Margin test

A glimpse at average debt in the largest metropolitan areas …   View interactive map: Experian's Fourth Annual State of Credit Report

A glimpse at credit scores in the largest metropolitan areas … View our interactive map: Experian’s Fourth Annual State of Credit Report

Do you want to buy gifts for friends and family this holiday season? Check out these great holiday shopping tips from some of our favorite personal finance writers: 1. Think experience over tangible items Stay sane. I’m not kidding. It’s so easy to lose control and get wrapped up in the feeling of needing everything. Back up and question each purchase. Especially gifts. By March, very few people even remember what they got in December – so is it worth overspending for? Think experience over tangible items. If you’re going to drop some cash, do a party or a trip. That’s what people recall and often value. Right now I’m big into Groupon. I love the goods and getaways Amazing deals! Erica Sandberg is one of the nation’s foremost personal finance authorities. She is editor at large for the Bankrate Inc.‘s subsidiary Credit Card Guide and a columnist and reporter for CreditCards.com 2. Use the Shop Savvy App Shop Savvy is a must-have app for every money-conscious consumer. Scan a product's barcode with the ShopSavvy app and you'll get a price comparison. Which other retailers, online or brick & mortar, sell this product and how much is it going for right now? This app is especially helpful on days like Black Friday where impulse shopping runs is fueled by the frenzy and rush of the moment. If you don't have access to a barcode (aka you are shopping around in advance of making a purchase, which is a good habit and a separate topic), you can look up a product by keyword. Carrie Rocha is the author of of the book and writer behind PocketYourDollars.com 3. Three helpful tools to help you shop Every year I have three tools I use in tandem to help me plan my holiday shopping and save money. The first is Karen McCall's free Holiday Planner which really helps me think through what I most want out of my holidays – and how I plan to pay for it. Then, for those things I will purchase online, I go to RetailMeNot.com to check for coupon codes before I hit the "buy" button. I find that those codes can often be used even with the lowest discounted price, so the savings can really add up. And finally, each year I re-read Mary Hunt's book Debt Proof Your Christmas. It reminds me to focus on what's really important, and think about creating memories – not debt.  Gerri Detweiler, director of consumer education for Credit.com where she writes about credit and debt, along with money-saving strategies for the holidays 4. Save all your receipts The holiday season is a wonderful time to give gifts and share joy with others. But don’t let your seasonal generosity impact your credit for months or even years to come! My best holiday advice is to save all of your receipts! Whenever you make a purchase this holiday season – whether you bought fruitcake for a holiday dinner or the perfect gift for the special someone in your life – keep all of your receipts in an envelope. After the gift giving is done, you still want to be like Santa – checking your list twice! When your credit card statement comes, check each purchase against your receipts. Make sure that the receipts are all correctly reported in your credit card statement and research any discrepancies, such as if your credit card statement reports a higher purchase amount than the receipt or there is an amount on your statement that you do not have a receipt for. And here’s a bonus tip: If you’re buying gifts with a credit card you don’t use very often, or if you signed up for a new store card, make sure you watch for the bill in the mail and pay it in full and on time! Jeanne Kelly is an author, speaker, and coach who helps consumers achieve a higher credit score & understand credit reporting. Visit her online at JeanneKelley.net and follow her on Twitter at @CreditScoop 5. Stay out of credit card debt I think one of the most important issues during the holidays is staying out of credit card debt. Everyone wants to give their families and friends a great holiday and that's totally understandable. But it's a really bad feeling to start out the New Year in debt. Before you start shopping, make a "holiday budget" and decide how much you'll spend on each person. If you have a rewards credit card, use your rewards to save money. For instance, if you need to travel during the holidays, use your miles to save on airfare. Or redeem your points for a gift card at your teen's favorite store. And if you know you can pay the debt off before interest kicks in, then use your rewards card for purchasing gifts. That way, you earn cash back or miles that you can take advantage of in 2014. Beverly Harzog is a nationally recognized credit card expert, consumer advocate, and author of Confessions of a Credit Junkie: Everything you need to know to avoid the mistakes I made. She runs a popular credit card blog on her website, BeverlyHarzog.com 6. Create a personal layaway plan I have two shopping tips – one of which isn't something that fits within the context of "now." I like to save throughout the year for my gifts during the holidays. So I don't wait until the last few months of the year, I start planning roughly how much I want to spend per person and then putting that money into an account. So if I have ten people to buy for and I budget, $100 each, I'll try to put $1,000 in a savings account throughout the year. It's like a self-made layaway plan. That's not really a good tip right now (maybe next year?). My favorite tip that you can do right now is to try to buy everything online. I hate going into stores, especially during the holidays where the mall is always packed, parking is miserable, and people are miserable. You can buy anything online these days and chances are you can save yourself a lot of money when you shop online because prices are better and sales tax is often not collected unless the merchant has a physical location in your state. Jim Wang is the founder of Bargaineering.com and now writes at MicroBlogger.com 7. Buy gifts throughout the year My best tip is to use the whole year for shopping.  Since I already have a list of people to buy for in December, I just hold onto that list – and the ideas I had for them – and look for matching items throughout the year. I have most of my Christmas shopping done and it's only September! Trent Hamm is author of The Simple Dollar and founder of TheSimpleDollar.com 8. No gift policy with close friends. Talk to all your close friends and have a no gift policy. Instead, use some of that money usually spent on wasted gifts and have a great experience together. It could be a simple night out, or even a mini vacation. You'll end up having so much more fun and wondered why everyone concentrates on buying material goods most recipients don't even like in the first place. David Ning is the founder of MoneyNing.com 9. Use these money-saving apps When it comes to holiday shopping, using apps can be one of the best ways you can save money. What are some of the best apps you can use? RedLaser and Price Grabber enable you to comparison shop and find the best deals on the items on your shopping list, SavedPlus automatically causes you to save money each time you make a purchase by depositing a percentage of what you spend from your checking account into your savings account, and Coupon Sherpa or Yowza can help you find coupons to save even more money! With so many easy to use apps to help you save, holiday shopping doesn't have to empty your wallet and can instead help you grow the amount of money in your savings account! Ashley Jacobs is Wise Bread's Community Coordinator and hosts Wise Bread's weekly #WBChat on Twitter 10. Use Evernote to keep track of gift ideas One of my favorite shopping tips is to buy all year as you see interesting things so that you don’t have the pressure on your time, budget, and creativity all hitting you at one time in December. My husband and I do quite a bit of personal travel, so I try to pick up items that represent the area, which makes even a jar of berry jam or spicy mustard special because it came from somewhere else. I often focus on consumables such as jams, unique seasoning mixes, etc. because so many in my family don’t really need to acquire more “stuff.” My "go to" app is Evernote.  If you are shopping online and want to remember a page on a site, you clip it to Evernote and you can tag it (possibly with a name of person you were shopping for). It is a great way to keep ideas from all your devices since it works on PC, pad or phone. Maxine Sweet is the Sr. Vice President of Consumer Education at Experian 11. Plan ahead. The best advice I can give is to plan ahead. If you start by making a list of people on your holiday gift list early – as in, before Thanksgiving – then you can strategically take advantage of any deals that you find. For example, you might notice a Black Friday discount at Toys R Us and use the opportunity to get an affordable gift for your niece or nephew (this article from PT Money has good Black Friday tips). Or use the advance time before the holidays to create thoughtful, low-cost gifts that will make people smile because of the time you put into them rather than how much they cost. But perhaps most importantly, if you plan ahead you can start saving a little bit each month leading up to the holidays and use it to get through December without going over budget. Benjamin Feldman is a writer and personal finance expert at ReadyForZero.com, an online tool for paying off debt and building wealth. You can read his work at ReadyForZero's Debt Free Blog.

