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Improve Your Credit by Learning to Cook

If there’s one way most people can improve their finances and their health, it’s by learning to cook for themselves.

As food prices have gone down since the Industrial Revolution, people have been able to afford more meals in restaurants. And while the experience may be convenient and enjoyable, it’s also expensive and unhealthy.

Learning to cook (and by that, I mean learning to cook well) will improve your diet and allow you to enjoy restaurant-quality meals at home for a fraction of the price. It’s such a win-win that I’m truly amazed at how few people actually cook any more.

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Gas Prices Continue to Tumble

You’ve probably noticed lower gas prices the last few times you’ve filled up at the pump. As crude oil prices continue to fall due to supply glut and weak demand, consumers are paying less to fuel their cars.

Here’s a chart of recent prices from GasBuddy.com:

Source: gasbuddy.com

Take this opportunity to put some of the money you’re not spending on gas, into savings.

Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck.

Chapterhouse: Dune
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Can a Charged-Off Credit Card Help Your Credit Score?

A not-too-unusual scenario for those trying to repair their credit

This happened to me, and I know it has happened to several clients of mine as well. Here’s the scenario:

You have a credit card account that was charged off a couple of years ago. You assume (correctly) that it is hurting your credit scores. After sending a few rounds of dispute letters to the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion–the “big 3”), you are unable to get it removed. During those months that you are working through the dispute letter process however, your credit scores see a big jump. What happened?

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What To Do in the Stock Market

Avoiding Panic with Your Retirement Fund

Is now a good time to sell stocks? Probably so. If you’re less than 15 years away from retirement and have heavy exposure to equities in your portfolio, consider moving some of that into bonds (or even cash).

But for those with a longer time to wait, a little rebalancing may still be in order. The main caveat is don’t go wild with it. It’s easy to get carried away trying to time the market perfectly. You will never get it right 100% of the time, and you can often be so far off that the losses wipe out the wins.

The stock market has been overvalued for 2-3 years now, depending on which method of valuation you believe. If you had gone short 3 years ago, that position would be decimated by now. In the long run, stocks will mean regress, but the long run can be longer than any of us can survive.

The moral of the story: don’t make a big, giant mistake that wipes out all the small wins you’ve steadily made along the way. Persistence + discipline = results.

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Lessons from 5 Years of Credit Repair

One of my companies is getting ready to make a big push at expanding nationwide. In order to finance this, I will once again be applying for a business loan. Because of my efforts at credit repair over the past few years, I am now in the top tier of credit scores, and I expect to be approved easily at a low interest rate.

I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on the past 5 years of credit repair for myself, my friends, and my clients. And really, when I say “credit repair,” I mean the entire process of climbing up the credit ladder from the worst possible situation (my scores were 500 at Experian, 463 at Equifax, and 466 at TransUnion), getting negative entries removed from my credit report, getting a credit card again, getting an installment loan, being diligent and disciplined about those loans, building positive credit, and eventually arriving at the top tier (760-850 range; any score in this range will get you the lowest interest rates).

I have succeeded at repairing my credit and climbing to the highest rung of the credit ladder, where I have the possibility of using my excellent credit to build my businesses and buy real estate, thereby growing lasting wealth for my family for years–even generations–to come.

I’ve also helped other people do the same. I’ve met with a lot of people at a financial low point in their lives. And while I’d like to say that every single one of them has followed my example and made a complete turnaround, that’s not the case. Some have listened to me and read about my system, but after experiencing an initial surge of inspiration and enthusiasm, fallen back into their old habits of missing payments, and soon it’s as if they had never even attempted credit repair. It’s like ballooning back up to your old weight after losing a few pounds on a crash diet.

So I’ve been reflecting back on the past 5 years with the goal of committing to paper exactly what separates the winners from the losers. Above all else, I’m convinced that it is a few character traits, and not any specific nitty-gritty tactic like how you word your dispute letters to the credit bureaus.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

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Reflections on the IRS and Ashley Madison Data Breaches

We covered the IRS data breach earlier this week, but I haven’t mentioned the hacking incident of Ashley Madison, a website that facilitates adultery. Last month, hackers managed to steal the user names, passwords, and even credit card info for 32 million users of the site. Here’s an article from Wired.com.

Given that the “social network” is a hub for cheating spouses, this will have ramifications far beyond the usual identity theft.

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IRS Hacked: 400,000 Compromised

This will lead to many, many instances of identity theft.

In case you haven’t heard, the IRS was hacked. The number of taxpayers affected keeps changing, but right now it’s at about 400,000. It may go up further as more information comes out.

Here’s a decent write-up of what happened.

And here’s what you can take away:

  1. As I’ve written before, identity theft is going to be a fact of life for most people. Looking back at the data breaches that have happened over the past year (Target, Anthem, and the IRS off the top of my head), no one can seriously believe that his personal information is safe.
  2. While you can’t keep your info out of identity thieves’ hands, you can and should prepare by monitoring your credit regularly and having an action plan for if and when your identity is stolen.
  3. Since this latest hack may have exposed tax returns, expect identity thieves to choose juicier targets, i. e. wealthier people. But no one is exempt from worry.