Shopping is fun and shopping for a house is no exception. Driving around neighborhoods, searching local listings online, and looking at interior photographs are all great ways to become informed about the real estate offerings in your area. But when you get ready to seriously shop for a home with the intent to purchase, your selection process needs to be precise so that you don’t fall in love with a house...

I shudder to think about the first time I purchased a house. I was no more than twenty-one years old, in my first marriage, and remarkably uneducated about the world of finance. My now-ex-husband and I drove by a development one day, decided to stop, and ended up signing a contract for a house. (I do not recommend making such a large, life-changing purchase on a whim. This was pretty much...

Credit Resuscitation

A short list of things that will kill your credit: not paying your bills (check), overspending on credit cards (check), bankruptcy (check), automobile repossession (check), home foreclosure (check).

I’ve made my fair share of bad decisions, and most of these I attribute to being young. I was twenty-two when I filed for bankruptcy and two ye...

Here’s the thing about credit-- it’s a system built on trust. It’s the same basic concept as personal relationships: if someone tells you they are going to do something and then they don’t do it, you lose a little bit of trust in them. With a little bit of grace, we can overlook these small transgressions every once in awhile, but if they become frequent enough, trust is eroded.

It’s also the same with no credit. When you first meet someone, ...

Living in an apartment used to be fun-- no unexpected maintenance costs, no yard work, a little bitty space to keep clean. When I was in college and just venturing out on my own, the idea of my own personal space apart from my parents was something that I aspired for. An apartment meant independence and offered a community to live in among other independent people like me. It was great.

But...