Understanding My Credit Score

Understanding your credit score is divided into five areas. Each area helps lending instituions determine how risky you are. If you are a new creditor, with limited types of credit, and have made late payments, your credit score will be very low. On the other hand if you have a long history of payments with various types of credit your credit score will be very high.

The Five Areas in detail are:
What is your debt to available credit ratio? Simply put, are you maxed out. If you have a $1,000 credit card are you carrying a balance of $999 which goes past the limit occasionally? If you give yourself a zero here. Another part of this calculation is your debt to income ratio. If you make $35K a year and you have $20K in credit card and auto debt your ratio is not looking very good. Paying off your debt and living below your available debt will raise your credit score.

How long is your credit history? This is an important because it helps creditors discover your spending and debt habits. The longer you have handled debt responsibly the more credit they want to give you. When my brother was applying for a loan on his first house the loan agent told him to get a department store credit card. After he got a card and used it for a few months he was eligible for a mortgage. Kind of scary that a $100 in-store credit card could make it possible to buy a house but there it is.

Are you timely with your payments? Never be late on a single payment. In my experience if you are late by a day or two it doesn’t show up on your credit report. Besides having to pay a fee you won’t be in trouble there. If you are more than a month late you are getting a permanant mark on your credit report. While your score will rebound over time creditors will always be able to see your little boo boo.

How many credit cards are you applying for this month?
If you are loading up on credit card accounts and buying new cars it will hurt your credit score. Every time you open a new line of credit your score takes a hit. If you open 2 or 3 cards within a month your sending the message that you’re crazy and intend to leave the country or something. Try to avoid this mistake before making a big purchase. It could cost you from buying your dream home.

How diverse are your lines of credit? If you have a number of different types of credit is shows that you’re mature with your accounts. If all you have is department store credit, and nothing else, it shows that you may not be capable of handling more credit. Try to apply for a signature loan instead of going to mom and dad for that small loan next time.

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Can you imagine getting $279 worth of groceries for 39 cents? A woman named Kathy Spenser is feeding a family of 6 on less than $4 a week. Occasionally she goes negative and has to buy something so the store doesn’t end up giving her some change back! How is she doing it? She clips coupons and looks for loopholes in sales. When the time is right she uses both to her advantage and ends up getting many items for free. In some cases she actually makes money on a given promotion.

The most common techniques she’s using are:

1) Pairing Coupons with items that are on sale. A $1 coupon for something that went on sale for a dollar equals free!
2) Networking online with other moms that are doing the same thing. She’s part of these groups How to Shop for Free, Big Tent Free Shoppers
3) Stock piling common items. When an item is almost free (or completely free) she’ll buy all she can.
4) Collecting coupons from newspapers, grocery stores, manufacturere’s websites, ebay, and using free printable grocery coupons online.
Free Grocery Coupons - Stock Pile Toilet Paper

Source:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2009/08/16/the_queen_of_coupons/

She was first featured in the Boston Globe

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online stock tradingOnline stock trading is fast, easily available and profitable. This is why there are so many aspirant traders who want to profit part time or full time while sitting at their own computers. Online stock trading can be done globally, from the location of the trader twenty four hours a day. Transactions are executed and results are available within minutes. Online trading can baffle the beginner and learning before acting is the best course for beginners who want to trade in stock online.

The first step is to get the required equipment for online trade. These include a PC with plenty of memory, a large monitor or monitors, trading software, a broadband internet connection and a UPS. Beginners should also open a bank account where profits can be deposited and purchases can be paid for.

For beginners, information and learning are the keys to successful trading. There are books by famous stock traders available at online shopping portals and in bookstores to help a beginner to understand the many facets of online trade. E books, articles and courses are available online for free and for a fee. Online classes and webinars on online trading can be accessed on the internet.
Beginners should keep a small amount of money in their budget while trading online. The budget can increase as profits flow in. The trader should not trade beyond the budget for starters. Any profit made should be wisely invested. The budget should include fees and commissions charged by the broker for each transaction.

