Most people are familiar with scams involving princes from foreign countries and million dollar sweepstakes, but here are a few of the more sophisticated scams you should keep an eye out for:

A work-at-home job offer – With so many people out of work, of course someone figured out how to exploit them! Now, there are some legitimate work-at-home opportunities, but scam artists are using these irresistible offers as a way to get your bank account information. Once you’ve been interviewed, they’ll ask for your bank account information, social security, and other personal details in order to “wire your payment.” Instead, they’ll use it to steal your ID. Similarly, keep an eye out for “secret shopper” opportunities that use a similar model to con you into giving up valuable information.

Social network messaging cons – You don’t just need to worry about scams that come to your email inbox, now you have to be wary when you get an instant message on Facebook! These con artists have taken it up a notch and employed bots that will actually reply to you while you chat in ways that don’t seem entirely unbelievable. It’s a little bit similar to how Siri on the iPhone is able respond to your commands, only with nefarious goals: to get your personal data or to convince you to click on a link to a computer virus.

Home improvement scams – Did your home just get hit by a natural disaster or maybe one of the man-made variety, like a burst pipe? There are many people ready to take advantage of your unfortunate situation by offering their “services” (usually at a great price) to fix your problem. They’ll start by asking for some money up front… and then disappear. How do you prevent this from happening? It’s simple: ask for their business license. If they don’t have one, take your business elsewhere.

A “free” credit report – When most people seek out that annual free credit report the government guaranteed us, they simply type in “free credit report” to a search engine. Unfortunately, the sites that pop up are usually on-going services that start off by offering you free information – then charge you on a monthly or annual basis if you don’t cancel. Although these sites don’t outright lie, they also don’t tell you that you can get the same information absolutely free of charge – with no strings attached – through www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228.

Have you been duped by a scam? Help other people avoid your fate by sharing in the comments.

Lower limits help your credit score.

Unless you are the type of person who just can’t help themselves in using whatever credit they have up to the limit, this is absolutely false. In fact, when lenders look at your credit, they want to see that you have a large amount of potential money available, but that you’re spending relatively little of it. People who lower their limit, thinking that this shows lenders that they can’t go into really bad debt are actually hurting themselves because the gap between what you’re spending and what you could potentially spend gets smaller. Your goal should be to have the highest limit that the credit card company will give you… and then not use it. But wait a minute, you’re saying, you thought that…

You have to use credit to build credit.

This is one that gets bandied about quite a bit, but it’s not true. Lenders certainly want to see that you have credit so that you have the potential to spend, but it’s actually far better for you the less money you put on your credit cards. In fact, if you are spending more than 30 percent of your income on credit card purchases – even if you’re paying it off every month – it can actually lower your credit score. The best scenario is to have a very high credit limit, but not actually use the card at all. This way, the “gap” described above will always be wide.

Checking your credit rating will actually lower it.

A lot of people get confused on this one because it is true that a number of “hard” inquiries into your credit history (e.g. those made by companies like banks when they are looking into whether or not to give you a loan) can lower your credit score. However, when it’s just you checking on your own score, this is considered a “soft” inquiry and doesn’t affect anything. In fact, not checking can be far more dangerous, because you might discover an outstanding balance that you didn’t know about or uncover a mistake on the report that has been hurting you. Learning this information can help you to correct it, but if you never check the report, you’ll never know.

You earn credit by carrying a balance over from one month to the next.

I have no idea how this particular rumor got out there, but it is the exact opposite of what you want to be doing to get good credit. Carrying balances and having to pay interest not only is bad for your credit score, because it’s the first step to running up bad debt. It’s just bad financial planning in general. Think about it – you’re spending extra money for something that you already have! Other than very specific kinds of things – like student loans or home loans, where tax breaks have been created to help people – your goal on any kind of loan (which a credit card is, at its core) should be to pay it off as quickly as possible and never leave a balance.

What steps do you take to ensure that your credit score stays high? Share in the comments.

But how do you know if an item on Craigslist is worth it or not? Can you trust these sellers? What time is the best time to buy? What if you see something great, but it’s out of your price range even at the reduced price they’re selling it for? Stick with us, and you’ll be making great deals left and right.

No pic, no click? Most people won’t even click on a Craigslist ad if there isn’t an attached picture, but those people often miss out on some great deals. If you think you might be interested in something but there’s no picture to tell you anything about it, email the seller and ask if they can send you a picture. You’d be surprised how many people just forgot to do this when they posted the item and will be happy you are even responding. If the item looks legit, you’ll probably get a better deal because so few people will even email the seller. And if you are the one selling something, definitely take the time to include a picture. You’ll get more responses and likely higher offers.

