Personal Finance 101: Get All 3 Of Your Credit Reports--Free!

The first step to getting any financial house in order is to get your Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax credit reports free of charge once every 12 months at

http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

Too many things show up on your credit report to be completely ignorant as to what's on it!

In addition to your credit report, your credit SCORE (which is completely different and NOT free) is also important, because the score is calculated based on what's on your report, and your score is what determines the rate on your mortgage, the deposit (if there is one) on your cell phone plan, the limit (or rejection) of your credit card applications, and in some cases your credit history and/or credit score affect your ability to get a job (say, in a bank, or anywhere dealing directly with the company's cash or other people's money).

Information on the FICO (Fair Isaacs & Company, the company whose software creates it) score here.

In the age of endless merger & acquisition activity, it is very easy for WRONG information (or duplicate information belonging to the same source bill you had x years ago that has since been transferred around to different creditors and represented as a new item) to be on your report without your knowledge.  If you don't know it's there, you can't dispute it to get it off.  Knowledge is power.  And knowing what's on there and what amounts they are on there for is the first step to being able to write out a plan and a budget to handle it all (and not necessarily all at once).  Personal debts that will never show on your credit report should also be part of your financial plan since they are often even more important from a personal reputation point of view than the "commercial" debt.  They just also tend to be the most flexible on repayments.

For people who have debt to pay off, the typical two ways to handle them are either to pay off the one with the highest interest rate first, no matter the balance, or the "snowball" effect where you pay off the smallest bill to feel that sense of accomplishment and keep knocking down the next smallest, next smallest, etc. until only the last major bill is left, at which point you've built up the confidence and the sense of accomplishment to focus and knock down that last one.

In case you were wondering, here are answers to "Why Is My Credit Report Important?"

And don't forget a biblical perspective on money...it's not MONEY the Bible said is evil, it's the LOVE of money! (It's also where the nice graphic above came from!)

And from the same site that brings the financial house image below, comes advice on how to make sure your financial house is built on rock, not sand.

Bikes and Bonds (and Bull/Bear Markets)

Just felt like sharing the two hottest topics on my mind tonight for the reasons below.  A HOT pic and a HOT link (links from Facebook), check them both out!  (I'm a bike FANNNNNatic, in case the Bike Bible didn't give you a hint.)

Saw this WICKED mohawk helmet on this rider
while in the ritzy Buckhead area of Atlanta today!

The Motley Fool

Despite a turbulent market, young investors have plenty of time to ride out the bumps and earn big long-term returns. We asked four of our Foolish contributors to weigh in with their ideas on stocks that can help young investors retire rich. Which stocks would you recommend to a young investor?

6 Smart Stocks for Young Investors

mot.ly

The Motley Fool - Get your retirement portfolio moving with these great picks.

5-Year Plan to Finance Your Legal Education! From The University of La Verne College of Law

A great addition to my Law School Bible blog post!  (Hyperlinks in this post added by me.)

Goal planning was also discussed here by my friend, a certified project management professional!

Financing Your Legal Education:
A Five-Year Plan

While many attorneys enjoy financial success, students considering law school should be aware that the proverbial road to riches is punctuated with toll booths. Your legal education will be one of the most important investments you will ever make, but if you plan your financial route in advance, you are less likely to veer off track.

Most potential law students understand that they must plan for the costs of at least three years of tuition, books, and living expenses (four for part-time students), whether via savings, parental support, scholarships, loans, or some combination thereof. What they may not know is that pursuing a legal career comes with all sorts of extra costs before, during, and after they attend law school.

Students who want to make the most of their investment are best served by creating a five-year financial plan, outlining their potential costs and developing strategies for meeting them. Listed below are tips to get you started, but you should also plan to speak with a financial aid professional at both your undergraduate institution and your potential law schools, to get a fuller picture.

Year 1: Getting the Ball Rolling

“What?” you may be asking. “I have to pay for law school before I’ve even started?” The truth of the matter is that the costs of preparing for and taking the LSAT, applying to multiple law schools, and visiting law school campuses can run in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

So what’s a pre-law student to do? 

• Plan, save, pay off debt, and plan some more.
• Create a spending plan for cost-of-living expenses while in law school, budgeting for basics like housing, food, clothes, limited entertainment, and, of course, that law school staple – coffee!
• Consider investing in a laptop computer and sturdy backpack for trudging your huge casebooks from class to class.
• Research funding opportunities such as student loans, merit- and need-based scholarships and grants, and work-study assistance. Be sure to ask law schools about scholarship opportunities when choosing where to apply.

