Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Review your Credit Report Regularly

Written by Cindy S. Morus


Besides paying your bills regularly and on time,repparttar single most important thing you can do so show that you are a good credit risk is to known what's in your credit report.

Studies have shown that many credit files contain errors that can harm your credit rating, leading to rejections when you apply for loans, insurance or even a job. The errors range from simple human error to being mixed up with a similarly named person.

It’s essential that you check your credit files and monitor your credit regularly in order to protect your good credit standing, even if you always pay your bills on time.

And if your credit needs improvement, checking your report will help you find any problems that can be cleared up. A correct credit report, paying your bills on time andrepparttar 112512 passage of time will ensurerepparttar 112513 highest scores.

1. Cleaner credit reports improve your FICO™ score.

2. Find errors in your credit report before they damage your credit rating.

Behind The Curve?

Written by Dale Baker


BEHIND THE CURVE

Market index funds like Vanguard’s famous S&P500 fund andrepparttar SPY “Spyder” onrepparttar 112511 AMEX caught on inrepparttar 112512 late 90’s, right whenrepparttar 112513 long bull market turned into a crazy bubble with a blowoff top in 2000.

There are very good reasons to use index funds – low expenses,repparttar 112514 failure of most active managers to beatrepparttar 112515 indexes consistently andrepparttar 112516 statistical trend that says stocks return an average of 11% per annum over long periods of time. A cheap route to a “sure” return in a world of unreliable fund managers and individual investors who couldn’t timerepparttar 112517 market right if they had an Olympic chronometer and three judges - looks good, huh?

Just invest, forget about it and spend your time thinking about a comfy retirement. The S&P500 returned an annualized 17% per year from mid-1982 to mid-2000. Easy money with only a couple of dips onrepparttar 112518 way.

Except – what happens to your portfolio ifrepparttar 112519 market indexes go nowhere for years on end?

The statistics say that overrepparttar 112520 decades,repparttar 112521 11% return will keep you safe. But what if you catch a couple of bad decades? Most of us didn’t get serious about putting money inrepparttar 112522 market until our 30’s – and we planned to retire 20-25 years later. What does your retirement pot of gold look like whenrepparttar 112523 “usual return” falls behind and you run out of decades to catch up?

From mid-1997 to mid-2002repparttar 112524 SPX was flat. From 1998 to 2003, SPX investors lost money. Ditto 1999-2004.

Break downrepparttar 112525 expected 11% return into 5-year periods. An index investor expects to bring in 70% or more every five years, depending on how oftenrepparttar 112526 gains are reinvested. The problem with compounding is how quickly you can fall behind. SPX investors who put in money from 1998-2001 didn’t make money.

Surely they can make that up later, right?

Don’t be so sure. A tax-free portfolio that starts with $100 and returns 11% annually should have $111 after one year, $123 after two, $136 after three years and $152 after four. Five years later it’s $168.

Think aboutrepparttar 112527 leap – if you end up flatrepparttar 112528 first three years, your portfolio has to rack up a 52% gain to get back on track by year four. Hasrepparttar 112529 SPX returned 50% in one year in our lifetimes? Not that I can find. Forget about a 68% banner year.

The compounding you need to achieverepparttar 112530 magic 11% is fragile indeed. If your portfolio is flat for five years and returns torepparttar 112531 11% normrepparttar 112532 next five years,repparttar 112533 183% you should have earned forrepparttar 112534 preceding decade only turns out to be 68%. Your fifteen-year return is 183% instead ofrepparttar 112535 378% you expected.

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