Lowball. Craigslist was meant for negotiating. The only harm in offering $50 for a TV the seller wants $100 for is wasting the 30 seconds it took to write your email. Most often, you’ll get a response saying “too low” or “I can’t go lower than X,” but at least you’ll know where you stand and can send another offer. And every once in a while your lowball offer will end up being exactly what the seller is willing to accept. For those selling on Craigslist, aim high. It costs nothing to post, so the worst that can happen is that you don’t get responses and you have to post again later at a lower price. But you’d be surprised how often someone will be willing to pay the price you thought you’d never get.

Avoid specifics in searches. You may want a three-button double-breasted suit coat, but what are the chances a seller used that exact wording? Try “suit coat,” “blazer,” or other general terms you can think of. No brand names or product descriptions. Your goal should be to find as many ads as possible that might be selling what you want. This way, you get options and a range of prices. For sellers, the more specific you can get in your title, the better. Brand, size, color – whatever you feel is important information about the item. People looking for something specific generally appreciate the clarity of an ad that tells them exactly what they need to know and are willing to pay more because they can see they are getting it.

“We’re moving.” Look for terms like this or anything else in the body of the message that hints at the fact that the seller will be willing to part with the item for less than their asking price because they need to get rid of it. Obviously, sellers should avoid mentioning these kinds of things unless they are truly desperate to have something out of their space.

Freebies. Craigslist also has a section for free stuff that people are giving away. Most of the time, you’re unlikely to find anything really worth the effort of going to get it, but it’s worth checking out for that 1 in 100 scenario where someone in the above “moving” situation doesn’t see another option besides giving their stuff away.

What’s the best deal you’ve found on Craigslist? We’d love to hear about it in the comments. 

Reasons to Refinance

Each homeowner has their own reasons for refinancing their home. Some of these reasons are valid. Others of these reasons are not beneficial reasons to refinance your mortgage. A refinance might be beneficial if you:

• Can lower the mortgage interest rate
• Decrease the monthly mortgage payment
• Transition from an adjustable rate to a fixed rate mortgage

This is not to say that just because you fall into one of these categories that you should run out and refinance. There are other factors you need to consider and other steps you should take first.

Costs to Refinance

Great, you can lower your interest rate and decrease your monthly mortgage payment. It’s possible that you can even do this when moving from a variable rate mortgage to a fixed rate option. The not so great news is that most refinances cost you money by the way of closing costs. Closing costs can amount to thousands of dollars in costs. You either have to pay these costs out of pocket or roll the costs into the amount of the loan.

Breaking Even

It might cost you to refinance your mortgage, but it might be worth the expense. You won’t know until you conduct a break-even analysis. A break-even analysis tells you how long it will take you to recoup the upfront costs from your monthly savings.

Calculate your break-even point:

1. Subtract the new payment from the old payment. Do not include the taxes and insurance in the payment because these costs remain the same even after a refinance.
2. Divide the closing costs by the monthly savings to obtain the number of months it will take you to recoup your closing costs.
3. Divide this number by 12 to determine the number of years.

If you intend on living in the home at least the number of months or years it takes you to recoup your costs, then it’s worth the expense to refinance. If you aren’t sure or know that you won’t live in the home that long, then it’s not worth the expense because you will end up paying more money than you save.

Shop and Compare

Once you determine a refinance is in your future, it’s time to shop and compare your options contact your current lender first. Gather the mortgage options, interest rates, APRs and closing costs. Call at least two other lenders to gather the same information so you can contrast and compare all of your options. Contrast and compare the available options to evaluate the option that is the best move for you.

Choose and Submit

Once you choose the lender, contact them to submit a refinance application. You’ll also need to provide supporting documents and paperwork that the lender requests. Once you receive approval, you’ll go through the mortgage process—just as you did when you purchased the home. You’ll attend a closing and the new mortgage pays off the old mortgage and you’re on your way to savings with your new mortgage.

Before you run out to refinance your mortgage, take care in evaluating whether it’s the right move for you to make. Once you do, you can then take the steps necessary to turn your old mortgage into a new money saving mortgage.

How does a person know what constitutes a deal on eBay? And how do you find them?

Know your prices. Just like shopping for an item at any other store, you want to do a little research and find out what others are selling it for before you make a purchase. On eBay, this means doing a search for the product you want to buy and seeing not what current people are trying to sell if for, but how much it has sold for in the recent past. You can do this by setting it to show only ‘completed listings’. This will give you a good idea of what you should be willing to pay for the item.

