Many people find themselves totally bloated with credit and realize that they need to go on a diet. Slimming down your credit is a good idea if you do it properly. The secret is to slim it down but not cut it off. So follow these suggestions and you will be helping your financial future.

First, review all of your credit cards by the date that the account was opened. This will show you how long you have had each account. One of the things that the credit bureaus use to base your credit score is the age of the account. The older accounts count more towards your credit score then the accounts you have just opened up.

Once you have sorted them by age is put down a list of each of those accounts and how much you owe on those accounts. By building this list you will now know which items need your attention. Any item that is using more than 30% of the credit limit needs to be reduced. You will get the best benefit on your credit score if you are using less than 30% of your available limit on each of your credit accounts.

So start paying off each credit card until you are below 30%. Then continue to pay off the next card until all of the cards are below 30%. Once you have each card account below 30% then look at each credit card and find out what interest rate is being paid on each card. I would suggest that your credit cards should be paid off by the highest interest rate first. Once you have paid off the balance however, you cannot just cut up the card. This will help you with your credit score if you use it correctly.

Once you get your credit cards paid down or off, you need to continue to pay them on time and in full each and every month. If your oldest cards are also your highest interest rate cards, then you still want to use them but you want to make sure that you pay them off in full and on time. By doing this the credit bureaus will be adding the good information to your credit score and by paying it off you will be helping your financial situation.

Remember, pay down your credit card debt and keep using your oldest accounts as they will help your score more. Take the time to review your credit history report at least once a year and dispute anything on your credit report that is not accurate, misleading or simply not yours. Those mistakes on your credit history report will hurt your score. An accurate report is best for keeping your credit history report from identity theft.

It is never too early to teach your children some good financial habits. Taking the time to start early will help them learn that money does not grow on trees and that you certainly are not made of money. This has often helped children learn why parents just can’t buy everything that the child wants.

Here is a good place to start. When the child gets old enough to handle some simple chores it is time to consider a small allowance. Each time you assign the child a new job, give them a raise in their allowance. I started with my children when they were about 3 and 4 years old. The first chore that they had to do was to clean up their bedroom and pick up their toys. This including making their bed and putting their clothes into the laundry hamper. I did not look for hospital corners and as they got older the neater I expected the work to be done.

When they started to school, their chore list became larger including trash and helping out with dishes. This meant that I needed to raise their “pay” to compensate them for the additional work. They also wanted to have me buy things for them so I worked out deals for them to make a little extra money to help them buy those things that they wanted including video games or movies. I bought some of those things for Holiday gifts but also worked with my children on things that they wanted throughout the year.

So start teaching your children good financial habits. Starting a savings account, even without the bank, can begin to teach them how to put money away for a rainy day. Additionally, you can teach them about buying things on credit (usually mine) and making payments on time (to me). By doing this they learned that they were expected to make those payments in full and on time each pay period. Each week I gave them their allowance and they in turn paid back to me what we had previously agreed upon.

These are habits that will benefit them in later years. As parents we should make sure that our children learn good credit habits because otherwise they may never learn them.

Do you feel that each month is putting you one step closer to Foreclosure? Are you falling behind on your bills and not sure if you are going to recover? It is time to take a few minutes and look deeply into your finances.

Many people don’t pay attention to their finances until it is too late. Especially if they are struggling to pay all of the bills each month. If you have not setup a budget or you don’t seem to be following the budget very well, you should get it in line and start managing your money better. This is one of the most important beginnings to save your home and get your finances corrected. Generally, If you have not been using a budget you can get yourself fixed and keep your home from foreclosure.

Now if you have been working under a budget and are still having problems then you may be looking at foreclosure. Start by looking where you can cut your expenditures and see if you can apply enough money to saving yourself from a foreclosure. Cutting costs can be across the board and include anything from losing your second car. This will save you a car payment, Insurance, maintenance costs. Surprisingly this might even come close to ½ of your house payment. This could be the saving grace if you are paying attention.

Also, if you are paying for a daycare, you may want to find out if your neighbors are also paying for daycare. If so, you might want to get together and see if you can share costs on daycare. Instead of hiring a company to watch 2-4 children, you can hire a sitter for the hours needed. Maybe you can share the house. One week at your home, the next week at your neighbors home.

I also got with my In-Laws and we went shopping at the local warehouse store. We bought things like paper towels, toilet paper, food and many other items in bulk. We then would split the bill and the merchandise. I bought a food saver and we vacuum packed the food we bought in bulk and froze it in individual portions. This really saved us some money and we were able to purchase food basically once a month. We bought the foods that would perish weekly so that we did not have anything go bad. We also watched for any case sales and bought items when they were on sale.

We found that by doing this each and every month we almost saved one-half to three-quarters of our house payment each month. This made it very easy to make the home payment. After we got back on top of our bills, we started doubling up on our house payment and working to pay it off early. It really was good when we had to go borrow on some of our equity due to some medical bills. We were able to borrow money at a pretty good interest rate because not only were we ahead on our bills, we had actually reduced our debt and it really helped our credit score.

If you are looking at foreclosure and don’t see any other option, take the time to talk with an attorney regarding bankruptcy. You might be able to keep your home while reducing your other debts. This might allow you to keep your home. Home Ownership is very important to most families. Lastly, look into refinancing or speaking with your lender and see what other options might be available to you. Foreclosure does not have to be the answer if you are willing to search for your other options. Foreclosure will damage your credit report for many years and if you can avoid it