Are You OverExtended?

Are you managing your debt, or is it managing you? Practical guidance for managing personal debt and credit.

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  • Spending more than paying off
  • Trouble paying bills
  • Buying without down payments
  • Maxed out credit lines
  • Retirement not properly funded
  • No payoff strategy
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Recent Articles

When a Debt Collector Calls Your Workplace: What It Means and How to Handle It
Debt Collection

When a Debt Collector Calls Your Workplace: What It Means and How to Handle It

It can be unsettling when a debt collector calls you at work. Maybe a receptionist transfers a call, or a collector leaves a message with a coworker...

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The Childcare Credit Card Trap: How to Avoid Overextending on Daycare Costs
Childcare Debt

The Childcare Credit Card Trap: How to Avoid Overextending on Daycare Costs

Childcare is one of the largest line items in many middle-class budgets. For families with young children, daycare or a nanny can cost as much as...

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How Paying Before the Statement Date Can Improve Your Debt-to-Limit Ratio
Debt-to-Limit Ratio

How Paying Before the Statement Date Can Improve Your Debt-to-Limit Ratio

Your debt-to-limit ratio compares the balances on your credit cards with the credit limits on those cards. If you have a $2,000 balance across cards...

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Fix Your Credit in Your 40s Before Retirement Gets Close
40s

Fix Your Credit in Your 40s Before Retirement Gets Close

Your 40s are often expensive. You may be juggling a mortgage, car payments, kids’ costs, aging parents, and retirement savings. Credit can feel like...

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Popular Articles

Paying Before the Statement Date Can Lower Your Credit Utilization Ratio
How Your Budget Affects Your Credit Utilization
Why a Chargeoff Can Keep You From Getting a Mortgage
Video

Consumer Credit Tips

Each video breaks down one practical way to get out from under debt and stay there — straightforward advice on credit, budgeting, and the habits that keep you from getting overextended again.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

A late payment is reported after 30 days past due. A charge-off occurs after about 180 days of non-payment, when the creditor writes the debt off as a loss. A charge-off is far more damaging and remains on your report for 7 years.

Motivations include social pressure, the desire to project success, keeping up with peers (the "keeping up with the Joneses" effect), and the influence of social media promoting curated lifestyles of affluence.

Have an open money conversation. Each person identifies their individual values, and then you work together to define shared values as a family. The spending plan is then built around funding these shared priorities, making financial decisions a collaborative effort.

A credit builder loan is designed to help individuals establish or improve credit. The loan amount is held in a savings account while you make payments, and once paid off, you receive the funds. It builds credit but does not provide immediate cash for debt.

The primary types are revolving debt (e.g., credit cards, personal lines of credit), installment debt (e.g., personal loans, payday loans), and secured debt (e.g., mortgages, auto loans). Overextension often occurs when multiple types of debt become unmanageable simultaneously.