Financial News Features

Small business owners can gain valuable advice from the expert panelists of the Fobes Finance Council on how best to align their strategies for the new year and ensure financial growth for the future. Each small step will bring you closer to starting off on the right financial foot - like paying off some of your own debts to strengthen your position for later.

Wage garnishment is not to be taken lightly. There are different scenarios and associated costs for each situation, but if your wages are being garnished by any amount, one thing is clear, your financial life is a mess. Though you may not clean it up quickly, there are steps that can improve your circumstances like negotiating a payment plan with your creditor or seeking help from a credit counselor.

You could be coming into some money soon. According to the Internal Revenue Service, in 2016, 111 million Americans received tax refunds, with the average amount being $2,860.

According to November’s TD Bank’s Merry Money Survey, 78 percent of Americans believe they overspent during the holidays, and less than half of consumers planned to pay for holiday bills as they purchased things in the months leading up to those gift-giving finales.

The single biggest mistake I've seen repeatedly in 20 years can be summed up like this: believing ridiculous get-rich-quick schemes and doubting legitimate get-out-of-debt programs.

Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com, believes there’s something inherently wrong with the student loan process. “You can still be a teenager and owe tens of thousands of dollars – that’s ridiculous; rental car agencies won’t let you drive off the lot until you’re 25 because they don’t trust you with their expensive vehicle,” he says.