The Do's and Dont's of Credit Counseling and Debt Negotiations

I\'ve been in the credit counseling industry for many years and have come across some useful advice by some of my previous clients.

1. Know yourself. Know your limitations and boundaries. Never enter a credit counseling program that is too expensive or outside of your financial limits. Likewise, do not cheat yourself by not devoting as much as you should.

2. Know the options. Do not enter a credit counseling or debt settlement program without being presented all the options. You would never buy a computer at Best Buy without checking out the prices at Circuit City. Similarly, take note of the debt management programs available before committing yourself to anything.

3. Know the implications. Before entering a credit counseling or debt settlement program, know all the associated effects. For example, even though credit counseling does not affect your FICO score, it may affect your ability to get a home. Figure out if the debt management firm offers Lender Letters or something similar to help you during the home-buying process.

4. Know the benefits. Credit counseling can help you reduce your payment, reduce your interest rate, and roll you back to current status. On the same note, debt settlement can reduce your debt\'s principal, dramatically reduce your payments, and cut your debt pay-off time in half. Learn all the advantages and disadvantages of each program before making your decision.

5. Stay committed. Pick the program and stick by it. If it\'s credit counseling, make sure you make your payments every month and on time. If it\'s debt settlement, don\'t drop out of the program because the long-term benefits will be significant. Stick with the program and you\'ll be successful and debt free.

Mark B. is the Senior Financial Supervisor at Forget-A-Debt, Inc. To get information about debt consolidation or debt settlement services, please visit their website.

Student Loans 101

Student loans are a helpful accessory when you need to cover costs when deciding to further your education, including housing and tuition. Student loans are there to be financial lifesavers when grants or scholarships leave your school funding a little short. There are federal loans available as well as private student loans that will help with the financial overload. Loan consolidation is another helpful tool when borrowed loans are at the repayment period and you are feeling overwhelmed.



Federally funded student loans can be applied for online. FAFSA is an online free application for federal student aid. This program is available for both students and parents looking to apply for financial help. The application has seven steps that will ask you questions regarding your personal information, your school and plans, and financial information. The Federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students, or PLUS, is a loan program that relies on a good credit rating in exchange for helping with the financial needs of your student. This low interest rate program will help cover not only tuition costs, but also housing, books, and supplies. This student loan can be applied for online or through the mail.



Private student loans are loans that are not offered through the federal government. They are available through banks or other financial institutions. This type of loan is offered to both undergraduates and graduates and it helps to cover school expenses when federal student aid does not cover your those leftover expenses. Private student loan applications can be found online and you are subject to a credit review by the potential lender. Your own credit or your parent's credit is open for review and a co-signer may be needed if either credit rating is not approved for the loan. Obtain an application for your private student loan through your lender of choice or their online website, if applicable.



Student loan consolidation becomes your best friend when the repayment period of your student loans becomes overwhelming. Loan consolidation will give you a break and put your various loans into one low monthly payment instead of various repayment dates with different amounts to pay for each loan. The Sallie Mae foundation is an excellent example of a loan consolidation program. All you have to do is visit their website and you have the option of downloading the application and sending it through the mail or filling it out online and applying for it right that second. It is a simple way to achieve student loan consolidation and it will give you the well-deserved sigh of relief and peace of mind.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. She writes about family, travel and Business. Student Loans has been a great help for her higher education.

Market Timer Know Yourself

This commentary covers some of the questions we would ask every market timer (or potential market timer) if we could talk to them personally.

Know Your Limits

Timers should use the strategies that suit them best. There are aggressive, active, and conservative timing strategies. Make sure you know what sort of timing strategy you are emotionally able to handle.

A novice market timer, who jumps right into an aggressive timing strategy, might have a difficult time when facing numerous trades in a fast market. If you are conservative, use a conservative strategy. If you are a bit more aggressive, use the active strategies. Remember that you do not have to make lots of trades to be profitable. During volatile markets the more conservative strategies are often doing best.

Jumping The Gun

Another concern is new timers who trade immediately. Entering a new position \before\ a new bullish or bearish signal has been issued. We understand the urge to jump in and get started, but in reality, \mid-signal\ entries are usually more risky than waiting for a new buy or sell signal. When a subscriber enters on his or her own, mid-trade, the result more often than not, is losses that should never have happened.

Patience is a key element to successful market timing. You cannot rush profits. You \can\ rush losses though. So take your time and enter properly. You have years of timing ahead. The markets have been around for hundreds of years. They are not going anywhere. Wait and do it right.

The Strategies

Conservative and active strategies are designed to manage risk in volatile, or sideways markets, and to correctly place us in bullish or bearish trends when they occur.

Aggressive strategies often make their biggest gains during bear markets. When everyone else is losing, the bearish trades are winning. A 20% market loss equals a 20% gain for the timer, which is 40% better than the market. But in between those bear markets, small losses, and sometimes multiple small losses, are a normal part of trading. Bear markets are usually far apart which is something else to consider.

Aggressive strategies are often, though not always, the most profitable over time. But if you exit the strategy after a few small losses, you will not be profitable when the strategies catch a strong bearish (or bullish) trend. There is an old saying, \If you cannot accept a loss, than you will never succeed in the markets.\ If you feel you will worry over multiple trades, or may not have the discipline to wait for the next bull market or bear market, use conservative or active strategies.

Diversification

This all brings to mind the next important subject. Market timers should diversify. Putting all your eggs in one basket just does not make sense. No strategy is perfect. Every strategy will have periods of non-performance. This is a fact of trading the markets.

If you have all your timing funds allocated to a single strategy, you are just hurting your chances of success. If you have the funds available, use several strategies. If you do not have the funds available to diversify properly, stay with a conservative timing strategy

Committing

Finally, there are those timers who wait to see if a signal is correct before following it. This again diminishes the ability of our risk management, built into the strategies, to work correctly. In the aggressive and active strategies, we accept small losses as the price of never missing any trend, but the prices we enter at, can be quite different than an entry made two or three days later. This potential is somewhat lessened in the conservative strategies, but still should considered.

Following trading rules is extremely important. Every strategy at Fibtimer.com has a section at the bottom with detailed trading rules. Here are some which all market timers should ask themselves.

Know Yourself

Are you looking for a timing strategy that will keep you in bull markets, and protect you from bear markets, with few timing decisions that have to be faced? Are you close to retirement and just do not want to risk having a bear market, such as we had in 2000-2002, decimate your savings by 50-80%?

If this is you, stay with the conservative strategies which trade infrequently, and go to cash to avoid potential long term declines.

The Gold, Bond , U.S. Dollar and Small Cap timing strategies are single industry timers and should only be used for a portion of your investment capital. They should NOT be used for all your trading capital. Gold bugs take note...it is not a good idea to trade only gold funds. They can gain 10% in a day, but they can also move against you 10% in a day.

If you have access to sector funds, which are available in several fund families but are especially excellent in the Rydex and ProTimer Fund families, Sector Timing is one of the best timing strategies we have ever developed. It is meant to be traded with at least 8-10 positions (diversification) and is less volatile than you might think. If a sector has a large sell off, it only affects a fraction of the portfolio. If a sector get whipsawed, again only a fraction is affected.

Sector funds, when they trend, often move faster than the market in general, and usually further than anyone expects. The potential for the Sector Timer is huge. We consider this an \Active\ timing strategy, but not an aggressive one. Sectors move to cash during declines, adding stability to the strategy.

Editor Fibtimer.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=FrankKollar