Buy off-season, buy bulk. Other ways that eBay works like any other store include buying things off-season and searching for people who sell things in bulk. By looking for a coat in summer, for example, you’re far more likely to find sellers willing to part with product for a lot less just to get rid of it. And eBay allows you to search specifically for items being auctioned as a bulk sale, which often means that it will be far cheaper than buying individually.

Go international. Hooray for the internet and world-spanning sites. One of the beauties of eBay is that they have several international sites where you can often find the exact same products for far less than you would pay in the U.S., even after shipping costs. Just be careful that the product is actually usable in the U.S. Things like electronics can be set up differently in other regions of the world and might be incompatible with U.S. products.

Deal Finder is your friend. The beauty of eBay’s Deal Finder is that it shows you items that are likely to sell for far less than their asking price – auctions that are ending soon, don’t have a reserve price, or don’t have any bids so far. This is a great way to get things for a lot cheaper than the normal price, and even if you don’t want them yourself, it might be worth getting and reselling yourself for a profit.

Forget keywords, search categories. Most people go to eBay looking for a particular product and type in the name of that product to search for it. Sellers generally know this and make sure to put the product name in the title of their post, but once in a while, you’ll find auctions where this isn’t the case if you peruse the categories instead of searching keywords. The good news for you is that so few people do this that when you do find something you want, there’s a good chance you’ll be one of only a few people bidding on it – maybe the only person!

Look for auctions ending during the work week. Smart eBay sellers long ago learned that setting up their auctions to end on weekends – especially Sunday – was a surefire way to get a higher price. Why? Because more people go online over the weekends to bid. Fortunately for buyers, the reverse is also true. Auctions ending during the week tend to have fewer people bidding and often sell for less.

Embrace the vague. If you’re really looking for deals and willing to put some time into it, look for titles that don’t do a good job explaining what they’re selling. Why? Because the majority of the eBay users will probably ignore sellers who do this, but just because they aren’t good at marketing their sale, doesn’t mean the product itself won’t be worth it. And because so few people are likely to click on their auction, these sellers will be far more likely to let you have their items at a greatly reduced price. You can always ask for clarification before you commit to the purchase to make sure you’re getting what you want.

What kind of items do you find the best deals on through eBay? Share in the comments.

Purchase and Sales Contract

First, the “offer” is actually the purchase and sales contract, which means that if the offer is accepted, it is a binding contract. Some of the items that go into the offer include:

• Name and current address of potential buyers
• Purchase price
• Closing cost information
• Contingencies
• Mortgage/financing terms

Once you or your real estate agent puts these items in writing, the offer goes to the seller and their real estate agent for review. From this point, one of three things can happen. The seller can deny the offer, counteroffer or accept the offer.

Good Faith Deposit

When you put the offer in writing, also make sure that you have your checkbook handy. You will be required to put down a good faith deposit or earnest money. This might be as little as $1,000. This money goes into an escrow account to be held by a neutral third party until the deal goes in one particular direction. Putting a good faith deposit is a sign to the seller that you are interested and vested in buying the property and not just submitting offers to see what sticks.

Offer Acceptance or Counteroffer

If the seller accepts your offer, then the offer turns into a binding purchase contract. The rest of the steps for obtaining financing, surveying or appraising the house are already included in the contract. You’ll need to follow these deadlines closely to ensure that you keep up with your end of the contract.

If the seller counteroffers, then they have probably accepted some terms of the contract, but have altered the contract in other areas. For example, they might be fine with the price you have offered but have counteroffered that they will not pay for any of your closing costs. Review the counteroffer carefully to make sure that the new terms and conditions of the contract are items you can live with having.

If the offer is not accepted, then the contract becomes null and void. You can make another offer on the same house, or move on to find another home of your dreams.

These are the down and dirty details on making an offer on a home. Again, working with a real estate professional, you’ll have someone who knows the ropes to walk you through the process. Even with a professional by your side, you should still be aware of what is going on.

Personal Information

The personal information on your credit report includes your name and current address. An incorrect suffix, for example Jr. when you are a Sr. or vice versa, is an indication that your credit file might have been mixed up with someone else’s information. You also want to make sure that the address on file is accurate. If it is an incorrect address, it might indicate that someone is opening accounts under your name, but having the account information and bills sent to their address.

