Personal Finance Help

Can anyone tell me where I can get help sorting out my finances? I have consumer debt and am living from paycheck to paycheck. I need to find someone who will pull my credit report and counsel me on it. I also could use some budgeting counseling. I'm not necessarily looking for debt relief or consolodation.

Thanks!

Sounds like you are in a state of financial chaos. The first thing you need to do is sit down and make a budget: how much money you make each month from salary, tips if any, and investment/savings accounts. Make another column for expenses you pay out each month like rent, utilities, car payment/insurance, food, ect. You need to find out if you are spending more than what you are making. If this is the case, you need to either reduce your spending or work more hours to increase your income.

I recommend reading a few personal finance blogs. Click the link in my sig to find a bunch of information and links to other great personal finance blogs.

Did you know that many of the top blogs were mentioned in the newest edition of Kiplinger's magazine? :)

Hi, I will add on to what TimH said. Also make a list of needs and wants (things you need and don't need) and prioritize them from highest to lowest, i.e. cable t.v., that is a want, a new pair of $100 shoes, that is a want, you may need a new pair of shoes but you don't have to spend $100. Good luck!

Get some self-help books first. Visit your local Barnes & Noble.

A good book to start with is "Your Credit Score: How to Fix, Improve, and Protect the 3-Digit Number that Shapes Your Financial Future" by Liz Preston.

I used to lie awake nights worrying about paying my bills. And I was always running out of money between paychecks. Talk about living from payday to payday! Then I found a new computer program that has saved my life. I've been using it for about 2 months. Guess what! I now sleep very well and I always have the spending money I need. It's like magic! And so simple to use. I think this is a new program that not too many people know about yet. It's called myOwnPayday. It saved my financial life! Everybody needs this program!!!!!!

Get some self-help books first. Visit your local Barnes & Noble.

A good book to start with is "Your Credit Score: How to Fix, Improve, and Protect the 3-Digit Number that Shapes Your Financial Future" by Liz Preston.


After doing my own research I would like to correct the book listing.

Your Credit Score: How to Fix, Improve, and Protect the 3-Digit Number that Shapes Your Financial Future (2nd Edition) by Liz Pulliam Weston

Great book though.

Just be wary of those people who will actually try to make excessive profits from "helping" you with your debt. It is quite possible to "pull" your own credit report for free [read the pfblogs as mentioned - I even did a few posts about this myself ;) ]

Some of the "debt consolidation" services will offer to combine all your existing consumer debt into one lower rate loan, (or add it to a refinanced home loan if you have a home loan), but will make high commisions out of the refinancing.

Aside from any risk of exploitation, the other problem some people have when the eliminate consumer loans and credit card debt by refinancing them, is that they then start accumulating new debts on the "cleared" credit cards and end up worse off than before.

Regards
http://enoughwealth.com

I see you got great advises here, i couldn't agree more whit you people. Still there is something else to add. You asked for help and need to contribute whit something. First of all you need inform yourself about current financial programs and choose the one fitted for you. I think ad_deleted (http://www.hjk.com/debt_.html) is the most appropriate and you should start here.

the first thing you need to do is analyze your spending and figure out where your money is disappearing to. You'll be surprised if you write down everything you spend money on how much you are wasting, and then develop a budget for how much you want to spend in each category. This is a good way to have a positive cashflow each month, and then you have to take that money and figure out how to save it and how to pay off your debt.

reading personal finance blogs is a great option, because it is free and you don't need to be wasting your money right now on someone to tell you how to spend it unless you just can't figure it out on your own

I think what you need is some budget software. There are great tools for that, but most cost money (which defeats the purpose) So I found a few online budget tools that are useful:

http://www.obudget.com

this one is free and makes managing money very simple

this one www.mvelopes.com is not free but online too.

You don't need counceling classes. What you need is dedication to a budget ;-)