Q: Yikes! I’ve got a rent payment due in a couple of days. Payday will come too late and I’m a few bucks short! What can I do? A: Everyone can relate to this experience or one that’s similar. An unexpected bill or a short paycheck puts you behind, and you spend the rest of the month playing catch up. Finally, a big, important bill comes up and you’re out of backup plans. That grim feeling of panic creeps up your spine. Your heart races. This is a financial crisis! The first step is to silence that panic. Take two…

It’s no secret that finances are the ruin of many relationships. It’s a complicated subject for many couples, and it only gets more chaotic over time. Combining assets, discussing each other’s debts, figuring out how much to save and determining who is responsible for what are some of the issues you’ll need to work through. While money talks will probably always be serious, they don’t need to negative (and definitely should not be emotional). Here are some suggestions for navigating finances successfully together: Start a Joint Account For any shared expenses you have, it’s helpful to have a joint account…

Keeping an eye on your credit report allows you to monitor any errors that come up. At Aspire, we offer free credit report reviews and try to help you understand what’s happening with your accounts, but it also helps for you to look at your report once a year at annualcreditreport.com (you get one free look every year). Why is it so important? Even companies you think you can trust, like Wells Fargo, can be corrupt. Wells Fargo Employees Opened Millions of Unauthorized Bank Accounts Since 2011, Wells Fargo employees have been opening deposit and credit card accounts without notifying…

In order to ensure that you will have a healthy financial future, be honest with yourself about your finances.  Many people who end up having financial hardships are in those situations because they were not honest about their finances.  There are some common lies that people tell themselves that lead them down the wrong financial track. “I Have More Good Debt than Bad” Many people believe in separating debt into good debt and bad debt.  Good debt is typically considered student loans, mortgages, or car loans, where bad debt is usually from credit cards with high interest rates.  Even though some debt…

Birth order has been shown to have some effect on many aspects of life from personality to achievements and even to the type of person one will marry. It’s no surprise that financial health may be partly due to birth order as well. Oldest Being responsible and driven are usually associated with the eldest sibling. Firstborns are usually more organized, punctual and responsible as they have typically been put in charge of their younger siblings multiple times, along with being depended on by parents as well. This can all help lead to healthy finances including paying bills on time, responsible spending and…