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Joint debts can make the break up of a marriage more traumatic. After divorce, it is legally not practical to divide the debts between the couples. Going through a divorce is the most difficult time and such financial complications can turn things all the more ugly and complicated. In case of joint accounts, if one joint account holder misses the payment or stops paying the bill, the lender will come after the other joint account holder. When you open joint accounts with your partner, it means that both of you are responsible for it. A divorce decree does not change the previous agreements made between you and the lenders. It doesn’t matter to the lender who actually made the charges or who agreed to pay off the bills in the divorce decree. The lender will try to collect from both the account holders. So, a word to the wise, don’t sign a divorce petition just for the sake of calling it a quit with your partner. Don’t sign the petition until and unless everything related to all the credit accounts that are jointly held is worked out.

If you are contemplating to file for a divorce, then here are some credit tips. Read the rest of this entry »

(I have written another post as a continuation to this)
Life after divorce is not easy. All of a sudden you are left alone with issues such as children, money, career and home. Yeah…I know it can leave a person reeling. Matters can go even worse for you if your ex spouse is not paying off the joint accounts you once held together.

Being divorced does not mean that you are off the hook for any of the debts held by your ex-spouse. It’s pretty normal for the married couples to hold joint accounts. But what happens to these joint accounts when you are divorced. The accounts you held with your ex will be listed in your as well as your ex’s reports. You might be now thinking of the divorce decree that said that all the joint accounts have been assigned to your ex. But wait!!! The divorce decree is not concerned with the original contract that you and your ex had with the lender.

So, what happens when your spouse stops making payments on the accounts assigned to him or her in the decree? You have to come up with the full amount and it will be really hard for you and the things can turn ugly when you start getting behind on your payments. And late payments really hurt your report. Before your report is marred, try to convince your ex to put the accounts in his or her name. I know it won’t be a cake walk for you but still you have to do it. Or, you can consult an attorney and chalk out some plans so that one of you at least makes the minimum payments. So, sitting idle and just blaming your ex for ruining your credit won’t help. You have to do something!!!!

Technorati Tags: Credit report, Divorce, Divorce Decree

What if you retire young and get to do all that you have once wished to but couldn’t get time and the money to afford it? That will be great isn’t it?

If you wish to retire young, it’s important that you start planning for your financial security much before than a normal retiree. To begin with, you need to have a home of your own and for that you will have to take out a mortgage if you’re not buying with plain cash. Supplementing your home, there should be life insurance policies providing enough coverage for your life. And then, to cover your healthcare expenses, a health insurance policy can be an ideal one.

An early retirement is something that you can achieve if you have adequate funds that would serve as your retirement money – even higher than the savings of one who’d like to retire at the usual old age. While you start saving for your retirement, there’s one factor you need to take care of – that’s the inflation rate. This will keep you on your toes while you adjust the expenses, save and invest to build up an impressive retirement fund.

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We keep hearing about the frugal concept and somehow I find it pretty tough to keep myself under control financially. No I am not a spendthrift but sometimes go for impulsive shopping. Slowly but steadily I have learnt to save money by just being smart. It is not so difficult to avoid unnecessary expenditures. Being a little towards the artistic mode I planned to stop wasting money on gifts. My best friend said it looks cheap but I did not pay any heed because I knew this would help in the long run.

With the festive season coming close I am sharing these ideas. It is social responsibility to gift the loved ones, something really precious that can be cherished. This is not related to money but with feelings.

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“I’ve had enough of it and now I’m gonna give it up” What are you guys thinking??? No no….I’m not an alcoholic or an active smoker and definitely not a shopaholic. Shopaholic…Did u guys hear me??? When most people think of quitting something, they either think of smoking or gambling. You know shopping never comes to their mind. There are many little habits that we pick up unconsciously in our daily routine and spending unnecessarily on shopping is one of them. Recently while browsing the net I came to know about a survey conducted by the American Journal of Psychiatry and the results were shocking – 1 out of 12 people are compulsive shoppers!!!!

I know some people who go out to shop just because they feel low and want to get a “high”, just like a drug addict or an alcoholic. They have racks of unused clothes, shoes, perfumes and accessories with the price tags. They usually hit the shopping malls with the intention of buying one or two new clothes but they come home with bags and bags of purchases. I have even heard that some shopping addicts have an emotional “black out”, the whole shopping spree just erases out of their memory and they completely forget about buying the items. Now that seems to be quite a big problem. But wait…apart from being a psychiatric problem shopping addiction is gonna cause you major financial problems too.

In fact one of the major implications of shopoholism is overwhelming debt. People who are addicted to shopping will spend even when they are in midst of financial crunch, which can soon lead to debt problems. I have seen people shopping on borrowed money and trust me such habits can really wreck havoc not only on your finances but as well as work and relationships. Shopping addiction is certainly a sure fire way to take down all the hard earned money and squash it in a split second. So, if you know someone who is a shopping addict or have accrued unmanageable debts through impulse buying, then please advice them to consult trained financial counselors or psychiatrists. Shopoholism is a serious problem and if unaddressed it can have serious implications.

Technorati Tags: spending habits, shopping addicts, shopping, debts, financial counselors, shopping addiction