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I am known for being “cheap.” Some say that my motivations come from a love of money. Both are incorrect. I seek to curtail as much as possible, the money spent on things that do not last. We all want to make our marks in this life and most of have a finite amount of expendable income at our disposal. This article is not going to include specific money saving tips like how to get 50 miles per gallon on or how to clip coupons in order to get ninety-six free bags of noodles. Rather, the mindset of somebody who values money and the ways in which it is spent is what this article will be about.

Poor Richard, or rather Benjamin Franklin in his essay: The Way to Wealth, stated that a fat kitchen makes a lean will. This is not to say that we should live as paupers in order to die rich. That is an empty goal and it is one of vanity. However, as much as I love to eat, spending money on fine meals at fine restaurants, leaves nothing for the individual to show other than a few extra pounds around their mid section. Retaining the motivation that one must curtail the money that he or she spends on things that do not last, will help that individual to have more expendable income in the future.

As important as having a high paying job in order to live the life that you want, so too is the right mindset. It is not how much you make but how much you save which helps you to live the life that you want. Fiscal conservatism, something that our local, state or national government have never adhered to, is something that should be observed in each of our households. Paying only for those things which we have the money for and avoiding the accumulation of debt except under the most serious of familial situations is one of the tenants of a faith in money and the opportunities that it affords its converts.

Realizing that money is a tool to invest and to better the lives of the owner and those around him or her, is what will make one value money more than the majority of Americans who see money as something that one must work for instead of something that works for us. That belief is what separates the rich from the poor, the successful from those who live paycheck to paycheck.

So let’s go through this, step by step, and see what we can do to improve the situation. The first thing to do here, is to get a picture of exactly what your credit score profile looks like. Experian is a very good place to start, and it’s a free service. So sign up for an account, and make sure that you give them all the information that they require. Let’s try and remember here, that we are trying to get a proper picture, which will help and provide the first step to improve your credit score, so dishonesty, won’t help anyone, least of all you.

One you have signed up, you will see, exactly who you owe money to, and exactly what your status is:
- are you just in arrears?
- have you had a default issued against you?
- have you possibly even had a CCJ, or as it’s known in the UK, a county court judgment, issued against you?

Once you know the situation, you need to start looking at your debts, which normally are credit cards, unsecured loans, and store cards. Never feel scared about calling up these companies, and explaining to them exactly what the situation is. Dealing with your monthly outgoings and making sure that you can afford them – will all help to improve your credit score. Always remember that some form of a payment is always better than no payment, and a lot of the time you can ask the credit card companies to freeze your interest.

Another big way of improving your credit score – for those of us, who don’t have credit cards, is to get one!

Strange as it may seem, if you are looking to improve your credit score, after let’s say, years of bad credit, obtaining a credit card, and keeping to your monthly payments, will go a long way to improving your score.

The last of my tips on the above subject is all about tidying up bad accounts. Carefully examine your Experian credit report, and make sure that all the history on your file is legitimate. If there are small and insignificant amounts of debt that you can easily pay off, than do so! Watch out for silly little mistakes, which do occur – for example you might have an old telephone bill, which has gone into default, for pennies. Why – well possibly you moved address or changed contract, and there was an old and very small balance, left on the account.

You forget to pay it, and well you can have a default issued against you – not the thing you want to see when you are looking at ways to improve your credit score.

Credit is something which is very important to your personal profile, and lifestyle, and spending some time, examining and improving it will always be beneficial to you and to your family.

Ideas on how you can Rebuild your Credit after Bankruptcy:

Get a Secured Credit Card
For consumers who have recently gone through bankruptcy, a good choice would be to obtain a secured credit card. Secured cards required the applicant to open a bank account with a balance that matches the credit limit of the secured credit card. Typically, the limit will amount to $500 maximum, but be prudent about the usage and limit your charges to no more than approximately 30% of your credit limit. Focus on light, regular use of the card to help rebuild your credit. It is important that your credit card gets reported to the credit bureaus, but try to prevent having it reported as a secured card. Also, don’t just grab any secured card that is available. Take a close look at possible huge upfront charges and annual fees. In addition, ensure that your payment history is being reported to the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian.

Open a CD
Using a certificate of deposit (CD) as a method to rebuild credit is another option. A small personal loan is used to open a CD for a minimum of one year, and the loan payments that are made on-time will show good credit history during the length of the certificate. This strategy is helpful to re-establish credit without having the temptation of a credit card.

Installment Loans
Student loans (not typically dischargeable in bankruptcy), can be used to rebuild your score with timely payments and possibly paying more than you owe if possible will help even more. Other types of installment loans include auto loans (expect a very high interest rate initially), and a high-rate mortgage, sometimes available in a little as six months after your bankruptcy case is closed. Just make sure you can really afford a home before buying it.

