Not long ago, JD over at GetRichSlowly mentioned that he had been asked how you’re supposed to spend less than you earn when you’re in college and not earning anything. This is a great question, and one that I thought I’d take a shot at myself.

While it’s not mathematically possible to spend less than you earn when you’re not making any money, there are still a number of things you can do to keep yourself from sliding too far into oblivion… [more]

An albatross around your neck. A monkey on your back. Whatever you call it, consumer debt can be a huge burden. While there are a number of different debt reduction strategies out there, I wanted to take a moment to highlight a useful technique that my pal NCN used to dig his way out of debt: micropayments. [more]

On the heels of our recent mortgage refinance, we’ve been inundated with mortgage-related junk mail. Among the most common pitches that we receive are offers for bi-weekly* mortgage payment programs.

Almost without fail, these missives are disguised as official-looking notices proclaiming things like “NOTICE OF INTEREST OVERPAYMENT.” They also list the lender’s name at the top, though they indicate in a footnote that it’s listed “for reference only,” and that they have no relationship with the lender. Rather, your loan information “was obtained through public record.” Clearly, these folks want to get your attention, and they don’t mind mis-leading you along the way. [more]

I recently ran across an article on Yahoo! that talked about the seven deadly sins that lead to debt. In short, they put together a list of ways that engaging in envy, pride, sloth, greed, wrath, gluttony, and lust will result in your financial comeuppance. [more]

The most recent issue of Money Magazine had an interesting article about early retirement. Included was a small sidebar with tips for getting out of the rat race well before traditional retirement age. While there wasn’t anything earth-shattering about these tips, they serve as a good reminder:

1. Live below your means. Keep an eye on both small and large expenditures, live in a low-cost area, send your kids to public instead of private schools, opt for less expensive vacations, etc.

2. Set lofty goals. Saving 10% of your income isn’t enough if you want to retire early. Instead, aim for 20-25%.

3. Be allergic to debt. Carrying debt is not the path to early retirement. Pay it off and then stay debt free (see Step #1).

Even if you don’t manage to retire early (or don’t want to), these are great steps for building wealth.

A few weeks back I noted that we’d been called by collection agency, and that we later learned that we’d been sent to collections for a bill that wasn’t actually overdue. We subsequently sent a request (via certified mail) for validation of the debt, as per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). [more]

I’m a deadbeat. Or at least that’s what a local collection agency has been led to believe. Remember that call from a collection agency? As it turns out our local Urgent Care facility turned us over to collections less than a month after we received a bill from them. [more]

In digging for information on how to deal with a wayward debt collector, I ran across a good bit of information on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Here’s a plain English rundown of the protections that the FDCPA affords if a creditor turns your account over to a third party debt collector… [more]

A reader recently wrote in with the following question:

How do you feel about Dave Ramsey’s program? I am in horrible debt and want to become debt free in the next 4 years.

That’s not a lot of information to go on, but here’s my response… [more]

A reader recently wrote in with what he termed a “complex question” about creative strategies for debt reduction.

My wife and I have FICO scores around 750. We have about $28K of debt on top of $238K in two mortgages (191K & 47K). The first is at 5.75% for another 5 years, while the second is at 11.25%. I just thought about loaning ourselves the $28K from our 401K in order to pay that portion of the debt off (temporarily), closing all open credit lines, then applying for AmEx cards that offer 4.99% lifetime rate on balance transfers in order to balance transfer back the $28K plus some of the second mortgage. Now the questions… How long would the loan be necessary before applying for the cards to ensure maximum credit from AMEX? How much credit might we expect?

First of all, it’s nearly impossible to predict how long it will take to secure new cards and get the balance transfer to come through. In fact, nothing is guaranteed, so there’s a risk of not being able to get enough new credit to pull this off. [more]