1. Pay off high-cost debt. The best investment most borrowers can make is to pay off consumer debt with double-digit interest rates. For example, if you have a $3,000 credit card balance at 19.8%, and you pay the required minimum balance of 2% of the balance or $15, whichever is greater, it will take 39 years to pay off the loan. And you will pay more than $10,000 in interest charges.
2. Buy a home and pay off the mortgage before you retire. The largest asset of most middle-income families is …

Almost daily, you hear news reports about the increasing numbers of homes in foreclosure. What you don’t hear reported is how increasing energy costs are so often the cause of this devastating problem.
Are you losing your home because you can’t afford to pay your energy bills and your mortgage? If you aren’t facing foreclosure can you afford temperature settings that keep you feeling comfortable inside your home?
During the recent U.S. housing boom, builders completed homes quickly. Interest rates were low and investors eager to cash in on high …

If you love decorating and you love a challenge then you’ll love the challenge of decorating on a budget. There’s nothing quite like fighting your impulses to buy everything you see just so that you keep to your budget, and trying to get everything you need to decorate your house without breaking your budget. It is a losing battle I can tell you that much.
Sometimes the desire to buy the amazing things you see in the home improvement stores can be almost overwhelming. There isn’t too much that you can …

This is part of Ask The Money Mender series
Dear Cindy,
I am recently divorced and just purchased a house. My problem is this. I make an annual salary of approx. $56k. I currently owe approx. $l0k in credit cards and am just paying the minimum amount. I have $20k in retirement and also have a piece of jewelry that I would like to sell that is worth approx. $10-$15k. What would be the best approach in ridding myself of debt? Should I suffer the loss …

Do you walk the high wire of personal finance? Is every month a balancing act that works only as long as the next paycheck arrives on time? What happens if that next paycheck doesn’t arrive? The cause could be many things which you cannot control: an illness, a layoff, a sales slump.
If some unexpected event interrupted your next paycheck, would your household’s financial balancing act come crashing to the ground? Would you be forced to resort to debt to fill the money gap?
Financial emergencies happen to just about everyone at …