Year 2: The First Year They Scare You to Death…

In addition to tuition, books, and living expenses, the first year of law school comes with a number of hidden costs. Bar examiners in your intended state of practice may ask you to pay a registration fee. Many law students also rely on commercial outlines – thick paperback books that outline black letter law – to supplement their casebook and classroom studies. If you are attending a law school far from home, do not forget to factor in travel expenses for holiday visits.

• Plan in advance for how you will pay for your summer living expenses.
• Consider applying for fellowships, and/or participating in activities that will qualify you for a summer grant from your law school if it has such a program.
• Consider taking out an additional student loan if you are able to get credits for your summer fellowship.
• Budget for work attire, a resume portfolio, travel expenses for job interviews, and association fees.
• Expect to pay up to $400 as a deposit for a bar exam preparation course.

This all might seem overwhelming, but don’t even think about taking a summer gig as a waitress; 90 percent of law students work in a legal position during their first year summer, and if you are not among them, you will be at a significant disadvantage when it comes time to secure employment later.

law school casebooks

Year 3: In the Trenches

Tuition? Check. Books? Check. Living expenses? Check. Professional wardrobe? Check. What else can there be?

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) that’s what. This exam, which tests your understanding of ethics in the legal profession, is a pre-requisite or co-requisite for taking the bar and being admitted as an attorney in 47 of the 50 states. 

• Set aside funds to pay for the MPRE.
• Plan for your summer as if you will once again be working for free.
• If you anticipate getting a paid position, expect to spend more on office attire.

Yale law student

Year 4: They Charge Me to Take a Test?

By now, you’ve learned to plan for recurring expenses like tuition and books. You’ve invested in a great wardrobe, and, if you haven’t already secured post-graduate employment, you’ve got stacks of resume paper just waiting for that perfect opening. 

Unfortunately, some major costs are just beginning. 

• Expect to pay a few thousand dollars on the balance of your bar exam preparation course.
• Budget for the MPRE exam if you have not yet taken it or failed to pass the first time around.
• Plan for other hefty fees associated with registering for the bar exam and the moral character application.
• Don’t forget graduation expenses such as cap and gown rental feels and graduation announcements.
• If you are planning to practice in a state other than the one in which you attended law school, count on moving expenses as well.

Year 5: The Most Important Year of Your Legal Career

You have taken your last law school exam, thrown (or politely waved) your cap at graduation, and maybe even had a whole week’s vacation for the first time since you started law school. Now the real work begins.

Don’t kid yourself: Studying for the bar exam is a full-time job with lots of overtime and no benefits. (That is, until you pass!) You will spend the first two months after graduation and then some mired in virtually everything you have learned in law school.

• Expect to spend at least two months without a steady income, studying for the bar full-time.
• Consider a bar exam loan to get you though this rough patch.
• Be prepared for more time unemployed while you search for your first job after passing the bar.

Remember, investing in a legal career means more than just tuition and books. The legal profession is an important and worthy one which offers great potential for financial security, intellectual stimulation, high social standing, and the opportunity to make a difference in the world. But just as you wouldn’t drive at night on a highway with your headlights off, don’t begin your journey into the legal profession in the dark.

Also see Is Law School Right For You?

And of course research all the former (and current) law students' blogs, especially ones from similar backgrounds/with similar life circumstances as you.  

Check out/join/participate in sites like 

LSATBlogs

Above The Law

Top Law Schools

American Bar Association

MyShingle (opening/maintaining a solo law practice, something to consider/be informed how to do before you even start law school, given the current legal employment climate!)

2011 Goals Planning!

My friend wrote this note and I am sharing it with all of you!  My first "guest blog" but worth every word!

It's that time of year again folks.. It's time to sit down and start planning for the next years goals. This is something that I've implemented in my end of year routine in order to ensure the successful planning, execution, and control of my yearly goals. I usually start the process about the second week of November and complete it right before new years. I want to share my process with everyone in hopes that someone will find some value in it since it's worked wonders for me the past few years. I'll try to keep this as brief as I can so forgive me if I go off on a tangent on a few things..

