks at CreditRepair are extending a special offer to our readers. Follow this link, or call for a free credit consultation including your free credit report summary and score!   https://www.popdust.com/the-plight-of-the-middle-class-and-how-credit-repair-can-help-2110817220.html 

The bureau estimates millions of consumers a year are contacted about debts that are no longer legally enforceable. Critics say a new rule doesn’t go far enough to end the confusion.

(Matt Rourke/AP)

By Renae Merle 

February 25, 2020 at 8:32 AM EST

A proposal from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could spark a fight about what should happen to consumers’ old debt.

Debt collectors lose the right in many states to sue consumers after their debt reaches its statute of limitations, typically three or more years. But there’s a loophole: If the consumer makes a payment or acknowledges the debt in writing, that can be used to try to revive the life of the debt, creating what some consumer advocates call “zombie debt.”

The CFPB estimates millions of consumers are contacted about such time-barred debt every year. In a new proposal, the bureau says debt collectors could continue to try to collect on those old debts but would have to tell consumers upfront they are outside their statutes of limitations and the consumer can no longer be sued to recoup the money.

The collection of time-barred debt “can pose consumer protection concerns,” the CFPB says in its most recent proposal. Reached by a debt collector, a consumer may prioritize that old debt, leaving them with “less money to pay another debt.”

The proposal is part of a broad revision of debt collection rules the CFPB implemented last year that include allowing debt collectors to call consumers seven times a week and to send unlimited texts and emails. It would also prohibit companies from suing to collect on debt they knew or should have known is past their statutes of limitations.

Those proposed rules, which haven’t been finalized, have received more than 14,000 public comments, many of which raised the issue of zombie debt. One Oregon man wrote that he had settled a 10-year-old medical bill he received for an MRI his son needed after a fall during a gymnastics tournament but was still getting phone calls.

But consumer advocates say the CFPB proposals don’t go far enough in protecting consumers.

It is “disappointing,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel for Americans for Financial Reform. The CFPB should bar the collection of debts that have passed their statute of limitations altogether, he said.

“The whole point of statute of limitations is that the government has decided that the debt is no longer collectible,” Jun said. “If you can’t be sued on it, why are you getting mail on it?"

Debt collectors say blocking the industry from attempting to collect on time-barred debt would harm the credit markets. “There is a large gap between not being able to sue on a debt and not being able to collect on it at all. That is a bridge too far for us,” said Mark Neeb, chief executive of ACA International, a large industry group.

 by The Penny Hoarder Staff

UPDATEDJANUARY 22, 2020

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Everyone who’s saddled with bad credit has a unique story.

A man burdened with $6,000 in unpaid bills. A mom of nine held back by an error on her report. A couple recovering from job loss and foreclosure. A single mom with a terminally ill child. A young woman with so much debt she couldn’t even get a credit card.

What all these people have in common? They used a free online service called Credit Sesame to improve their credit scores — one man got his score up 277 points in six months.*

If you need some motivation, read through these real-life stories. Chances are, you’ll find you have something in common with at least one of them.

Then, take a look at your own score and get some personalized recommendations from Credit Sesame. It takes less than two minutes to sign up, and who knows? Your story just might end up in this article six months from now.

He Had $6,000 in Unpaid Bills — Then Raised His Score 277 Points

Matt Odom for The Penny Hoarder

Before discovering Credit Sesame, 50-year-old Atlanta resident James Cooper, had $6,000 in unpaid bills. He’d never had a credit card, and his credit score was 524.

He tried using a credit repair service — one that promised to improve his score… for a fee. Needless to say, he got burned.

Since Credit Sesame is free, he figured he’d give it a try. Within a few minutes, Cooper had access to his credit score, his total debt owed and even personalized recommendations to help him improve his score.

“They showed me the ins and outs — how to dot the I’s and cross the T’s,” Cooper said. “I applied for my first credit card ever.”

After opening a credit card, which improved his score, Credit Sesame recommended he request a credit limit increase. That too bumped his score up (re: credit utilization).

In a span of just six months, Cooper watched his score increase 277 points. Now Cooper uses the lessons he’s learned from Credit Sesame to teach high school students the importance of good credit through his nonprofit, Fedup-4U.

 

FICO Being Investigated by Anti-Trust Committee

Mar 18 2020, 1:41PM

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a civil investigation into FICO Corporation.

DOJ is apparently looking into claims that the company which provides credit scores for lenders, is guilty of exclusionary conduct that may have led to its market dominance. On its website the company claims its various credit scoring models have a 90 percent market share.

FICO released a statement on the weekend saying it was notified last Friday that DOJ's Antitrust Division had opened an investigation. It says it intends to cooperate fully and "looks forward to a constructive dialogue about the state of competition in our industry."

While FICO is the leader in its field and its score models are widely used in processing loans for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it isn't the only game in town. The three major credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, jointly founded VantageScore, FICO's major competitor, and each also markets scores under their own labels.

The FICO statement continued; "Lenders have multiple choices of analytic models to use in credit decisioning and are free to choose the credit score that works best for them. In a competitive marketplace, the FICO® Score is chosen because it is trusted to be independent, predictive and reliable, and because FICO is constantly innovating to enable lenders to responsibly extend access to credit.  FICO has also earned the trust of consumers through programs like the FICO Score Open Access initiative, which provides customers from more than 200 financial institutions with free access to the FICO Scores used to manage their credit accounts."

FICO appears to believe the inquiry originated from antitrust claims made by TransUnion in private litigation between the two. According to FICO, TransUnion made these claims only after FICO filed a suit of its own to recover what it said was millions in unpaid royalties from its competitor.

The Justice Department has not commented on its inquiry and we could find no statement from TransUnion. However, FICO, the three credit bureaus, and VantageScore appear to have a long history of litigation.

 

She had her first hit, “Clean Up Woman,” when she was only 17 and became a key player in the Miami funk sound of the 1970s.
 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/arts/music/betty-wright-dead.html