Consumer Boomer

Debt Reduction Strategies – A Bank Insider’s Shocking SpyCam Confession

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 10:58 AM PDT

Guest Post by Philip Tirone of 720 Credit Score

Last year, I called on President Obama to help me educate the American people about debt reduction strategies that could pump $360 billion a year back into the economy. Under my plan, the 100 million Americans with credit scores that fall below 720 would have been taught to use credit improvement as one of their debt reduction strategies. These people could easily save $300 a month (a conservative estimate) each and every month by raising their credit scores and lowering their interest rates.

This is $3,600 a year, just by learning some simple information about credit card scores, building credit, and facts about bankruptcies and other major financial disasters.

Imagine what you could do if you implemented simple debt reduction strategies to save $3600 a year. Save for your kids' college funds, pay off your debt, or just invest in your future. The possibilities are endless.

Well, this is why I created this video, to illustrate how in my opinion, banks are not educating their employees how their clients save money via their credit score. The very same banks we bailed out with our taxpayer dollars are not giving us the information we need to save money on interest and rebound from the recession.

So now I'm more committed than ever to helping the American people increase their credit score.

When I went into the mortgage industry 13 years ago, I started studying the credit industry, and what I learned was shocking. On a 30-year, fixed-rate, $300,000 home loan, bad credit could cost you $212,040 over the course of the loan. This is nearly a quarter of a million dollars!

And the banks won't train their representatives to help you lower your interest rates as a debt reduction strategy? Watch for yourself, and you will agree: This is absurd.

Thanks to Philip for an awesome guest post!

Editor’s Note: Free Teleseminar

In case you’re looking for more info to increase your credit score and understand how it works, Philip offers an awesomely free Teleseminar. I had the opportunity to join in last week and it literally blew my mind. If you’re struggling with debt, you NEED to check it out.

Follow this link for the FREE Credit Advantage Teleseminar

Retirement Planning Roundup

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 04:36 AM PDT

Your retirement can be argued as the single most important event that will occur in your entire life. With most of us living longer these days, there’s a strong probability that you may spend more of your adult life in retirement rather than working. That’s why it’s such an important topic, but unfortunately gets overlooked by many. When it comes to planning for retirement, you only get one shot- (kind of hard to retire twice in one lifetime.) To help prevent making a costly mistake, I’ve asked some of the premier personal bloggers to share some of their best articles when it comes to retirement planning to hope ensure yours is a success.

photo credit: Digital Sextant

"Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results." by Scott Adams

Don’t Regret and Avoid Easy Mistakes

Miranda at All Business.com presents her thoughts on the top 5 retirement regrets and how you can avoid them.

Mistakes can make you or break you in a hurry. Pinyo from Moolaomy presents7 Costly Retirement Savings Mistakes to Avoid.

What About Your IRA’s?

Deciding on what retirement accounts to use can be a burdensome process. PT from PT Money looks at which is better: Roth IRA vs. 401k.

Once you retire, you need to find a way to sustain your cost of living. David from Money Ning looks at How to Build Income in Retirement.

Diversify. Diversify. Diversify. We all know it makes sense to have stock and bonds in our investment portfolio. But what about real estate? Matthew Rasche at Real Estate Pro Articles suggests to Diversify Your Retirement by adding Real Estate to Your IRA.

2010 presents an interesting opportunity with the ability for anyone to do a Roth IRA conversion. Pete from Bible Money Matters as if Should You Convert Your Non-Deductible IRA Contributions To A Roth IRA?

Figure Out Your Needs

How much do you need to retire? That’s the million dollar question. Tom from Canadian Finance Blog tackles this question.

Jeff Rose, CFP® addresses the issue of How Much Do You Need to Withdraw For Retirement? Many retirees wonder what a safe withdrawal rate is. Here’s a good take to consider.

Miranda over at Personal Dividends asks How Does an Annuity Work? Annuities can be a staple for many retiree’s investment portfolios.

As retirement approaches, managing the overall cost of health care is important. One important tool at your disposal is a health savings account. Free From Broke takes a look the Health Savings Account Benefits.

It’s a common goal for people to want to retire wealthy but you have to have the right mindset to do so. Steve from My Wife Quit Her Job shares his Secrets to Building Wealth.

Good luck to a happy retirement!

photo credit: mewroh