It may be one of life's scariest moments. You realize that there are significantly more bills than you have money to pay them with. It might be the result of overspending for months or even years, on the other hand it could simply be the loss of a job and no emergency savings to fall back on. The Next Six Week Christian Budget Workshop Is No Answer We don't seem to have much to offer people in such predicaments within the Christian community. Consider it tantamount to offering an exercise program or a cholesterol pill to someone having a heart... Read more →

Student loan expert Jan Miller joins Jim Paris for a discussion on student loan forgiveness, student loan refinancing, student loan consolidation, and resolving a student loan default. If you have a student loan you don't want to miss this episode. Numerous strategies on how to lower payments and much more. Read more →

*** A great resource that I highly recommend is an online service that you can use to find out who is actually calling you - Click Here To Do A Reverse Phone Number Search. I received a call last night from an elderly relative that was very distraught. In fact, they were crying on the phone as they tried to explain to me their predicament. They received a call late yesterday afternoon from an individual claiming to be a representative of a debt mediation service. My relative was told that they owed nearly $9,000 on an old credit card bill.... Read more →

A Tampa couple received a judgment of more than $1 million dollars against Bank Of America for “patterns of outrageous, abusive and harassing conduct.” The couple received more than 700 phone calls in four years after they became late on their mortgage in 2009. Even after sending multiple letters asking the bank to stop calling them, the calls continued. Each phone call was worth $1,500, bringing this all to a judgment of more than $1 million dollars! Stop debt collection phone calls with this simple letter - Cease Communication Debt Collection Calls. If they don't stop calling you after you... Read more →

On this episode Jim discusses Burt Reynolds financial problems. Reynolds is selling off more than 600 items through one of the largest auctions of its kind. Burt Reynolds is losing his home to foreclosure and is being sued by ex-wife Loni Anderson for unpaid support payments from their divorce settlement. Rush Limbaugh pays $500,000 per in in property taxes on his Palm Beach estate. New York Taxi medallion values plummeting as Internet based ride sharing services take hold. Why 2015 should be a very good year for Bitcoin. Jim's own Pearl Harbor story. Read more →

Famed actor Burt Reynolds says he is not broke, but some people are wondering after the announcement of the auction one of the largest personal collections of a living celebrity. The Burt Reynolds Auction will take place in Las Vegas on December 11 and 12. Bidders may also register to participate online and by telephone. Reynolds, age 78, is selling everything, including the kitchen sink (more than 600 personal items). Many of the items are the sort of thing you would expect, such as movie memorabilia, etc... but others are more of a personal nature, such as art and conversation... Read more →

Gradible.com is offering a new way to pay off student loans. The site matches up businesses with freelancers. Freelancers are compensated with 'loan credits' that are used to pay down their student loan balance. Gradible says that typical work projects pay between $5 and $500 and most users earn more than $10 per hour. In addition to working off their student loan debt, Gradible says that the work projects will also give recent graduates valuable experience to will help to beef up their resume. Helping you make the most of God's money! James L. Paris Editor-In-Chief ChristianMoney.com Follow Me on... Read more →

These days, it’s hardly out of the ordinary for people to carry significant credit card balances. It’s not necessarily due to self-indulgent, carefree living or anything like that, but, rather, because of just how difficult it is to get by these days, in a world still characterized by economic malaise, to include rampant underemployment, which, in many respects, is worse than the outright unemployment problem plaguing the nation. One such person recently asked for my thoughts on just how to get out from under his burdensome credit card debt. His situation is not unusual: he’s a fellow with three cards,... Read more →

Over at Huffington Post, Anthony Figliola of Empire Government Strategies has a featured blog wherein he discusses the student loan crisis, and details in that piece that while housing costs and health care costs have risen 175 percent and 454 percent, respectively, over the last 30 years, the cost of earning a college degree has ballooned 1120 percent during the same period. There is a variety of components to the student loan problem, but one that’s not talked about as much as it should be is how the absence of consumer protections from student loans, protections that began disappearing in... Read more →

Budgeting is truly the foundation of our personal finances. It used to be a simple matter of employing a yellow pad or even a small ledger book, but today there are a dizzying number of methods of budgeting. The truth is, however, that it does not have to be as complicated as we make it. My mother is a 71 year old widow, and is by no means wealthy. She gets by just fine, and I asked her the other day if she had a budget. My mom simply explained that on the first of the month she pays all... Read more →

Recently, a friend asked my advice about what to do regarding a loan she co-signed for one of her children. It seems this person co-signed a car loan for a son who graduated last year from college, but he’s now having trouble coming up with the payments in a timely fashion. She’s concerned because he’s been late with some payments, and she now wants to make the obligation exclusively his. Unfortunately, I didn’t have good news for her. It is very common for co-signers who wish to no longer be associated with the running obligation to inquire about how to... Read more →

According to a study recently conducted by the Urban Institute, just over one-third of adult Americans with a credit file have a debt in collections. For purposes of this study, “debt in collections” refers to a non-mortgage debt/bill, like a credit card or utility bill, that is more than six months past due. Perhaps just as shockingly, according to this study, is that just over five percent of all Americans with a credit file has a credit report that reflects past due debt, which means they are between 30 and 180 days late on a non-mortgage payment. This data is... Read more →

I shared a graphic the other night on my live workshop on credit repair that I just had to make part of a blog post. If you understand what I am about to share with you, you will be in a position to very quickly raise your credit score. The chart above could not make it more clear that the real credit game is in the two largest slices of the credit scoring pie. 30% Debt Utilization Ratio Fancy term, right? But the idea is simple. On revolving accounts, points are added to your score by comparing the amount of... Read more →

There is quite a lot of confusion about the issue of how long an item can legally stay on a credit report. Oddly enough, people will really dig in their heels about what they believe to be true. There are about as many urban myths about time limits in the world of credit repair as there are Elvis sightings. The above comment is on one of our very popular YouTube videos on credit repair. Note the classic confusion and misunderstanding about the issue of statute of limitations and the length of time an item can stay on a credit report.... Read more →

One of the most common misunderstandings about credit repair is the amount of importance given to negative accounts. When most people begin to review their credit report, the first thing they are drawn to are the so called 'bad accounts.' They mistakenly believe that if they could just clear up these items they would end up with a good score. Oddly enough, tinkering with these accounts will usually do nothing to raise your score, and will many times do just the opposite. The Absence Of 'Bad Credit ' Does Not Make A Good Credit Score The misguided and uninformed will... Read more →