Additional Ideas
• Pay every bill on time
• Check your credit reports regularly
• Save as much money as possible
• Minimize the number of inquiries on your credit report

Unless you are a Saint, you are bound to make a mistake or two in your lifetime. The mistakes that you have made can be insignificant or it can be a life changing event. You can make a huge mistake by accumulating so much debt that you only choice out of this jam is to file for bankruptcy protection, or you can make a tiny mistake such as forgetting about your son’s first birthday. Filing for bankruptcy shelter is absolutely a life changing event and most people would not want relive this ordeal in their lifetime. If you had to file for bankruptcy protection, what led you to this financial crossroad, and what do you plan to do to fix this in the future?

Poor budgeting and not watching out what you are spending and how much you are spending can be a major contributor to those who had to file for bankruptcy shelter. Poor financial planning can take the form of many scenarios. During the real estate bubble of the 2000s, many people got into deep financial debt because they bought homes they cannot afford. Even if you are making a lot of money, for example, $10,000 of net income per month. But if you ended up spending more than $7,000 on your home related expenses, can you live off the remaining $3,000? A good rule of thumb is not to spend more than 30% of your income on housing expenses.

By not living within their means, some people find themselves in a financial hole that they had to file for bankruptcy protection. In simpler terms, this means that you are spending more than you are making. During the mid 2000s and even the time leading up to the recession of 2008, using credit cards seems so easy to everybody. People who find themselves with a mountain of credit card debt forgot that charging purchases on credit card does not mean that the debt do not need to be repaid over time. Buying things or services using credit card does not mean that you do not have to pay for it, it just lets you pay for it at a later date. It is a useful tool to help you purchase that new TV that you have always wanted. In order not to abuse the credit card use, you have to know that you can pay for this new purchase in reasonable amount of time. You will know if you cannot afford to pay for this new purchase, because you are hoping to pay for this purchase using the minimum payment on the credit card bill.

The majority of the people who had to file for bankruptcy tend to abuse their credit cards. And to make matters worst, some of these people even use the credit cards for daily living needs. Can you imagine someone who is already heavily in debt, and yet he or she has to use the credit card to buy that food or shelter for the day? Cash advance from the credit card is one way that people tend to abuse the credit card usage. Cash advance is one of the worst financial transaction one can incur in his or her lifetime. The drawback to using the cash advance from the credit card include extraordinary high interest rate which means you will have even a harder time paying back this debt. Some people will justify this action by promising that this is just a one time occurrence. Those cannot manage their finances properly tend to find this cash advance way as an “easy” way to get by from month to month.

For those who are thinking of filing bankruptcy, or have filed for bankruptcy recently, here some advice that you should adhere to (coming from a person who had gone through this ordeal):

You should only spend on what you have earned and not more
Create a budget and use it wisely so that you can follow rule #1
Saving money is the best thing you can do, just in case you will need it one day

The objective to filing bankruptcy is to give yourself financial relief from the wrath of the creditors. Filing bankruptcy is not a get out of jail free card, like the one from monopoly. You should not use it as a way to wipe out your debt so that you can accumulate debt again. Take this chance given to you and rebuild your life without the massive debt hanging over your shoulders each and every day. Look at this from the positive side at all times, instead of focusing on the negative aspects of filing for bankruptcy. If you are uncertain of what is involve in the bankruptcy filing, seek the advice of a local bankruptcy lawyer near you.

Most people will be very quick to tell you that if you are interested in earning money from spread betting, you better be ready to start learning some new things about it. Do not scoff and brush off that advice since that may be the best advice that you will get when you are just starting out on your spread playing career. It is indeed very important for you to take the time to learn all that you can about spread betting so that you can better prepare yourself for all that spread gaming has to offer.

If you are dying to learn all about spread staking, you can start to learn all about it by reading up on a spread betting course. A spread wagering course is, pardon the pun, your best bet when you want to take a systematic approach towards learning about spread betting. This way, you make sure that you do not miss anything important; which may happen if you do not employ a systematic approach to learning. There are people who will vouch for the effectiveness of a spread betting course towards educating a spread staking newbie.

When you are a beginner, there are some things that you will not know, but when you take a spread winning course, you will find out some things that you did not even know that you had to know. But once you get to know about them, you will be very happy that you did get to know about them. You will find things likes beginners guides to spread playing and you will even get to read about the advantages that spread staking can bring you.

After that, you will learn all about how you can start to make trades and how you can open a spread stake account. It is very important that you have a spread gaming account since you will not be able to do some spread betting if you do not have the account. Then you will be introduced to the types of bets that you can make so that you have some variety in your life. The great thing about these spread wagering course is that you will be taught how to manage your positions on the bets that you make. See how useful it is to learn about spread winning from a spread playing course? It is basically the easiest way to learn more about spread staking.