A peculiar article was recently published by Smart Money suggesting that living completely debt free is a bad thing. That your credit score can actually be worsened by having no debt! The powers that be are trying to make us believe that debt is actually good for us! Apparently individuals are starting out in life with piles of debt to work off. This includes the common student and credit card debt. The rate of debt growth is escalating. So the financial institutions lending us the money are doing a great […]

An interesting pool just came out by Banrate.com asking Americans how they felt about budgeting. The results seem to be a bit contradictory. In the poll, it was suggested that American’s felt budgeting was very important.  Ninety percent of respondents say it’s “essential” or “very important” to have a personal or family budget. The poll further indicated American’ understand the virtue of keeping a budget. The idea of what we teach at Prosper is what American’s believe to be important.  “You create a monthly spending plan, and you pat yourself […]

Kids are living in the entitlement generation, the shadow of their Baby Boomer Parents. For some reason after World War II, children developed an attitude of having it all and having it now.  This has gotten many people of both generations in a load of debt. One of the biggest things that I’ve seen as a coach at Prosper is that a lack of financial knowledge is multi generational. The inability to manage money is transferred down to the kids, then their kids, and so on. Many people see personal […]

Some very interesting tidbits of information have been produced this week. Yahoo finance produced a survey relating to money It is enlightening non the less. What is illustrated here is the falicy “Nearly 80 percent of U.S. adults say they need more money to feel financially comfortable, and more than a quarter would have to double — or more than double their current income to achieve that goal,”  (Yahoo! Finance/Harris Interactive survey.) Among the other findings: • More than half of respondents don’t follow a budget • More than 70 […]