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The transition from college student to working professional in the “real world” can be scary. As twentysomethings face overwhelming choices about career, home, social networks and other adult responsibilities, the one challenge they must tackle immediately is their finances. It’s now time to see if that baby bird can fly on its own.

In 2004, 83 percent of undergraduate college students had at least one credit card in their name with an average outstanding balance of over $2,300, according to Creditcards.com. That amount on top of student loan debt is intimidating to anyone — especially those on an entry-level salary.

“Now’s the time for graduating seniors to start out the right foot,” says Clarky Davis, CareOne Credit Counseling Services spokesperson. “The money management habits that young adults implement in their first few years of independence are critical to their future financial security.”

CareOne offers the following tips as starting points for young adults who want to successfully support themselves without digging into debt or getting a handout from Mom and Dad.

o    Manage your expectations — Don’t expect to start this chapter of your life at the same comfort level your parents have or better. You’re just starting out, and it took them 15-20 years to establish themselves at their current financial level.

o    Keep your expenses low — Now’s the time to live on a shoestring while you’re establishing your career. Share an apartment with friends to save on living expenses. Learn to cook to save money by not eating out. Skip expensive vacations and take advantage of free entertainment events available in your town. Be creative to live a lifestyle within your means.

o    Payoff any student loan or credit card debt — The most important thing you can do to accomplish this goal, is to always make your payments on time without incurring any additional debt. To really get this monkey off your back, you should try to make more than the required minimum monthly payment. This will speed up the time it takes you to get out of debt and reduce the total cost of debt you generate from finance charges.

o    Invest in your company’s 401K — When you get settled into your first job, invest in your company’s 401(k) plan and never touch the money until you retire. You’ll be amazed at how the money will grow and what a difference it makes by starting your retirement savings at a young age

o    Don’t use credit cards — Live within your means. If you want to buy something, but need to put use a credit card credit, then you can’t really afford it. Be patient. Rewards are much sweeter when they are earned.

o    Write it down — It’s hard to keep track of all those transaction receipts, so keep a financial journal of all expenditures. You will be amazed at the little things that you blow your money on. By writing down what you’re spending, you can create a budget that works for you, and you won’t get in trouble by spending more than you earn.

For more information,visit careonecredit.com

With bankruptcy at an all-time high, more and more people are looking for ways to rebuild their credit.

CoolCreditClub.com’s recent article, “Life After Bankruptcy - Four Easy Steps to Rebuilding Your Good Credit” puts the issue in perspective and provides easy steps to bouncing back after such financial hardship.

What’s done is done, therefore the most important part of bankruptcy for any consumer is rebuilding their credit after the ordeal. It can be done and CoolCreditClub.com has some excellent answers. For the many people trying to rebuild credit after a bankruptcy, you can breathe easier after reading the article on their web site.

CoolCreditClub.com is an authorized affiliate for various major credit card companies throughout the United States. In addition to promoting credit cards for good credit, bad credit, and business credit, CoolCreditClub.com also features great articles on personal finance and credit improvement.

For more information or to read the popular article “Life After Bankruptcy - Four Easy Steps to Rebuilding Your Good Credit”, visit coolcreditclub.com
 

A new web portal has emerged to offer free resources in debt elimination problems and solutions to help create awareness among the debt-ridden consumers.

Part fun and enlightening, this new Website provides excellent articles, news, tips and even videos which cover many financial aspects of unsecured debt elimination management and legalities, debt cancellation tips, credit repair, credit card management, fraud cases, debt cancellation via bankruptcies and much more.

According to the founder and owner, Paul Moss, a debt management adviser, he finds that there are many more consumers who have exceeded their spending budgets unnecessarily, even through most of these consumers have never fully paid off their debts from previous years.

“Most of the retailers are enticing the shoppers with lower prices especially during the seasonal thanksgiving days, which they (the shoppers) often ended up abusing the plastics in their wallets,” he comments.

“And as a result, many Americans are starting to resolve the extra burden on their budgets by learning how to legally eliminate their credit card debts without going through bankruptcy or refinancing,” he adds.

With Paul’s new debt elimination resource site, he offers many interesting resources to help consumers to learn more about managing their finances as well as coping with the need to reduce their debts completely.

The site was created to be more user friendly, with extra doses of multimedia experience through the use of online streaming videos.

“There will be blogs and forums to cater for the needs of those into debt elimination programs and consultations. I’m also currently enlisting the help from other experts in the same field to contribute to the debt elimination article directory as well as providing some insights on some of the debt elimination scams around,” Paul said.

Paul adds that in 2006, with the latest emergence of new bankruptcy laws in the US, many people will start adapting to these changes and will find ways around them.

It is his vision that in the future the site will be able to help those in need of a better debt management plan.

For more information, visit mydebtelimination.info

While the U.S. credit scoring market is well-established in terms of product acceptance, loan processing efficiency, and decisioning speed, lenders increasingly require better stratification of consumer credit risk than current scoring provides. More nuanced credit stratification is of particular concern as financial institutions increasingly target “underbanked” and “unbanked” consumer segments, and grapple with skyrocketing defaults and losses in the subprime lending sector.

As lenders look to penetrate new market segments, update underwriting and pricing policies, and adapt credit risk evaluation to shifting market conditions, research from TowerGroup encourages lenders to evaluate new custom credit score options.

Lenders need better scoring that serves low and moderate income loan applicants, including those that have little or no traditional credit history tracked by the credit bureaus. Lenders also need scoring solutions that better determines whether consumers are of subprime or prime credit quality.

Over the past few years, the traditional consumer credit reporting and credit scoring market has been evolving with the development of the consumer- direct customer segment (consumers purchasing their own credit reports and scores) and the introduction of alternatives like the VantageScore by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the Anthem Score from First American Corporation, and the FICO Expansion Score from Fair Isaac Corporation.

TowerGroup estimates that the consumer-direct customer segment for credit reporting and scoring products will grow 39% between 2001 and 2010. This represents a larger growth opportunity than the traditional lender credit score market.

For more information, visit towergroup.com