This guest post is by Gail Cunningham, Vice President of Membership and Public Relations, National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). Experian’s recent State of Credit Study revealed that The Greatest Generation has something else to brag about: responsibly managing credit. And that’s no small achievement considering that some of these folks have 50 or more years of credit history under their belt. That’s a lot of on-time payments. If you fall into the 65+ age bracket, congratulations! You’ve done a lot right. Now let’s keep a good thing going. Here are some tips to help you stay financially healthy moving forward:   Make financial decisions with your head, not your heart. This is difficult to do when a family member reaches out to you for financial help. But remember, you won’t be in a position to help anyone if you can’t support yourself, so think of ways that you can assist family members without putting your own finances in jeopardy. Stay alert about protecting your identity and personal financial information. Seniors are prime targets for scam artists. Never provide personal information over the phone unless you initiated the call, and if you receive an email requesting financial information, don’t respond. Phony emails can look very real, so play it safe by picking up the phone and calling the sender. Make your wallet a little lighter by removing your Social Security and Medicare cards, as these can be the gateway to your personal information if they fall into the hands of a criminal. Get your financial ducks in a row. Know your retirement options in order to maximize your benefits. The decisions you make when leaving your job, beginning Social Security or signing up for Medicare can have long-term implications. Also, review documents such as your will and medical power of attorney to make sure they are up-to-date. Getting advice from a professional in advance of major decisions will pay for itself many times over. Take care of yourself. Medical costs can increase substantially for people as they age, and there are currently many unknowns around healthcare. Therefore, it’s important to do what you can to avoid any unnecessary medical issues. Embrace a healthy lifestyle of eating right and exercising to help keep medical and prescription costs down. Don’t be shy about taking advantage of age-based discounts. There are many perks for people in their 60’s, 70’s and beyond. Look for travel discounts, cheaper cell phone plans, and special discounts at restaurants and movies to make date night even better! The bottom line is to stay the course and not abandon the financial values that have served you well and gotten you where you are today.

