5 No Cost Things You Can Do to be Financially Stable

People that teach financial education often talk about lowering your expenses and increasing your income to increase your financial stability. Of course those things are good but today I want to focus on the five free things you can do to increase your financial stability.

For all of my personal finance tips, order my book “10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money“. If you already have a few challenges, order my Amazon Best Seller “Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook“.

 

#1 Open an Account at a Credit Union

One of the best financial decisions you can make is to open a checking account at a credit union. It costs nothing to open an account and the benefits are many: better customer service, often lower account fees, usually cheaper car loans, mortgages, and credit cards, and the opportunity to build a relationship with a financial institution with all these great benefits before you need to ask for a loan. Check here to find the credit union closest to you.

 

#2 Check Your Credit Reports

You may know that there are three credit reports and three credit scores for each of us but did you know that you can have free access to your reports? The credit bureaus have the right to control who has access to the scores that they’ve created the mathematical formulas to create, BUT the records …  the information that make up the data those formulas use is your data and is free for you to access. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free copy of your reports once every 12 months.

 

#3 Collect Your Change

For years I’ve told people that an easy way to find money to build up your Emergency Fund or invest in a no-load mutual fund was to throw your spare change in a jar. I still believe it’s true. On average, you’ll have about $50 per month is quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. Instead of that spare change ending up under the couch cushions, in your car’s ashtray, and at the bottom of your purse throw it in an empty water jug or an actual piggy bank. Don’t believe me? Check out this blog.

 

 

#4 Open a High Yield Savings Account

Since I’ve been badgering you to create an Emergency Savings Account, I thought I’d help you out by providing you with the latest lists of accounts with the highest interest rates (you’ll earn more money than at your local financial institution) across the US. Check out the highest yielding savings accounts here.

 

#5 Choose You

This is the hardest free thing you might ever have to do: choose yourself over everything. Choose to save some money for an emergency instead of eating out. Choose to invest some money in a mutual fund instead of purchasing an extra excursion on a trip. Choose to think you’re going to create the exact life you’d like to have …   and then do the prep work so when your opportunity comes, you’re ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credit Scores Could Rise This Fall

This fall credit scores across the country may rise. There are four new changes to the VantageScore  (a new thing created by the big 3 credit bureaus) that may increase credit scores for those that need it most. Unfortunately for those looking to buy a home the FICO scoring model will not be effected.

KETV says, “The new method is being implemented later this year by VantageScore, a company created by the credit bureaus Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. It’s not as well-known as Fair Isaac Corp., whose FICO score is used for the vast majority of mortgages. But VantageScore handled 8 billion account applications last year, so if you applied for a credit card, that score was likely used to approve or deny you.”

The changes include:

Trended data – CNBC says, “Using what’s known as trended data is the biggest change. The phrase means credit scores will take into account the trajectory of a borrower’s debts on a month-to-month basis. So a person who is paying down debt is now likely to be scored better than a person who is making minimum monthly payments but has been slowly accumulating credit card debt.”

Legal data – Civil judgments, medical debt and tax liens will no longer affect your score. Mortgages are still primarily using FICO scores so don’t get too excited but for other types of loans (credit cards, auto loans, etc.) this could really help some folks out.

High Limits – the debt ratio portion of scoring for VantageScore is about to be turned on it’s head. Instead of the lower the debt ration, the better people with “excessive” credit card limits could be hurt. the rational is that those with higher limits could rack up more debt, faster.

Less Robust History – According to the Motley Fool those that have fewer items on their credit histories may also see an increase in their score due to, “The model will examine thousands of various consumer behaviors in an effort to identify those who have a propensity to pay their bills on time, because these are the people that lenders want to attract.”

Some changes may help and some may hurt depending on what’s going on with your credit scores right now. Motley Fool gives the easiest explanation of the biggest changes. Read more here.

 

Shay Olivarria is the most dynamic financial education speaker working today. Previous clients include: the Yorba Linda Water District, Verizon, and Friends of Allensworth, among others. She has written three books on personal finance, including Amazon Best Seller “Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook”. Shay has been quoted on Bankrate.com, FoxBusiness.com, NBC Latino and The Credit Union Times.The 2nd edition of “10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money” is available now.

Facebook Chat for High School Seniors

To celebrate Financial Education Month Bigger Than Your Block will offer a free Facebook chat with high school seniors. Shay Olivarria the author of “10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money (2nd edition)” will be on hand. The one hour chat will allow students to  ask any questions they have about personal finance including:

• Choosing a credit union.
• Opening a checking account.
• Opening an investment or retirement account.
• Accepting financial aid monies.
• Locating scholarships.
• Creating a spending plan for college.
• Anything else you can come up with!

