If you're like most people, you spent a little more than you had planned over the holidays.

After spending your budget, there is always another must have item demanding to be bought. That leaves you with unplanned debt on top of your already larger-than-should-be debt. What to do?

The fastest and easiest thing to do is to take a look at your cash management. Yep, that means revisiting your old pal - the budget :) It's time to hunker down and face your finances. Find out what your current account balances are, how much you owe and an update on how much you are bringing in. Now take a look at where you can tighten the purse string strings just a little to make up for the over-spending.

With the rise in the level of US national debt, an increased number of people are turning to professional debt reduction companies for help. A huge number of people in America can't deal with their ever increasing debt load. With the rise in the rate of unemployment, there is less cash in their pockets to even pay debt reduction companies. Here arises the need of a debt reduction company that offers services free of cost. A debt consolidation non profit company can help you realize your desire of seeking debt help free of cost. There are multiple benefits of such companies. Read on to know about the various benefits of non profit debt consolidation.

If you're drowned in a huge amount of debt and are looking for ways to get out of the same, considering debt consolidation may be a viable option. But the question lies as to "Is debt consolidation good?" If this is the question that is bothering you, then you need to review the options prudently before consolidating your debts. Debt consolidation is a good option if you're struggling with multiple debts. You can combine all your debts and make single monthly payments to only one creditor. Debt consolidation involves many options like debt consolidation loans, balance transfers, credit counseling etc. Read on to know more about it.

While there is no accurate answer, best guesses put about 10% of our behavior as innate while about 90% of our behavior is learned (in adults). This means that 90% of what we do is a direct result of either conscious thought processes or habit. I suggest that nearly 100% of our financial habits are learned behavior. Let me illustrate with an example. (This is a great story - worth taking the time to read it)

In a famous behavior experiment, 4 guinea pigs we put into a cage.

First of all - the rule of thumb is NEVER buy a new car unless you have money to burn. Vehicles devalue so quickly, the financing usually leaves you paying for something that is not even worth the remaining balance you owe. In fact, as soon as you drive the car off the dealers lot you can take a few $1000 off the price you just paid. 0% financing may make is look more tempting, but its still a bad deal.

Now, having said that, I just bought a new car :) But I did so with my eyes wide open. You may recall from a previous blog that my van died. We decided at the time to try living without owning a vehicle. We tried the experiment for 3 weeks. The money savings were great, but here's what we found. We were spending up to 1 hour/day trying to arrange for borrowing a vehicle to get our family (7 of us) to the places we needed to be at. That time (and to a less degree, the stress of feeling like a burden to those we were constantly asking) was something we didn't fully consider.