This guest post is from Ted Jenkin, CFP®. Ted is co-CEO of oXYGen Financial and is a top ranked personal finance blogger (www.yoursmartmoneymoves.com). He is a regular contributor to Investment News, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. It’s official. For years and years everyone has labeled my generation (Generation X) the slacker generation. We were the ones that really started on the video game revolution with games like Pong and Atari and now we have relegated ourselves to worst in class when it comes to overall debt. Although the average balance on credit cards is neck and neck with baby boomers at $5,343 per card and we don’t carry quite as many credit cards as baby boomers, the average debt for a Gen X’er has soared to over $30,000. The Experian study showed that nationally, the average debt in the United States is $27,887 and the average bankcard balance is $4,501. So, why is such a successful generation getting so deep in debt? What actions can you take today to start improving your situation? There is a reason why Gen X’ers and Millennials are using their credit cards more and falling behind on their payments. I call it lifestyle envy. While social media has become really effective in bringing the world closer together, it has also created a set of unrealistic expectations for my generation based upon last night’s Facebook post. Doesn’t it make you angry that your childhood friends are all taking vacations to paradise whereas you suffer from having to take staycations? Aren’t you frustrated that your co-workers all seem to be driving a Porsche or an Audi and you are stuck rolling around in a 2001 Honda? How is it possible that your neighbor’s kids are having birthday parties like they are rock stars while you are still playing pin the tail on the donkey in your basement? You should learn by reading the study from Experian that although it appears they are living life like they are on an episode of Entourage, the truth of it is that their finances are a sinking ship weighted by an anchor of credit card. All the pictures on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest might give you the appearance they are doing well. But that is all smoke and mirrors as these images produce a level of irrationality in our minds when it comes to how we spend our money. The pictures tell us, “If they can do it, surely I can do it as well!” Notice there are no facts about income or net worth on Facebook. Notice that there are no budget numbers shown on Facebook. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, the posts we see night in and night out psychologically work on our brains to make us think we should be spending more than we need to with our credit cards. So, how can you fix your situation? Use these five rules as you manage your personal finances: Adopt The Pay Yourself First Rule – I’ve been doing this personally for 22 years in my own financial plan, and I recommend to save a minimum of 10% off the top before you plan out the rest of your budget. If you can get to 20% to 30% even better, but start at a minimum of 10%. If you try to save money after you spend, it’s likely you’ll have nothing because everyone is after your money. When It Comes To Raises At Work, Use the 1/3rd Rule – Hopefully, if you are between the ages 34 to 48, your income will continue to go up in your peak earning years. It is easy to expand your lifestyle as you make more money. Consider saving just 1/3rd of every new pay raise you get at work whether it be in your 401(k) or personal savings. 1/3rd will go to tax and keep a 1/3rd for fun. Get Down To Two Credit Cards You Use – Once you begin to pay off debt don’t cancel your existing credit cards, just stop using them. I’ve maintained a high credit score over the years by carrying several cards, but being disciplined to using two cards and paying them off all the time. Do you really need five more store cards? Use The Acid Test For Purchases – Before you make a purchase, ask yourself whether or not you need it, you want it, and you can truly afford it? Since the internet has created a wave of ease for our spending compulsions, before you click purchase give it 48 hours and then come back to the website to see if you still really want the merchandise. If You Are Struggling, Go To A Forced Budgeting Site – In the good old days, people used envelopes to sort out the cash from their weekly paychecks for paying bills. Today, there are websites such as www.mvelopes.com that can help you do this electronically as a family. This can be an especially powerful tool for those that lack self-discipline. Remember that sound from Pac-Man when you got caught by one of the Ghosts? If you don’t get your spending under control, that is what your personal financial picture will look and sound like as well. Use these smart money moves to get your debt under control and make your cash work toward making work optional one day soon!