Free Credit Reports

One of the things that I like to do regularly is get my credit reports to see what's going on. You're entitled to one free credit report a year from each of the three major agencies - TransUnoin, Experian and Equifax - and these days you can get them online. You can get them more often than once a year for various reasons including if within 60days of appling for credit (whether you're approved or not).

Each of the credit bureaus does things a little bit differently, so it behooves you to look at all of them. I found a mistake on one of mine that was not reflected on the other two which was interesting to me (and I plan to dispute it).

But why just one? I recently started reading "Dirty Little Secrets:" What the Credit Bureaus Won't Tell You" (Entrepreneur Press) which has a lot of great information including that different companies report to different agencies but not necessarily to all of them, so the information is likely to be at least a little bit inconsistent (which I already knew).

But, did you know that even though you're entitled to a copy of your credit report, you're they can charge you to see your score? There are options to get 3-in1 reports for varying pricesor you can get them one at a time by agency.

By the way, I got my free credit reports at Annual Credit Report. I couldn't figure out how to find the free reports on the TransUnion site (it actually goes to a third party site that is full of ads and all kinds of products, but nowhere could I find the link to get my credit report for free). But Experian had the link on their front page. However, they all wanted money to take a look at the scores, so I opted for doing a search to find the above tool this which I've used before.

Over all it was a pleasant experience - I've been in process with my own money and credit stuff and am finding that the work really pays off. I'd love to hear what you find out and what, if anything, you do about it.

Cheat Sheet - how to make sure those payments get made on time

One of the things that can easily cause adverse credit for sole proprietors and small businesses is not paying bills on time. Not only that, but missed payments cost money - in late fees and often in interest. And sometimes one or two late payments can cause interest rates on credit cards to go through the roof.

So, in addition to a bookkeeping tool like QuickBooks or Quicken, I keep a cheat sheet called "Bills" posted on my office wall. It lists all of my bills - personal and business - as well as the amounts, the accounts they come out of by due dates.

And while many of us try to pay bills as they come in, sometimes things get missed - mail gets mis-delivered, statements get mixed in with junk mail or delayed. But I'm still responsible for making payments on time. With my little cheat sheet, any time during the month I can just glance up on my cheat sheet and be reminded of all of my regular bills.

I find that this little tool carries me a long ways towards reducing my anxiety about making timely payments.

For the Love of Chocolate

One of the things that Conscious Bookkeeping and I have in common is a value of "Celebration through Chocolate."

I have found more joy in recent weeks giving away chocolate to people than I've ever found in eating it. Not to say that I don't eat chocolate (ha!), but the joy that lights up people's faces when I ask them if they want some chocolate fills me with happiness. Going to the store to buy chocolate for clients brings me great joy knowing that the people that I work with will get joy from what I'm doing - even or maybe especially if looking at their finances is painful.

Recently my favorite kind of chocolate to share is Harry and David's truffles. They are big enough to give more than a tiny taste and rich enough to be wonderful without risking spilling anything.

One of the things that this made me realize again is how much money is really both about giving and receiving. We often focus on getting our income up, but the flow of money is more like breathing - we pay bills and we pay for food (exhale), we earn money and put it in the bank (inhale). And without the flow we would have no need to bring the money in, we would stagnate.

Money is the energy that we've agreed to trade for our goods and services. On it's own it has no special powers. It's one "power" is to help us trade what we do more universally.

Like for chocolate. Mmmm... chocolate.