Wednesday, April 5th 6pm PST

#BTYBChat for High School Seniors

Join the chat

 

Virtual Book Launch June 8th

As you all know, I am ecstatic about the printing of the 2nd edition of 10 Things College Students Need to Know about Money! I’m so excited that for the first time ever I’m hosting a virtual book launch on Facebook. What is a virtual book launch you ask? Good question.  *wink*

A virtual book launch is an opportunity for you to ask me about the book, win some cool gifts and score an AMAZING discount on the book. I’m so excited.

Sign up to receive my emails and get another gift.

Subscribe to our mailing list

See you Wednesday, June 8th between 6:30pm and 8:30pm Pacific Standard Time.

Economic Summit and Student Leadership Conference – Las Vegas

The Economic Summit and Student Leadership Conference was held in Las Vegas at the College of Southern Nevada – Cheyenne Campus on Saturday, December 13th. Shay Olivarria, financial education speaker and author, spoke to three sessions of students and parents while representing the Center for Financial Empowerment in Irwindale, CA.

Topics covered included credit scoring, credit monitoring, credit cards, ROI and the differences between traditional banks and credit unions. Each presentation was about 50 minutes long and included PowerPoint, videos and large group discussion. The teens (both high school and college students) and parents were very vocal and were genuinely interested in in sharing what they knew and learning more about the topics.

The event was well attended and very well run. Perhaps Shay will be back in 2015.

Should Utilities Be Included in Credit Scores?

In Sunday’s LA Times “Changes weighed that may boost credit scores” talks about a recent hearing before the House Financial Services Committee headed up by Los Angeles Representative Maxine Waters. Due to the recession many Americans that had favorable credit scores have seen their scores decline due to job loss and stagnant pay. Water is advocating for negative things to fall off of one’s credit report in 4 years instead of the 7 years that it is currently and for the inclusion of so-called “alternative credit data” such as rent payments and utility bills (water, power, cable, etc,).

Many think that including these payments will help people increase their credit scores because they will be recognized for paying these bills every month. Others think that it might make things worse because many people prioritize payments and when money is tight choose to pay their rent and wait to pay their utilities that would trigger 30-day-late and possibly 60-day-late marks on credit reports thereby lowering scores.

What do you think? Would you like to see alternative credit data included in credit reports?

 

WEBINAR: Pay Off Holiday Debt

In an effort to reach even more people, Bigger Than Your Block will be hosting a series of FREE financial education webinars. The first in the series is Pay Off Holiday Debt. In this informative webinar you’ll discover the two most important strategies to pay down debt, how the CARD Act helps you pay down debt faster than ever before and how to make your credit card work for you!

REGISTER HERE

The webinar is WEdnesday, January 19th 6pm PST/9pm EST.

Update:

In case you missed the live webinar, you can check out the replay at https://www.anymeeting.com/WebConference-beta/RecordingDefault.aspx?c_psrid=EF51DB878048

Shay on Multicultural Familia Radio

3 Reasons to Buy Money Matters

Order Money Matters on Amazon.com

If you are looking to make some changes and get on track financially, Money Matters by Shay Olivarria is the book for you. There is a check-up for where you are with your financial goals. The book addresses savings; short term and long term. It tells you how to set up retirement accounts, investments, and how NOT to get into deep debt. This is great for those beginning their journey into the real world. Also, for those that have already messed up, Olivarria has steps on how to get back on track.

Olivarria creates a great guide for you to create your own individual plan to get out of debt and on the track to financial freedom. She states that you have to be patient and consistent. It is never too late to turn it around. I suggest you gift this book to college graduates. It is straight to the point and interactive.

This book was provided courtesy of the author for review.

DCSquared

 

#1 You want to know more about personal finance, but you’re not sure where or how to begin.

We all want to make better financial decisions. The challenge is that sometimes we’re not sure what to do or we have hard decisions to make where both options seem like bad ideas. We get so caught up in running from day to day that we forget that we can make changes if we take a moment to plan instead of react. Money Matters was written with that in mind. The very first worksheet is one page long and helps you see the bigger picture by asking a few simple questions.

#2 You are intimidated by personal finance jargon.

Have you ever tried to read a personal finance book or spoke with someone in the financial services industry and you didn’t understand what they were saying? Me too! Personal finance is not complicated, but it’s easy to make it seem complicated by using industry jargon. Money Matters is written clearly. I don’t try to confuse the reader by making things sound harder than they are. That’s why media outlets across the country have quoted me and asked me to write for them. I make money management simple.

#3 You want to know what you need to know to make things change.

Take a look at the Table of Contents from Money Matters in the image above. This book covers “just the facts ma’am”. There are tons of books that do into depth about any area of personal finance that you might be interested in. This is not that book. Money Matters is a bare-bones, simple read with worksheets to help you make good decisions about money. The book covers net worth, retirement planning, paying off debt, managing your credit score, payday loans, rapid tax refunds, and even saving money on your groceries.

