Financial Disaster - One Cent At A Time

How to Know When It’s Time to Get Financial Help

March 8, 2015 Leave a Comment

I was going through a recent story about how cancer patients experience the financial worry. As per the report “Four of every five such American patients and their spouses-caregivers in the study said they had concerns about meeting medical costs and suffered “financial stress.” Worries about paying medical costs also were tied to lower mental and physical health, the study found.”

Need Financial Help

Not only among patients, the financial worry is one of the most common factors behind poor mental health and it’s the biggest reason for crime. In this era of gadgets and increased social interaction (although mostly virtual) people need money in the bank. More than what our parents or their parents needed, we need money. Naturally, financial worry becoming more and more widespread.

3 Financial Decisions you Should Avoid

March 14, 2014 5 Comments

A lot of us have made some pretty horrific decisions in the past. Making mistakes is generally thought to be a part of the learning curve; when people make bad decisions, they get a first-hand experience of where they could have acted a bit more prudently. For example, we often find ourselves subscribing for a gym membership when the treadmill at home has been gathering dust for a long time.

That impulsive purchase of the new smartphone with your credit card when you are already struggling to pay the minimum is another example of a bad financial decision. In fact, a relatively new branch of study known as Behavioral Economics is looking at how humans, who in classical economics are termed as rational, end up making such irrational decisions! Well, the good thing about any bad decision is that you can learn from it and vow to not repeat it in future.

Despite burning their hands by making poor financial decisions, some people still end up making one bad decision after another as if their brain has somehow been hardwired to function this way only.

Finding the Positive Side in Bad Financial Situations

March 11, 2014 2 Comments

People with corporate jobs are more theoretical. We try to energize workforce with theories of productivity, we try to form tomorrow’s leaders with theories of leadership. One of the top leadership theories is “failures are stepping-stones to success”. It does apply to everything we do in our daily life., finances included. The only thing good about failures is the lessons we learn from them. Make your financial set backs a great learning and don’t repeat the same mistake again. Enjoy this guest post from Natalie.

I like to think of myself as a pretty positive person. I like to count my blessings. I like to say my good affirmations at least once a day. I really try to associate myself with other upbeat people that have good attitude. All these things have been known to contribute to better moods and improved self-worth but sometimes life really knocks us down. These are the situations that challenge us the most. When it comes to finances, it hits you hard!

After the Divorce: Getting Back on Your Financial Feet

February 18, 2014 2 Comments

The emotional pain of divorce can be heartbreaking- the separation of a life together and the struggles of building an independent life can be almost overwhelmingly difficult. Divorce is also one of the factors in people’s financial disaster.

Divorce can be particularly difficult for single income families, where one of the spouses gave up their career and income, and now find themselves struggling to get by, often with added financial obligations, such as the cost of raising children, maintaining a home, and sometimes alimony. How exactly can you pick yourself up and get back on your financial feet after a divorce?

Having a Financial Backup Plan

March 9, 2013 3 Comments

When we start with a project, we make plans, document them and weigh in different plans. Then we select a plan to work with. Then, there, we also have a backup plan for the original one, called as a fall-back option. The backup plan is not documented as detailed as the main plan, though. Still we start with a plan B, partially documented. Your personal finance is just another project, there’s little difference between your work project and a personal finance management.

Applying the same project management method to our personal finances, should we not have a financial backup plan? What if there’s a new family member, what if we lose someone? What if a disaster strikes? Or even what is our plan if another economic meltdown occurs today? To meet with any unavoidable circumstances that may affect our financial life and health, we should be ready with a backup plan, the plan B.

Why have a backup plan for your finances

Let’s say you have a goal for mortgage pay off in 10 years, and suddenly due to illness to one of your family members, you need a large chunk of cash even after insurance coverage. In all probability, the money you will either take away from emergency cash or you will break into another investment and do a premature withdrawal (may even be from your retirement saving). Worst case, you will borrow money with interest.

10 Ways to Catch your Partner Hiding Money from you

September 24, 2012 12 Comments

Managing finances is a very sensitive area in marriage. Statistics show that 90% of marriages fail because of failure to manage finances responsibly. Many words have been said, lots of advice have been extended, and various ways were suggested in order to manage money. Yet, the question remains, how should we manage it? And, when one manages it, how can the other one trust the other partner?

Before answering that question, you have to embrace the fact that when you tied the knot, two of you become one. What are yours become your spouse’s possessions too. You cannot divide your properties and limit each other to specific properties that you want to share then keep what you don’t want to share inside your locker.

The Dangers of Going Without Home Insurance

July 28, 2012 12 Comments

The following is a guest story, long time back I wrote about safeguarding your money from disasters. The story reminds me of the hurricane damage we faced in 2005, here in south Florida. Here’s what happened in Ireland, there are lessons in the story, enjoy reading!

The Quigley family was enjoying a pleasant November evening when disaster struck. It began when they were distracted by the barking of a stray dog in the backyard. As the family returned to their living room, they realized that a fire in the fireplace had gotten out of control. A loud roaring sound confirmed the presence of a chimney fire.

Bad Financial Habits That You Might Be Not Aware Of

March 23, 2012 12 Comments

For some people, bankruptcy is for certain. If you are one of them, those overly secure of the thought that they have a regular source of handsome income, so they just keep on spending without keeping track of their expenses.

You’re sure to keep falling off the financial ladder… if you continue spending more than you earn, mindlessly making purchases more than you can actually afford. You absolutely don’t have a shot at getting rich… if you keep making saving a chore for tomorrow, always thinking that you’d always have money to expect anyway.

There are a number of bad financial habits and ways of thinking that have driven lots of people into the depths of financial ruin. Some of them seem too harmless that you wouldn’t even realize how much it could lead to your economic demise. This article is written to give you a heads up on these habits and pull you up before you reach that depressing pit called “bankruptcy”.

How to Improve Your Credit Score During Hardship

December 2, 2011 12 Comments

Once I heard someone saying “credit score are for people who aren’t a home owner yet”. Buy home and stop worrying about credit score. Well imagine what happened if you lose job before paying off debt and you are out of your sweet home.

Be careful, financial disaster can strike anytime, credit history and credit score are your ingredients to weather this storm. Even when you are going through financial trouble, you can build better score, just don’t lose heart and have faith in you.

Improving credit while you are financially sound is easier but ,during hardship its really hard to improve your credit score.

5 Steps To Fix Financial Failures

November 28, 2011 14 Comments

While surfing blog comments at other personal finance blogs, I came across a story of a reader. Which reads like below.

A couple of years ago, I was doing well when it comes to finances. I knew I was doing better than a lot of my friends and family. I was having a good job. Everything was actually really, really great.

Then recession came—and my world, as well as the others’, came tumbling down. The start-up company wasn’t able to pick itself up and it had to close down, leaving me with no job at all. My wife was also laid off from her job. No matter how much we searched for work, no one would like to take us! For seven months, we weren’t able to do anything, and before we knew it, our savings dwindled. We could hardly pay our utilities, much more our credit card bills.

How to Know When It’s Time to Get Financial Help

3 Financial Decisions you Should Avoid

Finding the Positive Side in Bad Financial Situations

After the Divorce: Getting Back on Your Financial Feet

Having a Financial Backup Plan

Why have a backup plan for your finances

10 Ways to Catch your Partner Hiding Money from you

The Dangers of Going Without Home Insurance

Bad Financial Habits That You Might Be Not Aware Of

How to Improve Your Credit Score During Hardship

5 Steps To Fix Financial Failures

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