Negative Items

The second area of your credit report you want to focus on is the negative items area. This section usually follows the personal information section. The credit bureaus highlight the items on your credit report that might be dragging your credit score down. Typical items that show up in this section include:

• Bankruptcy filing
• Late payments
• Collection accounts
• Write-offs
• Discharges

If these items are inaccurate then you should contact the credit bureau right away to straighten out the matter. If the items are accurate, then you should contact the creditor to work out payment or payoff arrangements.

Account Information

The bulk of your credit report is a listing of each of your credit and loan accounts. The first thing you want to review in this section is that you recognize all of the accounts. If there are any accounts you do not recognize then mark them to investigate whether the account belongs to you or not.

Then, review the credit limit, current balance and payment history. Note any accounts that show that they were closed by the creditor, have late payments or other derogatory consequences associated with it.

Inquiries

Each time a creditor or lender pulls or reviews your credit, it shows in the inquiries section. There is a difference between pre-screening and a “hard pull” of your credit report. For example, a pre-screen might be a credit card company that briefly looks at your report to see if you might qualify for the pre-approved credit card offer, but does not pull a copy of it.

A hard pull of your credit report happens when you apply for credit. You might see that your insurance company pulled your credit report when you applied for a new policy, for example. The reason you want to look at this area is because every time a company pulls your credit report, it lowers your credit score. You want to be aware of companies pulling your report because someone is trying to open fraudulent accounts under your name.

Public Record Information

Public record information is the recording of a lien, mortgage or even bankruptcy. While there isn’t anything you can do if the information in the public records is correct, you want to know if liens, mortgages or bankruptcies are showing up in your name that you aren’t aware of having.

You should pull your own credit report from each of the bureaus at least once per year. When you do, you should also be aware of what you should be looking at. Now you know.

SaveUp

When it comes to personal finance, SaveUp, founded in 2011, is the new kid on the block. Their idea is simple but brilliant. They offer a nationwide rewards program as an incentive to encourage Americans to commit to saving money and paying off credit card debt. SaveUp partners with some of the better known financial brands as well as a variety of financial institutions. These partnerships allow SaveUp to reward positive steps with desirable prizes. To read more information about this company, or to sign up to participate in the rewards program, visit www.saveup.com.

Betterment

Betterment is designed to help users save money by providing understandable advice to busy people who think they don’t have time to worry about money. Betterment offers a technology they refer to as “set-and-forget” accounts that are tailored to help each user target helpful investments. The investment programs they offer are diversified, and Betterment re-examines and re-calculates its investment profiles on a regular basis. Also helpful for customers is that they can withdraw the money with no more trouble than they would have withdrawing money from an online savings account. This allows customers to invest with confidence, knowing that if they need their money back quickly for an emergency or simply for unexpected expenses, it will be available to them. To learn more about Betterment, stop by their website at www.betterment.com.

BigMarker, the company sponsoring the All Things Financial series was launched in March 2011 as a new social media site. It is unique in that it offers free web conferencing and other tools to allow people from different communities to collaborate, create, and connect. You can get started at BigMarker at www.bigmarker.com

These are uncertain financial times in the United States. Many consumers are worried about credit card debt, medical bills, or simply being unable to cover the expenses of day to day life. SaveUp, Betterment, and BigMarker want consumers to know that help is available. Even if your personal finances are currently on life support, there are things you can do to turn the situation around and take positive steps to ensure a stronger financial future.

And, of course, we all know that isn’t the real cost of college – there are still housing costs, living expenses, and books to consider, amongst other things. Supposedly our government is now attempting to rein these costs in, but in the meantime, you need to know what resources are out there to help ensure that you or your child can get needed education with sacrificing financial freedom for the rest of your life.

Learn your EFC early. What is EFC? It is your expected family contribution, or the amount of money you and your family will need to pay out of pocket to fund your education. The more money your family makes, the more you will need to pay yourself. Learning this information early can help you to plan for how much money you will likely need in scholarships, grants, and loans. A number of sites like FinAid.org have EFC calculators to help you determine what this amount will be.

Don’t save for yourself. Huh? This probably sounds crazy, but due to how the system is organized, 20% of the assets of the person attending college are considered “available” when determining how much aid that person needs. In contrast, if a college fund is saved by someone else – say, parents who have money in an account under their own name – only 5.6% of this money can be counted. Nice, right?

Research scholarships. A lot of people make the mistake of simply thinking they’re not good enough to receive a scholarship, but there are tons of places out there with money to give, and you never know who might consider that seemingly innocuous hobby a talent, or when your family connection to a certain group or organization could pay off. Great places to search for a wide variety of scholarships include Scholarship Search, FastWeb, and Sallie Mae. And don’t forget to ask your school, church, and other local organizations for suggestions and recommendations.