PLANNING

First thing you need to do is pray. I say this because in anything that you want in life you need to take it your maker first and ask for the direction and blessing that you'll need to make it a success. Also realize that not everything that we want for ourselves will be in line with what the person you pray to wants for you. After this crucial step you will be ready to get down to business.

The next step will be to make a full assessment of your successes and failures of the past year. This is a necessary step because it's very important for you to identify and build on the factors that helped you succeed as well as those that deterred you from getting what you want.

 EXAMPLE: One of my successes for the year was attaining my Project Management Professional Certification. I was able to achieve this goal by doing my due diligence. I had already known that most folks that attempted to get this certification failed their first time. I went ahead and contacted folks who were able to become certified as well as those who failed.. I had a frank conversation with them and was able to get their assessment on their path to success or failure. I put a plan in place in order to build on the positive factors and remove those that were negative. At the end of the day the plan was a 7 month plan that started in October of 2009 and ended in April of 2010 and the PMP designation at the end of my name.Going forward, I know that whatever I will plan for the year 2011 will include this process. One thing that's important as a part of this process is to draft a LESSONS LEARNED document. This will contain everything you did that brought about success as well as failures, and steps to improve them.

Before we move onto the next step it will be important to decide whether you want to pursue any goals that weren't reached in the past year. For whatever reason, things just didn't work out. If the goal was one that is near and dear to you I would recommend that you try again. If not, move on. It shouldn't have been a goal in the first place.

Now that you have been spiritually empowered and are armed with your lessons learned (LL) document, you can move on to step three: WHAT DO I WANT TO DO IN THE NEXT YEAR.. This is where the work begins. You will have to decide what you want and how it will impact the different aspects of your life (work, family, education, church, social). In fact the goal may be related to any of the five items in parentheses and have an affect on one another. You will need to first list them down in order of importance. If you have a list of 8 goals, with 3 primary and 5 secondary goals, start planning your primary goals first.

What you will want to do is to give the 3 goals some weight (priority). Weight is derived by figuring out the major factors that will affect the success of the goal. The three main constraints to any goal are usually cost, time, and scope. These three constraints usually compete with each other in that if one increases you will most likely have to increase the other two. Time and cost are pretty much self explanatory but scope refers to the tools and resources needed to achieve the goal. I usually give each constraint a weight between 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Once you've weighted your goals you can pretty much figure out which one will be of high priority and which ones will not. You will also have an idea of how much time it will take, how much money each will cost, and what you will need to help implement them. This information will all end up on your next years budget and calendar.

What you have just achieved in the last step is the initial draft of parts of your budget and planning calendar. Your budget will be complete once you've included your everyday items needed for survival including rent/mortgage, groceries, gas, ect. One side note on completing your budget. It is important to spend a month paying attention to everything that you spend. I mean everything. Down to how many chapsticks and packs of gum. Doing so will allow you to see what waste can be cut out of your monthly spending.

Now, you've pretty much completed the planning process. You should realize that this will continue throughout the next year because factors will change and you will need to be as flexible as you can. Some goals may end up dropping off your list altogether and new ones may be added so please keep that in mind. When you plan costs, you should also have a contingency because markets change, partners drop out of deals, and some folks die.. That's just a fact. Give yourself a cushion.

EXECUTION

When executing your plan, you need to be focused, diligent, and proactive. Did I already mention you need to be flexible.. Fear will be a constant feeling that will detract you from executing your plan. You need to understand that the fear that you are having is the fear of failure. The top 10% fail all the time.. They just don't fear it..

It's very important to remember to ask for help when you need it. Also, there's no such thing as a dumb question. It's just dumb when you don't ask it.

CONTROL

You will need to constantly check your progress on a monthly and quarterly basis. This needs to be built into the the entire process, even planning. You will need to make sure that you have a quality planning process in place as well as measures in place while executing. During this step you may have to make real time changes to parts of your plan pertaining to the entire goal or one of the constraints. Look at the entire process as a work in progress (WIP).

It is 2:15 am and I have a flight in the morning. I hope that this was informative and of value to some. I also hope that I kept it inline with what I set out to convey because it's late and I'm also on the phone as I am writing..

In conclusion, I AM NOAH.. We are all NOAH.. GOD has given us a mission and it's our duty to build our boat properly to successfully complete the mission. I hope that you take this info and run with it and if you require some more info, please feel free to inbox me and I will make time to go over some things in more detail..

Thanks.

Alfred, PMP, Future CEO