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.