Need-based aid versus non-need-based aid. The government offers a wealth of grants (free money!) and loans (pay back with low interest!). If you come from a middle class or higher background, you might think that you don’t qualify for any of these, but that’s not necessarily true. Peterson’s College Search has a nice breakdown of not only what types of programs apply to students of need versus those that are more financially stable, but also what qualifications are necessary to receive federal aid at all.

Fill out FAFSA (and PROFILE). FAFSA is the form to fill out for financial aid, and everyone should fill it out. Even if you don’t think you will qualify, you might be surprised. It’s better to do it and see what happens. Some schools also require that you fill out a financial aid document called PROFILE to determine your eligibility for aid. Make sure you find out if you need to do both for the schools you’re applying to, and pay attention to the deadlines.

Think hard about early decision. Narrowing your options to a single college can limit the potential amount of financial aid you might receive, because you won’t have institutions competing with each other to get you to be a student there. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go early decision, just that you need to weigh the pros and cons.

How are you planning to pay for college? Share your tips and strategies in the comments.

Rick Santorum

Mr. Santorum pulled off a surprising sweep this past week in the Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota caucuses. His ideas will now be receiving far more scrutiny.  What are these ideas, and how could they affect you?

1. Obamacare: Mr. Santorum is very forceful about his goal to repeal every piece of Obamacare.  He recently even went so far as to call Obamacare “a game changer” that would “rob America of its soul.”

One idea he offers instead is a plan to help senior citizens who can’t afford prescriptions under the current system. He has proposed trillions of dollars in savings and cuts to Social Security, Medicare and similar programs. This would likely affect many lower income people in a negative way.

2. Government spending: Mr. Santorum wants to see a balanced budget amendment passed and Federal spending capped at certain limits. He would eliminate subsidies for certain industries such as agriculture and energy, the goal being to limit or stop government interference in parts of the economy.

Mr. Santorum would also reform entitlements and reduce long term costs of programs like Social Security and Medicare. He claims it can be done without reducing the benefits currently promised. However, how this can be done doesn’t seem clear at the moment.

3. Tax cuts: Along with cutting corporate taxes, Mr. Santorum would extend permanently the tax cuts on interest and dividends originally passed by President Bush. He would also eliminate the “Death Tax” on estates.

Regarding personal income taxes, Mr. Santorum would triple the size of the exemption for children allowed on tax returns. He would also eliminate the marriage penalty, which taxes a married couple at a higher rate than if they remained single.

At the same time, Mr. Santorum would still keep such income tax deductions as mortgage interest, retirement and employer sponsored health care. These policies would likely put more money in your pocket, but likely do nothing to solve the problem of budget deficits.

Newt Gingrich

After pulling off a surprising win in South Carolina, Mr. Gingrich seems to have lost momentum.  Still, he is not out of the race by any means. Personal issues aside, he does have a fairly lengthy economic record going back to his time as Speaker of the House in the 1990’s.

1. Regulation: after originally being in favor of forcing Americans to purchase health insurance, Mr. Gingrich has apparently changed his mind. He would eliminate every health care provision passed as part of Obamacare. Mr. Gingrich would also turn over welfare programs to the states so they could be run at a more local level.

Mr. Gingrich would allow younger workers a chance to have private Social Security accounts. He would also allow workers to pursue private insurance programs. The idea here is to provide more freedom of choice and hopefully reduce costs at the same time.

2. Tax cuts: Mr. Gingrich would also make the Bush tax cuts permanent. He would also like to pass an alternative 15% flat tax on income. This would give taxpayers the choice of using the flat tax or the current tax rate, whichever was smaller. Mr. Gingrich would completely eliminate capital gains taxes. Like Mr. Santorum, he would also completely eliminate the Death Tax on estates.

Mr. Gingrich would also increase the per person exemption on tax returns to $12,000. Some studies of Mr. Gingrich’s tax plans show that as many as two thirds of Americans would pay less taxes. Middle and lower income taxpayers could end up paying thousands of dollars less in taxes every year. These same studies also show that a majority of the tax savings would go to the wealthiest taxpayers.

As the campaign for the GOP nomination goes forward, there will be more chances to see just how your finances may be affected by each candidate. Whoever wins the Republican nomination, and the November election, will have an uphill battle getting their policies implemented.

How do you think your finances will be affected at this time next year? Let us know what you think!