 

Shay Olivarria is the most dynamic financial education speaker working today. She speaks at high schools, colleges, and companies across the country. She has written three books on personal finance, including Amazon Best Seller “Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook”. Shay has been quoted on Bankrate.com, FoxBusiness.com, NBC Latino and The Credit Union Times, among others. To schedule Shay to speak at your event visit www.BiggerThanYourBlock.com

Shay on Impact Radio

Tuesday, September 7th I was a guest on Impact Radio in Los Angeles. I had a great time with the host, Ciji McBride. Here’s a little behind-the-scenes footage from the broadcast.

Money Trumps Love

There are 4 money topics every couple should talk about asap.

It’s a sad fact to acknowledge, but money and security is more important to lots of folks than love. You can be as upset with me as you like, but that’s the truth. You think your relationship isn’t like that? Let’s see one of the partners in a relationship lose their job and have no income for a year or two. Let’s have one partner that’s a super saver and one that’s a super spender under one roof and you tell me how it works out. Some of you ardent defenders of love are now say, “well, that’s a specific instance” and “those are gross exaggerations of the situation” … riiiight. We all know people in situations like these. They are more common than we want to talk about.

With all the excitement over folks getting a mate, I notice there isn’t much discussion about keeping a mate. To that end, this post is about strengthening a relationship that’s already in place. There are 4 things that every couple should talk about asap. Of course, conversations about money should be ongoing however these are topics that you cannot put off and cannot be overlooked:

Credit scores and reports
I know you’re going to be upset, but you can’t trust anyone to tell you what their credit scores are. The reason? Most people don’t know. Each of us has 3 separate scores from each of the 3 major credit agencies and those scores go up and down every month depending on our behavior. It behooves each partner to pull their credit scores and reports and sit down to talk money strategy. If you’re building a life together, you have to know where you’re starting from. It’ll cost each partner about $50 to pull all three reports with scores, but it might save you thousands of dollars over your relationship and possibly … you’re relationship too.

Money attitude

Once you have your reports you may start to ask questions. If your partner is an ardent saver with a pristine report you may want to know how they did it? Does your partner live on less than what they make because they haven’t contributed a penny to a retirement account? Do they use coupons? Do they borrow money from parents to cover shortages? It’s important to know what behaviors are contributing to their credit report. Those behaviors may class with yours.

I’ve learned the hard way that money isn’t what makes people poor or wealthy. Attitude is what makes people poor or wealthy. If someone has $100,000 in debt because they like to buy expensive things, giving them the money to pay the dent off won’t make a difference. When the debt has been paid off they will rack it up again because they have not changed their behaviors. What behaviors does your partner have?

Who’s in charge?

You will be responsible for paying the bills? Who is in charge of purchasing groceries? You will choose what retirement strategy you use? You can take turns, you can do it together or you can choose one of you to be responsible for it, but you must make a decision. There are no wrong choices. Sometimes it’s easier to play to the strengths of each partner and delegate that one partner deal with the retirement plans while the other partner pay the bills every month. Once it’s settled you both still need to sit down once every 3 months to make sure that you’re reaching your goals. If you’re not, with only 3 months of miscalculations things are pretty easily correctable.

Workarounds
No one is perfect. Each of us has shortcomings and things that annoy our partners. The best thing to do is own up to it and create a set of workarounds for each of you. For example, I know that I love to travel. I used to have all the travel deals come to my inbox every day. As a new trip to some great place showed up in my email I would start to plan my escape only to realize that it didn’t fit into my spending plan. Which made me sad for a minute. Then it made me upset. Then it made me want to eat noodles all week to be able to pay for it and not mess up my spending plan. This is a horrible cycle that would happen at least once a week until I created my own little workaround. I stopped having those travel deals sent to my inbox. You know what? I don’t even think about them any more. What easy workarounds can you figure out to help you and your partner stay on track?

When we choose partners we do it for many reasons. Very few of us will see someone walk down the street and think, “wow! look at the credit score on that one!” but many of us end potentially awesome relationships over who spends too much money or who nags about how many video games are purchased each month. If the person isn’t a good fit for you emotionally or spiritually, let them go. If they aren’t a good financial fit for you there is a possibility that person can change, and if not isn’t it better that you know from jump?

If a person tells you who they are, believe them.

PEACE

April is Financial Literacy Month – Credit Cards for Students

Since April is Financial Literacy Month I’ve invited a few folks to share their blogs with my readers throughout the month.

