You’re not alone. With the state of the economy and unemployment rates wreaking havoc on families all across the country, more and more people are struggling just to make ends meet.

Raise your hand again if you believe that being in debt means that your credit score is not the best.

Again, if your hand is in the air you are certainly not alone. There is a common belief that when you are in debt that your credit score is low, or at least not as good as those that don’t have any debt.

But you know what?

It doesn’t have to be that way!

Find out how one of our own contributors was able to build a good credit score even while he was in debt to the tune of more than $50,000!

Edward Leyson details the five easy steps that he used to secure a good credit score while working to eliminate his debt in his book, Improve Your Credit Score in 5 Easy Steps! No Matter How Much Debt You Have Now. And the best part is that some of these tips can actually help you eliminate your debt sooner.

Pick up a copy of Edward’s bestselling book on Amazon today for just $0.99!

Buy it now!

Knowing that times are tight for many and even $0.99 might not fit into your budget, we will be happy to provide a Kindle copy to the first 5 people that will be willing to share their review on Amazon. Leave a comment below if interested.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Everyone has their favorite blogs and no doubt if you’re reading this post you know of at least one blog deserving an award.  Personal finance blogs are only one of many categories of awards to be given out at the World Media Awards to be held in the PayPal building in San Francisco on October 26, 2011.

With eBay partner network as lead sponsor and backing from Viglink, Trancos, GrowMap and Pace Lattin, the event is being widely publicized.  Media sponsors include Read Write Web, Adrants, Bloggeries, Media Vision,  The Affiliate Marketing Awards, FeedBurner alternative FeedBlitz, MyBlogGuest and the Guest Blogging Network Web Traffic Control.

Anyone is welcome to nominate their favorite blogs in any of the many categories.  Entries to the Media Awards are $45. Bloggers can nominate their own blogs and can receive a free nomination by blogging about the event. See the media awards nominations page for details.

Bloggers interested in promoting the awards can earn commissions on sales, discounted tickets for friends, exposure and links on the official site and a free ticket to this and other events by becoming an Ambassador. The awards will be presented during a full day of workshops on how to use the latest technologies and techniques to maximize your publishing potential.

Early Bird Tickets to attend the event are on sale for $50 and with space for only 500 are expected to sell out. (Event founder Murray Newlands, Author of How to Make a Blog Book and Online Marketing; a User Guide, has 517 members in his San Francisco Blog Club and San Francisco is teaming with bloggers and tech companies.)

Why not buy Early Bird Tickets to save some cash
and make sure you don’t get shut out?

Use discount code MyNewChoice to save 10%
off the cost of nominations and event tickets.

Use hashtag #wmads to follow buzz about the event on Twitter.

What are the things you need to consider before applying for a joint account?

Here are 8 things to keep in mind:

1. Communication will be crucial.

The money in the joint account will of course belong to both of the authorized persons – to both of you. Each of you will be responsible for keeping track of any money that comes in and goes out of the joint account. This means that you equally share responsibilities in keeping up to date with any changes in your account. If one fails to communicate the changes and it shows up in the record, it may cause some serious problems, because expectations have not been set.

It may be difficult – but not impossible – when two individuals have access to one account. It just means the two of you really have to communicate to make sure things are in order.

2. Savings and expenses will be equally divided.

Having a joint account also means that you both share whatever savings or expense you will have. This is beneficial if you have the same amount that you are putting in to pay for the same rent, same utility bills, and so on. Every transaction will be recorded so it will be easy to compute and verify. If you think that there are any errors in the record, you will have to check with the other person first to know if there were any transactions that were failed to be mentioned beforehand.

3. Both authorized signatories’ credit score will be affected.

Both of your names will be in the joint credit card account and you will have the same capacity to make charges to a credit card. All of the card’s history will be integrated on both persons’ individual credit report.

If one of the joint users that has bad credit is added to the joint account, the bad credit will be neutralized and perhaps be able to obtain a better credit card. This will only be possible if the credit card is used properly, the bill is paid when it is due, and the balance is kept low.

4. Both credit card application and interest rate will be affected.

A joint user of an account will find it easier to apply for a credit card when it was difficult before. This is particularly useful for those who have had a bad credit record and have high-interest rates on their individual accounts. Obtaining a joint account will allow that person to leverage on the other joint user’s good credit record to obtain a credit card easily or lower the interest rate.

5. Both authorized signatories are legally responsible for any payments.

While in individual accounts, you are only responsible for your own finances, in joint accounts, you will also be responsible for the other person’s money and debt. So if there should be any delinquent payments on the other joint user’s part, you will still be legally responsible for it – even if these delinquencies are not your fault.

