Credit & Debt « Len Penzo dot Com

Dear Friend: Here Are 41 Reasons Why I'm NOT Lending You the Money

By Len Penzo

Earlier this year, the Huffington Post featured a curious article that attempted to explain why our friends often fail to repay money that they borrow from us. In a nutshell, the piece offered five reasons:

You refuse to ask for the money back.
You make it too easy for your friends to ignore you.
You didn’t get the loan in writing.
Your friends assume that their unpaid debt won’t result in a broken friendship.
Your

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18 Spooky Facts You Didn’t Know About the National Debt

By Len Penzo

Shhh … Don't tell anybody, but Fort Knox currently holds enough gold to only cover 0.06% of the $16 trillion National Debt.

With October here and Halloween right around the corner, there are a lot of folks out there looking for ways to scare the pants off unwitting friends and family members.

One way to do that without having to dress up like a ghost or goblin is by sharing this

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Great Ways to Save on Your Home Loan

By Sabado Domingo

Mortgages can eat you alive.

That’s because even after you decide upon all of the home loan particulars you’re looking for, there’s still that process of finding the best deal for you and your family. For example, you may know that you are looking to finance $200,000 for 30 years, but how do you find the best interest rates? Here are a few options:

Research Online

The Internet has become a fantastic place

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Question: What's the Fastest Way to Pay Down My Mortgage Early?

By Len Penzo

Vanilla or chocolate?

Credit or debit?

House Hunters or Jersey Shore?

Some questions can be answered with relative ease by almost everyone.

When it comes to paying down mortgages early, however, a much more perplexing question for most folks is whether it’s better to make a single large extra principal payment annually or twelve smaller ones each month.

Is one method better than another?

Does one prepayment method save more interest and result in a quicker

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100 Words On: Why Compound Interest Isn't Everybody's Best Friend

By Len Penzo

Invest $100 that earns a 6% annual return and you’ll have $106 a year later. The uninitiated might expect to see $112 in their account after two, but they’d actually have $112.36 because interest not only accrued on the original principal of $100, but also on the $6 gained in year-one. Left untouched, that account would balloon to $1842 after 50 years — 18 times the original stake! No wonder

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No, I'm NOT Rich. But I Am Financially Free. Here's How I Got There.

By Len Penzo

Let’s face it, the more choices we have in life, the richer and more rewarding it becomes.

Fortunately, I’m currently in that coveted sweet spot where I can do pretty much whatever the heck I please, whenever I want.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not in a position to buy whatever I want, but I am able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities in life that are typically out of

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Southwest Airlines: Website Horror Stories, Part II

By Len Penzo

Even Rod Serling couldn't make this latest Southwest story up …

You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the sign post up ahead, your next stop … The Personal Finance Twilight Zone.

And I thought my recent adventure with Southwest Airlines was infuriating!

While Southwest was pulling a classic bait

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The 50 Biggest Money Mistakes Household CEOs Make

By Len Penzo

As this penny illustrates, even the United States Mint occasionally makes money mistakes.

I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve made more than a few mistakes in my lifetime. After all, everybody screws up occasionally; for us humans, mistakes come with the territory.

For example, I remember the time I decided it would be great fun to play Wii golf for eight consecutive hours. So I did.

Unfortunately for me, my middle-aged left

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100 Words On: Why You Should Never Cosign A Loan for Anyone

By Len Penzo

Cosigning for a loan is one of the dumbest financial moves you could ever make. By cosigning, you not only assume liability for the borrowed money, but you also make it tougher on yourself to qualify for large loans — regardless of your payment history — because lenders still include cosigned loans as part of your overall debt load.

The bottom line: If a lender refuses to loan money to somebody

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100 Words On: Why Lazy People Shouldn’t Automate Their Finances

By Len Penzo

Millions of successful household CEOs automate their finances in order to save time and money, and help them reach their financial goals. For example, prepaying your utility bills, the mortgage and other loans helps eliminate late fees and postage. And paying yourself first is painless when you make weekly or fortnightly automatic paycheck deductions to your IRA or 401(k) retirement accounts. However, computerized systems still make mistakes — that’s why

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