As we all know, the new CARD Act has a restriction that will prohibit people younger than 21 from applying for a credit card unless they have a co-signer that is older than 21 years old. That means that parents with students that will be heading off to college soon may want to co-sign for a card for their child to use in emergency situations, but how do you know which card is a good fit for a college student? This guest post from Digerati Life discusses some of the pros and cons of credit card usage for college students and which credit cards may be the best option for your student.

Don’t forget to purchase a copy of Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook at a 25% discount (use code XS8K4YGX). Spread the word that financial literacy is power! Buy a book for a friend and a relative.

Each one teach one.

Phone Apps You Need

It’s important that we manage our money effectively and efficiently. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “its not how much you make, it’s how much you spend”. I’ve created a list of a few phone apps that are:

– Cheap
– Effective
– Easy to use

Take a gander at these puppies.

Budget

They say, “Budget helps you track your spending and keep to a budget. You can easily see your total income and your total expenses for a period, plus which expenses you are spending the most on and which expenses you are going over budget on.”

I say that everyone needs to have a spending plan and there’s nothing like having your personal finance information at your fingertips. Using this app is a small change that will make a huge difference in your personal finance outlook… if you use it.

Compare Me Shopping Utility

They say, “WAS FEATURED BY APPLE IN “WHAT’S HOT” Did you ever shop at Sams, Costco or online at Amazon? Then CompareMe may help you to save money! CompareMe lets you compare products in different sizes and even in different packs.”

I say it’s an easy way to help you find out which buy is the best deal. Who knows if the $2 can at 16 oz. is a better buy than the $2.30 can at the 20 oz.? The Compare Me Shopping Utility knows.

iCredit Calculator

They say, “In the 1.2 release of the iCredit Calculator, the calculated repayment results can be generated into a PDF document that you can then e-mail as an attachment from your phone.”

I say this is a must have tool. When you’re out shopping and think, “i’ll put it on my credit card” this handy dandy tool will be there to help you find the true cost of those purchases. Small purchases really add up and effect your credit.

Bank of America Mobile Banking

They say, “Mobile Banking allows you to check available balances, pay bills, transfer funds or locate ATMs and banking centers on-the-go. It’s fast, easy and convenient. It’s a free service and available to Bank of America Online Banking* customers.”

I say it’s a great way to monitor your accounts on the go. The days of sitting at home balancing your checkbook are long gone for most of us. Why not have access to your accounts 24 hours a day, so you don’t end up with overdraft fees. Be honest… you know you take your phone everywhere you go. Now, you’ll have your personal finance information as close your music playlists!

Bloomberg

They say, “Bring the power of the most trusted source for financial information to your iPhone, along with tools to help you analyze the world’s markets.”

I say it’s a great free app that helps you toy around with financial market information. If you’d like to know more about stocks and how they work why not download an app from one of the most trusted financial sites in the world. Get this, it also comes in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian. Nice!

What apps do you use for personal finance?

Your Credit Score Matters

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people tell me that monitoring their credit score isn’t important. I’ve heard everything from, “I don’t use credit anyway” to “mine is already bad, so whatever”. Folks don’t realize that though we usually think of credit cards when we think of credit, our credit scores are used to dictate many areas of our lives.

Utility deposits – many utility companies will want to run your credit score in order to turn your services on. You may be asked to provide a deposit if your credit score isn’t up to snuff. We all need electricity, water, gas, etc. Keeping your credit score up lowers your total moving costs by not requiring deposits.

Jobs – employers have been known to run your credit and conduct a background search. More and more often that stack of papers in your application packet will include a request you pull your credit scores. Employers think that if you have a low score you might be tempted to steal or might be distracted from working. Having education and experience is great, but in this day and age it might not be enough to land a great job.

Loans – the interest rate that you will be offered on car loans, home loans, credit cards, etc. is based, in part, on your credit score. The higher the score the lower the interest rate. The lower the interest rate, the more money you save.

It’s important to monitor your 3 credit reports. Make sure that your reports are error free and that you’re taking proactive steps to keep your scores as high as possible. Read more about how to maintain stellar credit scores in Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook.

PEACE

The Voluptua Project

I’m so excited about being featured on The Voluptua Project today!

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the site, here’s what it’s about:

“The Voluptua Project™ caters to voluptuous women of ALL sizes but chiefly those size 6/8-18/20 and the men that love them.We provide access to curve-friendly resources, promote HEALTH, spirituality and wellness in addition to a rock solid experience – online and off – to connect with one another.

Additionally, the project seeks to effect social change through community activism and support groups offering assistance with a host of empowerment and encouragement programs that address issues such as health/weight issues, self-esteem and an introduction to entrepreneurship.”

Take a look at my feature and browse the site. There are great articles about fashion, perception, and more.

Visit The Voluptua Project. It’s the site for curvy ladies and real gents.