Where do you find help?

   There are many places to invest money.  There are credit card consolidation loans.  There are many many books about getting out of debt and making over your budget and building your financial future.  How do you know which is right for you?  Do you start small?  Do you go big? Do you pay off smaller debts first for peace of mind and a sense of accomplishment, or the higher interest debt in order to save on how much interest you end up paying out.

    My first step was to know where I am starting.  Going to places the source to check your credit score can bee tricky and expensive.  Many times you get enrolled in recurring charges and it is difficult to cancel.  It has happened to me and many others.  I like a credit monitoring service that pulls from all three credit bureaus and has some protection, alerts when your credit is run, and even simulators to see where best to put your money to raise your score.  You can dispute incorrect information on the report.  I would first check with the bank or credit card company you already work with and see if they offer anything of the sort.  I started with this one: Privacy Guard. You will need to enroll both you and your spouse, and it is a good idea to check your children's every now and again as it is common source of identity theft. 

   My next step was to track and curb my spending by getting a money management software.  They are free ones you can manage online and from a mobile device such as mint.com or software available for download.  It has helped me create a calendar of when bills are due and a budget.  This will come in handy when I start using credit cards to work for me, instead of me working for them.

    Right now, I am not ready for investing, and I have already started a get out of debt plan with my own budget system I have used for years and money management software.  I am looking for what to do next.  How to start saving and how to divide it up for various things (and still keep track), how to use credit to build credit and rewards both in a positive way.  How we both manage spending, especially if one would like to surprise the other.  If any of you can point me in the right direction, that would be great!

Melanie