Now is not the time to stimulate the “their” version of the economy at the risk of destroying your own financial future.

How does your attitude or feeling about money affect the rest of your life? Can changing your attitude change your financial status?

Here are some of my favorite places to go when I need help making a personal finance plan

I understand that we all need cash reserves for emergencies but, can being a saver and being in debt be a good strategy? With interest on debt being higher than savings would it be better to pay off your debts first?

Here are 5 steps that can help you reach financial freedom.

It’s the first reader question of the New Year:
I have a credit card with a $6700.00 balance,with an interest rate of 14%, have a CD which I can cash in to pay this down, CD will yield about $5600.00. Should I use the CD to pay down the credit card?  CD is paying about 3.6%
Personally, I am inclined to take the money in the CD and pay down the credit card. The 14% interest that you pay on the credit card more than cancels out the 3.6% you are getting on the CD. Indeed, you will be paying …read more

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to vote on new credit card rules tomorrow, Dec. 18.

This morning, there was a great deal of excitement surrounding a press conference that involved several officials (including President Bush) telling us all about how they are going to save our financial system from complete and utter ruin. The key is injecting more capital into banks, so that they will feel better about lending to each other, to businesses and to the rest of us. Bloomberg reports on the main thrust of the moves made today:
“We must restore confidence in our financial system,” Paulson said in a statement in Washington. “The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions …read more

About 45 minutes ago, the US Federal Reserve announced that its federal funds rate — which is the rate that banks charge each other for loans — will remain at the same low 2% it has been at for the past three months.
For people with cash investments (savings accounts, CDs, money market and the like), this is a bit of a bummer. On the other hand, people with consumer debt have something to cheer about: With interest rates remaining low, more of your credit card and home equity line of credit payments will go toward reducing your principal.
If you are …read more

A post over at The Simple Dollar really inspired me. It’s ideas for preparing food inexpensively.
Learn to prepare meals at home from simple, unpackaged foods.
It’s a great money saving idea that can make you more self-sufficient, and help you reduce your expenses (thereby increasing the amount of money you have available to save, invest or pay down debt).
This post is part of the b5media Business Channel Great Blog Off! Find out more about the Blog Off here: http://www.b5media.com/b5media-blogs-for-a-cause-and-raises-money-in-support-of-charity/

The Business Channel is supporting Accion International for the Great Blog Off. You can make a donation directly to Accion (http://www.accion.org/b5media). …read more