20% Off Your Complete Credit Report and Score from MyFICO.com

I’m always telling clients to check their credit report on a regular basis, to check for errors, or worse - identity theft.

You should check your credit report at least once per year, but several times a year would be better.

To check your credit report for free, go to www.annualcreditreport.com.  You won’t be able to get your credit score for free, but this does allow you to view your report from one credit reporting agency without cost.

If you want your complete credit report (from all three credit reporting agencies), along with your credit score, a good resource is MyFICO.com.

How Safe Is Your Money?

While bank failures are rare, with the recent headlines about the failure of IndyMac, you may be wondering how safe your money is.

First, remember that the FDIC insures your deposits at banks up to $100,000 for individual accounts and up to $250,000 for most types of retirement accounts.

These limits are applied per owner, not per account.  So you can have up to $100,000 at a bank - even if it’s in multiple accounts - and still be insured.  But if you have a $75,000 CD, a $25,000 individual savings account, and a $50,000 joint savings account, you are still only insured up to $100,000, even though it is spread out over several accounts.

Prosperity Quick Tip: Visualizing with Feelings

In my Living Debt Free ebook, I suggest that readers visualize their goals to help them stay motivated on their journey to getting out of debt.

Joan Sotkin of Prosperity Place takes this a step further, and says visualizing with feelings is a more powerful way to change your money thoughts and will help you achieve your goals faster.

For more about visualizing your goals, check out Prosperity Quick Tip: Visualizing with Feelings.

Instead of Saying “I Can’t Afford That”…

…why not ask “how can I afford that”?

While browsing the The Carnival of 20-Somethings Finance, I saw a post called Tori Spelling - Unsung Financial Hero? that caught my attention.

If you like reality shows (me, not so much, but I actually caught part of this episode on one of my ‘unable to sleep’ nights), you may be familiar with Tori and Dean - Home Sweet Hollywood.  On a recent episode, Tori and Dean were looking at new houses to buy, and they were looking at one that was twice their budget.

When Will Things Get Back To Normal?

That’s what clients are asking (or at least thinking) about the current stock market.

Well, I hate to break the news, but this IS normal!  The stock market goes up AND down.  It’s a cycle, made up of periods of expansion and periods of retraction, of good times and not-so-good times.

The market goes up, and periodically it needs to retract.  Right now we are in a retraction.  However, those who adopt a reasonable investment policy, diversify and rebalance their portfolio as needed - these folks have positive long-term investment experiences.

What is a Blog Carnival?

One of my Twitter buddies recently asked what a blog carnival was and if it was a good idea to participate in one.

What a great question! According to BlogCarnival.com, a blog carnival is a blog community where articles on a particular topic are linked to on a blog host’s page. A blog carnival is similar to a magazine in that you have a topic, editors, contributors and readers. Blog carnivals are typically published on a regular schedule (can be weekly, monthly, etc.) and generally include editor comments along with links to all of the articles contributed.

IRS Raises the Mileage Rate In Response to Rising Gas Prices

In recognition of recent gasoline price increases, the IRS has raised the standard mileage rate for the final six months of 2008.

The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008. The rate for the first half of 2008 is 50.5 cents.

The IRS normally updates the mileage rates once a year, but given the significant increases in gas prices this year, the IRS has made a special rate increase in the middle of the year.