Beginners should explore and experiment with different strategies. They should mix and match different methods to find the strategy that suits their needs best. Beginners should keep backup strategies in case the strategy used does not work. The best approach is a flexible approach. Beginners should learn to combine strategies or use a single strategy at different times to make the trade profitable.
Stock trading aspirants should use demos and simulated trading platforms that are available online for as long as they remain uncomfortable about investing real money. Experts believe that beginners should trade with money after making at least ten successful simulated profits. Beginners should make as serious an effort in simulated trading as they should when trading with money.
Beginners should find a good trading platform and sign up. The trading platform should be a well known low cost platform that caters to traders with a low budget. Beginners should choose a platform that has an efficient support system. There should be tools on the broker’s website that offer instant access to the account of the trader and the trader should be able to view all transactions instantly. The platform should be secure and the broker should be a member of an investor protection organization. The system must have state of the art hacker proof functions in place.

Success in online stock trading is a slow and steady business. With careful study and experimenting with strategies, beginners can start making profits in online trade in a matter of months. It is also a good idea to compare online discount brokers for the best value.

TradeKing Online Stock Trading Review


Overall TradeKing Rating

Five star rating

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Finding the right online stockbroker is a personal choice, which is normally based on your preferences, level of preferred services and financial requirements. It is without a doubt one of the more crucial decisions you can make next to choosing what to invest in. In this article, we have highlighted some of the top online brokers, and we are going to go into some of the things you should consider. A useful suggestion would be to prioritize features as you will often struggle to find one separate company or broker that can meet all your requirements. Below is a ’09 survey that was sourced from “Smart Money’s” they are the top 16 online stock traders and have been given a star rating from one to five.

Obviously one of your main requirements is that of the accessibility online. So to answer this question, you will need to find out if they operate a software platform, meaning you have to download software in order to use it, or does it have an encrypted account that you have to log into. In deciding which of these two options are important for you, you will need to examine your current situation. Are you continuously traveling, and say, prefer to do your Stock trading while on the beach in Baja, or is this a part-time hobby, and you have a set location. Basically you need to determine the level of security you’re prepared to accept.

Find out what hidden fees there are and also what the minimum deposit is. The majority of brokers will have a minimum deposit for you to open accounts. Bearing in mind some of the larger companies will require between $5000 and $10,000 deposit and if you haven’t made your millions just yet, this might be an unrealistic requirement for you. Be sure to read and study the fine print, there are all sorts of clauses and restrictions, don’t think just because there is no minimum balance that you get away scot free. Most of the time, they will have a higher maintenance fee. Ideally you should find a broker that meets your deposit budget and has a low maintenance fee. Another issue to consider is your commissions, although they are a normal part of trading. You don’t want your profits being shared out to graciously to your broker. The best is to find a flat fee for stock trading.

Depending on the type of person and personality you have on trading, the tools your online stockbroker provides will also help sway your decision, as well as what up to date information or news they can provide you. Remember to always use the free trial offer or send an e-mail asking to get limited access to their back office to see all the tools and features and how user-friendly they are for you. Some online brokers, depending on the situations will also offer you broker assisted trading; this will provide a world of benefits to you and can help you conduct trades. If you ever get stuck or unsure the broker might be able to point you in the right direction.

TradeKing Online Stock Trading Review


Overall TradeKing Rating

Five star rating

Having an online community for traders is also very handy. It will allow you to converse with other traders, and learn from their mistakes.

Rank
& Broker Name

Cost
Per Trade

Investment
Products

Trading
Tools

1.
E-Trade

$9.99

4
stars

5
stars

2.
Fidelity

$10.95

5
stars

5
stars

3.
Charles Schwab

$12.95

5
stars

3
stars

4.
TradeKing

$4.95

3
stars

5
stars

5.
TD Ameritrade

$9.99

5
stars

5
stars

6.
Muriel Siebert

$14.95

3
stars

5
stars

7.
Scottrade

$7.00

4
stars

4
stars

8.
Firstrade

$6.95

4
stars

3
stars

9.
OptionsXpress

$9.95

3
stars

5
stars

10.
Bank of America

$14.00

4
stars

4
stars

11.
Just2Trade

$2.50

2
stars

4
stars

12.
WellsTrade

$19.95

3
stars

1
star

13.
ShareBuilder

$9.95

2
stars

1
star

14.
WallStreet-E

$9.99

4
stars

3
stars

15.
Zecco Trading

$0.00

2
stars

2
stars

16.
SogoTrade

$3.00

1
star

2
stars