The issuer of the credit card can go after either cardholder for the payment because both of your names are in one account. They can have legal actions taken against you, or both of you, for any charges you have or might not have made.

6. Credit card conflict can cause relationship problems.

Arguments are to be expected with joint accounts when communication is put aside. If there were any transactions that have been made without the knowledge of the other, it could give offense. For instance, if one has made a purchase that is not acceptable to the other joint user, and it has not been informed to him or her, they will have some trust issues in the future that will strain their relationship. It could be personal or business – for whatever purpose it is – inconsistency in the joint account will cause some relationship problems if not managed well.

7. Separation, divorce, or death will make it difficult to manage the joint account.

You will be held liable for any responsibilities in the original credit card agreement even in the unfortunate event of separation from, divorce from, or death of the other joint user. In cases of separation, it will be hard to communicate any transaction or due payments on the other joint user’s share, if you severe ties with that person.

In cases of a divorce, you will still be held liable even when the divorce agreement says otherwise. This means that if your partner isn’t putting in his or her share of bill payments, you will still be affected. In cases of death, you will take over full ownership of whatever accumulated savings or debts you have in the joint account.

8. The joint account can be used as a medium to manipulate the other.

This should not be the case, but it happens to some people, most especially to those that are in troubled personal relationships. One uses the credit card of the joint account to put a stress on the other. For instance, a joint user can go on a spending spree without any intention of paying for it, leaving the other person to cover the bill. If the other person refuses to pay, both of them will be held accountable. This would not matter for the other person who splurged if he or she already has bad credit in the first place.

About the author

Ally is part of the team that manages Home Loan Finder, a free home equity loan and home loan interest rates comparison service in Australia. Before joining HLF, she was a Media Planner with McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Inc., with award-winning executions, including the Levi’s 501 “Live Unbuttoned” global campaign.

In order to find the most lucrative, well-paying job, you need to start by pursuing the best possible degrees while you’re in college. This will ensure that you will not only have a job, but a good one to boot. Here is a list of the best money-making degrees that you can pursue for big money.

Degree in Medicine

• Average Salary: $145,000 – $151,000
• Medical degree holders include doctors, surgeons, nurses and healthcare administrators. The medical field is in high demand of skilled, qualified and well-educated medical personnel. Entry-level physician assistants and healthcare workers with degrees can climb the ranks very quickly.

Degree in Anesthesiology

• Average Salary: $ 290,000 – $393,000
• The anesthesiologist keeps the patient alive during surgery while the surgeon performs the operation. Their main job is to keep the patient alive by making sure that they’re asleep during surgery. They also administer medications to ensure that the patient is pain-free and comfortable after surgery.

Degree in Law

• Average Salary: $102,000 – $125,000
• Law school will prepare you for a career in corporate law, private law, or you may even find yourself in mitigating law where you argue your case to a jury. The salary can command an even higher check in practices where there is an opportunity to become one of the managing partners of a law firm.

Degree in Pharmacy

• Average Salary: $ 94,520 – $148,987
• Pharmacists work for retail drugstores, mental health centers, private physician offices and nursing homes. The degree in this area pursues some of the same subjects as medical students do, including biology, physiology and math subjects.

Degree in Education Administration

• Average Salary: $79,780 – $100,403
• This field is full of teachers and educational administrators, and the average salary is only for those with a four-year basic educational degree. With advanced degrees like a masters or doctorate, academic students can expect to make significantly more, especially if they work in the private school sector.

Degree in Construction Management

• Average Salary: $73,700 – $110,650
• In the construction industry, there is a high demand for management personnel, and your services can either go to the highest bidder, or to manage a bevy of projects for specialty clients. Construction managers are also found working as general contractors, either for larger construction companies or as self-employed business owners.

Degree in Dentistry

• Average Salary: $132,140 – $135,360
• Dentists in private practice make a handsome salary in a stable industry. They can also customize their practices to concentrate in pediatric, geriatric dentistry or in cosmetic dentistry where the income is even more lucrative.

Conclusion

By carefully choosing your degree that promises a healthy salary, you can forget worrying about those questions that plague some people’s minds: How much will I make? Is this enough for me to live on? How will I pay off my loan?

With these degrees, you’ll be able to write your own check, straight to the top and to the bank!

Even the rich and famous are not immune to financial blunders.

The case of MC Hammer is very well-known. He filed for bankruptcy with $13 million in debt after paying monthly wages in the amount of half a million to over 300 people for a term. It is clear that he overplayed his importance as a musician and individual.

What is stranger is that even savvy celebrities can make blunders.

Take Madonna, for example.

Till death do us part…

She has been an international superstar for almost thirty years. She is considered a marketing genius, reinventing herself and setting trends even now at 52. Somehow she missed signing a prenuptial agreement with Guy Ritchie. Her divorce cost her around $75 million. Guess that is not much where she comes from.

Signing a prenup is something many celebrities miss doing and then regret. When Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe got divorced, they split their incomes, unfortunately for Reese, who was making ten times more than him at the time. Sandra Bullock was wise not to make this mistake. She doesn’t owe her unfaithful ex a dime. And still, prenups are often avoided. This document somehow feels emotionally wrong. It feels like the very act of signing a prenuptial agreement can doom the marriage. Bottom line? If you want to be on the safe side, the prenup is your only option.

Enjoy your vices, but in moderation

Gambling, as with all vices, should be enjoyed in moderation. Being desperate to win can only result in a loss. A gargantuan one, in Michael Jordan’s case. He lost a reported $57,000 while gambling. He also lost over a million dollars in a single golf game, mistakenly believing his amazing basketball skills would translate to the golf course.

Death and taxes

A common blunder is forgetting to update your will. RIP Heath Ledger. In his will, signed in 2003, he left everything to his family. His daughter was born in 2005, but he did not update it. Now his $20 million fortune is the subject of dispute.

Nothing is for sure in this world but death and taxes.

Many celebrities can vouch for the latter.

Among them are Nicholas Cage, Pamela Anderson, Khloe Kardashian, Darryl Strawberry, and Wesley Snipes. Nicholas Cage’s earnest appearance is actually quite deceiving. He concealed upwards of three million dollars via Saturn Productions, his film company, in personal expenses. He should have hired an accountant, whose services are not only useful but also tax deductible. Poor Khloe Kardashian seems to owe $18,490 in back taxes. She had an accountant and actually did pay her taxes through him, but he “forgot” to present the respective documents to the tax officials.

Some people are just not to be trusted. Celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and Matt Damon can testify to this. Their “financial manager” Dana Giacchetto stole around $10 million from them. Do not hire an accountant just because you heard he or she was good.

Spend less than you earn

Finally, live within your means. Do not spend more than you earn because you might – God forbid – find yourself in Ed McMahon’s situation. He owes $664,000 in mortgage payments and got foreclosed on. Actor Stephen Baldwin and musician Tom Petty share this problem. Both have filed for bankruptcy at one point in time.

Whether you make millions or thousands, spending less money than you earn is a cure for many financial problems that people encounter.

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Melissa Dean writes for Credit Cards Canada, a blog offering an unbiased perspective on credit cards in Canada.

If you would not take a trip to a strange place without a map, why would you take a trip to an uncertain future without your financial planning strategy? Financial planning is your map to a secure future, and without it you may either get lost or end up perpetually in debt and unhappy.

Like trip planning, financial planning requires a few basic steps:

1. Decide where you want to end up financially, your destination
2. What side trips, stops along the way, or treats that you wish to explore
3. Set dates for achieving milestones, or goals along the way
4. Determine which financial vehicles will provide the best means for getting you to your goals
5. Know when you have reached your destination

What is your financial destination?

Before you can figure out where you want to go, it is important to know where you are right now. Are you in debt? Do you have children heading to college soon? What current demands are there on your budget? Do you have a budget? There are some great questions to begin with, so get started!

Where is your beginning location; where are you now?

Make a spreadsheet listing all your current financial obligations and debts, plus assets. Include monthly recurring bills like rent, food, gasoline, credit cards and loans, and other items. List items in columns, show totals and include due dates. For credit accounts, show both monthly minimums and total balances. The difference between what you owe and what you own (asset values) is your net worth.

What is a budget and why is it important?

A budget is simply your trip planner. It lays out plans for spending your disposable monthly income. It should include regular expenses, savings, special expenses and extra income left over.

Food, housing, apparel, medical/dental, vehicle, gasoline, insurance, utilities, school expenses, entertainment, saving, gifts, retirement, investments and emergencies are common expense categories. A budget is an important way to monitor and control your income.

Why set target dates or milestone goals?

Setting a target date and monitoring along the way allows you to arrive on time at your goal. If there is a milestone goal, such as building a comfortable retirement nest egg, you get there one step at a time over time.

How does one accomplish this?

Investigate various financial vehicles such as stocks, bonds, savings, investments, real estate, insurance and other financial tools. Stay on the safe side, away from risky schemes and charlatans. Slow and steady always works. Use compound interest on savings over decades to increase savings.

What is the final outcome?

When you have reached your destination, your targeted goals, you have arrived! By long term financial planning, everything should be improved for you and your family. This is why financial planning, at any income level, can be an important and significant benefit to all.

Start today!

Surely you have heard that phrase once or twice before and maybe you have anecdotes that would support the meaning of the phrase. Speaking from personal experience, I am certain that my first job out of college was obtained not only because I was qualified but because one of the executives used to work for my father.

Could this same theory apply to the college that you attend and the salary that you can earn? There is no question that certain colleges and universities provide a distinct name-recognition value that can open doors for graduates.

Schools that provide the highest salary potential

In a recap of a recent Payscale.com salary report, Yahoo! Finance listed the top eight schools as ranked by mid-career median salaries. It should come as no surprise that these schools also come with a hefty price tag for their annual tuition. Here is a breakdown of the schools along with the mid-career median salary and the annual tuition:

• Harvey Mudd College :: $126,000 salary :: $40,390 tuition
• Princeton University :: $123,000 salary :: $36,640 tuition
• Dartmouth College :: $123,000 salary :: $40,437 tuition
• Harvard University :: $121,000 salary :: $38,416 tuition
• California Institute of Technology (CalTech) :: $120,000 salary :: $36,282 tuition
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) :: $119,000 salary :: $39,212 tuition
• Stanford University :: $119,000 salary :: $39,201 tuition
• Colgate University :: $119,000 salary :: $41,870 tuition

Is there real value?

The above mentioned schools are indicated to provide the most valuable educations, but what is the cost of that value? With each school carrying an annual tuition in the neighborhood of $40,000 per year, one is paying quite a bit for that perceived value.

As I have mentioned before, one financial decision that I would make differently is to attend the local state university as opposed to a private university. The cost savings in tuition would have meant less in student loans as well as less burden on my parents. In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that my earning potential would not have been limited had I attended the local state school.

Awhile back there was an article on CNNMoney.com that provided three ways to save $400,000 and guess what was included among those three ways – yep, college costs. That article appears to support my belief that I would be where I am today regardless of the university that I attended.

Research shows that students with similar academic abilities earn the same whether they attend top schools or less selective ones.

A better judge of value

Rather than simply look at the mid-career median salaries to determine what schools offer the most valuable education, one might want to consider the overall cost of tuition compared to the earning potential. Would you rather spend $160,000 for an education with a starting salary of $60,000 or $40,000 for an education with a starting salary of $35,000?

These numbers are completely arbitrary but demonstrate that attending one of the prestigious universities may put you in a considerable hole financially that the slightly higher earning potential will have diminished returns.

As a firm believer in the fact that the individual determines their own earning potential based on their work ethic and ability, I would think twice before attending one of the schools mentioned above simply to benefit from the potential boost in pay.

What are your thoughts on how your school influences your salary?

• Do you tip contractors?

  The subject of tipping is always popular during the holidays as the question of protocol comes into play with a number of people: mailman, newspaper delivery man or woman, and hair stylists. When my wife and I were having work done on our house, we wondered what the protocol was for tipping contractors. Check out the discussion in the comments too.

• Another contractor going home with no tip

  After making our decision on whether or not to tip the contractor, we looked at why so many people feel the inclination to tip people and came up with a general set of rules. But could it really be that simple? How does this approach differ from how you handle who to tip and who not to tip?

• How shopping online has changed the way we shop

  How much of your holiday shopping was done online versus visiting brick-and-mortar stores? In our household, my wife did the majority of her shopping in the stores while I did most of my shopping online. While some people prefer the physical act of visiting the stores and fighting the crowds, there are a number of benefits that can be realized by shopping online. Which of these benefits have you found in your shopping?

• How to handle a financial windfall

  Most people would welcome the opportunity to have a pile of cash dropped in their lap, but are they truly prepared to handle the financial windfall? Too many people are completely unprepared and ultimately end up exhausting the money on little purchases here and there. Here are a few sound principles to remember should you find yourself with an influx of money this holiday season.

Here is to hoping that you find the above posts to be helpful, or at least mildly interesting, during the holidays and that you have a happy holiday season with your family and friends!

As the new year approaches, remember to make the new choice to manage your finances to become debt free, financially independent and retired early!

But there isn’t any mention of hiding purchases from your spouse.

Given the number of marriages that dissolve due in large part to financial reasons, it should come as no surprise that so many spouses are hiding purchases from their spouse.

According to an article on Yahoo! Finance, approximately 80% of married people hide some spending from their spouse. For women and men alike, the purchases most often hidden are clothing and accessories at 43% and 24% respectively. When looking at the second most hidden purchase, there is a clear separation between the men and women as 21% of women have hidden gift purchases while 19% of men have hidden alcohol purchases.

Why are spouses feeling the need to hide these purchases?

In some cases there may be unscrupulous reasons, as evidenced by the Yahoo! article that indicates 4% of husbands and 1% of women have hidden purchases on dating websites.

However, generally speaking, many of the purchases that are hidden are much more innocent in nature. The new skirt. The new tie or shirt. A haircut and color – spending anything more than $10-15 on your hair is just a foreign concept to most men.

Communication is lacking.

As mentioned earlier, money plays an important role in many marriages and unfortunately, that role is often one of stress and fighting. By hiding a purchase, one spouse may feel that they can simply avoid the potential argument about how they spend money.

This may work for awhile, but eventually the other spouse will learn of the purchase and the fact that it was hidden. Not only can this cause further tension regarding finances, but it may also introduce doubt into what else is being hidden.

Whether it be hiding purchases or general financial issues in a marriage, more often than not it has to do with a lack of communication between partners.

In drastic cases, one spouse may be hiding an entire account (whether that be a checking / savings account for discretionary spending or a secret credit card) that is used to keep their activities under wraps. In less severe cases, husbands might be hiding a round of golf here and there while wives might be hiding a manicure or the latest Coach purse.

Regardless of the secret, keeping them from your spouse is building your marriage on an unstable foundation.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every purchase has to be discussed and approved by both spouses. It is entirely possible to be open and honest about the amount of money that is being spent without disclosing where each and every penny went.

Give open, honest communication a try.

Couples that argue about money are more likely to hide purchases from one another, which ultimately causes more arguments about money when the purchases are revealed. Rather than continue that cycle in your own relationship, try to be as open and honest about how money is being spent in your relationship. It might sound silly to do as an adult, but one great way to resolve the desire to hide purchases from one another is to utilize an allowance.

While keeping purchases a secret may not always represent an unhealthy relationship, you will likely find that openly discussing money and how it is spent will bring you and your partner closer together and minimize an area of potential conflict.

Have you ever hidden a purchase from your spouse?

What were you hiding? And why?

This theory holds that our spending habits are formed in childhood. People who are bad at saving grew up in poverty and learned that money must be used as intended when it comes by. Or they were born in fabulously wealthy families, and their parents took them shopping as a pick-me-up.

As you can see, there is plenty wrong with this theory.

It does not take into account the fact that someone who was poor would learn to save as a means of ensuring security, or that you do not stay rich by squandering your financial resources. This is not to say that consumption models are not acquired in the family. Our parents influence us in every way.

But there is more to it.

Marketing experts are always looking for new and more efficient ways to cheat us out of our hard-earned cash. One such way is by stimulating impulse buys. Souvenirs are a typical example. If you were on a vacation somewhere and really enjoyed it, you would be likely to buy a souvenir reminding you of that time as a way to let the memory linger. You end up buying some ridiculously overpriced item that you do not know where to put later. It ends up going in the bottom drawer of your desk.

Impulsiveness itself is a generalized trait. Some people never work on this, and they are every salesperson’s dream. They march into the store, fall in love with something, and march back out with it.

In some cases, this involves shopping therapy but usually, it is just the trait. They never work on this because it is a source of great pleasure. Plus, they usually have enough money to afford living like this, either because they make a lot or because someone supports them.

One of the biggest myths is that human beings are rational.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Homo economicus is a dying breed, if it ever existed. How many commercials appealing to reason can you think of? One, two at best. Producers target our emotions and instincts. They use emotions like joy, satisfaction, prestige, happiness, freedom, and nostalgia to turn our attention to their products.

Sex and marketing is a whole separate topic.

Advertisers use non-verbal techniques like pictures and music. Verbal messages involve risks – they are processed cognitively, while techniques appealing to emotions yield fast reactions. And with the endless supply of goods and services for all tastes, fulfilling needs you did not even imagine you had, it is a wonder that some people manage to save any money whatsoever.

Some people are not tempted by the wide array of items on sale. When they drop by the supermarket for bread and some cheese they buy just that. Certain individuals are blessed with inborn prudence. It can verge on stinginess. There is a fine line.

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Melissa Dean writes for http://www.creditcardreview.ca/blog/, a website offering an unbiased perspective on Canadian lending industry.