The Austin Financial Coach at Captial Budget Strategies, LLC is here to help! We know the feeling of having a decent income, but still, at the end of the month, having no idea where all that money went. Plus, with school loans, credit card debt, car payments, mortgage and other monthly bills to pay, it is too hard to get organized. Our Austin Financial Coach will get your financially organized and set your budget on
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Suppose you need to buy a new car to get to work in downtown Austin, but you also need a loan. Your credit score plays a major role in who might lend you money and how much interest they will charge. Lenders consider a buyer with a low credit score (under 660) to be a higher risk of not paying back their loan. Therefore, to protect their money, lenders charge these buyers a higher rate
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Your college days are over and your collared days have begun. Congrats on your first job! Welcome to Austin rush-hour traffic! When should you start saving and where should your “new” money go? Sorry, it is time to be an adult about your finances. Here are the basic rules about just starting out: Step 1. STOP USING CREDIT CARDS. Remember, if you can’t pay cash for something, you can’t afford it. Have one credit card
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Tracking your student loans can seem impossible. Some graduates accepted separate loans for each semester, which means they now have to track 8 separate loans. With so much going on right after graduation (new apartment, new job, a new family, new city, new car, etc.), it is very easy to forget paying one or two loans every month. We have had clients who had no idea how many loans they had, how much they owed,
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Next to buying a house, a car is probably the most expensive item you will purchase. Here are 9 recommended steps to take when buying your next car: 1. If you have any other outstanding loans (credit cards, school loans) those should be your focus. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with another monthly payment for a car loan. 2. Review your budget to see how much you can honestly afford to pay each month. If
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Next to buying a house in Austin, a car is probably the most expensive item you will purchase. Yet, we will put more thought into buying a blender than an automobile. Think about it, if we find a suitable blender for $30, we would not consider another model for $45. Yet, when buying a car, we agree to every upgrade, including the unnecessary undercoating and $200 floor mats. Unfortunately, at Capital Budget Strategies, LLC, our
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We had a client who owed $200,000 in undergraduate school loans. Not for Harvard, Yale or Columbia, but a Texas university with in-state tuition. That is $50,000 a year (9 months actually) for a 19 year old. Yikes. His monthly payments, if he paid them, were $2,300. When we asked how the loans grew so large, he said, “I really enjoyed my college life.” When we asked a friend, whose son was a senior at
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It is the middle of August parents, have you packed your kids bags yet? Millions of students will be heading back to colleges and universities in the next few weeks. Are you confident they can face the financial challenges of school loans, rent, parking, shopping, meal plans, car insurance, laundry, books, school supplies and phone bills on their own? Are they ready for the real life? The great majority of our clients complain about never
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What does it mean to “pay yourself first?” OK, so you have to pay taxes first, but after that you should pay yourself. This means that before you access cash to spend on Amazon or on the date with your new upstairs neighbor, take steps to put money aside into savings and to pay for things you really need. Here is what Captial Budget Strategies, LLC, Austin’s best financial coach, recommends: STEP 1: Reduce your
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Is it possible to live without credit cards in Austin? Yes, just ask your grandparents, because they and everyone before them did. It actually wasn’t until the 1970s when credit cards became widely used. I agree that everyone should have at least one card, kept in a dresser drawer. It should only be used for real emergencies or when a credit card is required, such as renting a car. All other times, the card should
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