A pile of bills with looming due dates & minimum payments you can barely cover is piling up. You don’t know how the balances got so out of control & you spend a lot of time avoiding the big, bad total. Why does it seem like everyone else has their shit together while you can’t even handle basic financial management? If anyone finds out what a disaster you are, you’ll definitely never recover. You feel ashamed. Embarrassed. Humiliated. Mortified.

Lending is a complicated process where a lot of terms get thrown around, making the whole thing very confusing. Let’s break down a few definitions that might help you better understand the lending process:

You may already suspect you are in over your head financially. That little voice is telling you that maybe things are getting out of hand, but you shut it up by buying it a little treat. There are a few signs & signals that your debt is getting to the point where it is unmanageable & may be causing significant damage to not only your financial well-being, but your relationships as well. If any of these statements apply to you, it’s time to get some help:

We are on a mission to tackle personal finance issues, and this month we are specifically looking at debt. A couple days ago we did a deep dive into credit scores: what they are, how they are calculated, and what they are used for. Now that we are all on the same page there, maybe you have had a chance to check yours and you’d like to know how to bring that number up. Here are a few tips, and I’m especially excited about the last one, because I just tried it myself!

Last year, I was able to get my head above water for the first time since covid hit. In 2020, I decided to grow my business as the demand for bookkeeping services was high and, let’s face it, we all had some time on our hands. Then things went off the rails in my personal life as I navigated through waves of therapists, lawyers, and other professionals in an effort to support my kids and their mental and physical health. And business grew like crazy, but I was still trying to figure out how to pass off the skills and information that lived only in my own brain as the sole employee for the first several years. It was a lot, to say the least. And everything felt urgent and necessary, so I just kept moving forward and the bills came and the payroll had to be ran and so I entered into a cycle of robbing Peter to pay Paul and just stay afloat.

As we spend this month exploring all the aspects of debt, it makes sense to include a discussion about credit scores. Everyone knows a credit score is important, but few realize all the factors that go into it. And did you know that your credit score factors when you get an insurance quote, apply for a job, rent a space or start utility services? Let’s dive right in: