Financial Education

Helpful, easy-to-understand articles to guide your financial wellness journey at every stage.

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Money Minutes: Collateral

"Property or other assets that a borrower offers a lender to secure a loan. If the borrower stops making the promised loan payments, the lender can seize the collateral to recoup its losses. Because collateral offers some security to the lender in case the borrower fails to pay back the loan, loans that are secured by collateral typically have lower interest rates than unsecured loans. A lender's claim to a borrower's collateral is called a lien." -Investopedia

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Personal Finance

How-Tuesday: How to Live On $50 a Week

What if we told you it is possible to live on just $50 a week? Of course, we’re not talking about that week that includes rent, utilities, loan payments, shopping sprees, the biggest birthday party of the century, or unexpected trips to the doctor.

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Personal Finance

Freebie Friday: Free Budgeting Tools + Worksheets

We've spent a lot of time on the blog discussing the importance of creating a budget and how to create a budget as well as establish emergency savings before diving into the likes of investments, major purchases, and career changes. Today, we've rounded up some free online tools and worksheets that'll help you keep better track of it all!

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Personal Finance

Money Monday: 5 Ways You SHOULD Be Using Your Work Bonus

There's nothing quite like finding yourself with an extra chunk of change (no matter how large or how small.) Perhaps it's a quarterly or holiday bonus, a nice tax refund, or just an unexpected birthday check from the grandparents - any additional income that finds its way to you can put you in a better position financially, assuming you use it wisely!

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Dear 3Rivers: How Important is My Credit Rating, Really?

Essentially what your credit score tells lenders, landlords, and dealerships is whether or not you’ll be a monetary risk to them – whether you’ll be able to pay back your debt to them on time, or at all. While a low credit score might not stop them from letting you borrow money or lease from them, it will very likely cause them to raise the rate of interest you’ll owe for their own security, as opposed to someone with a better credit score.

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BlogCategories Credit Score
3 Rivers OG image

Money Minutes: Line of Credit

A line of credit is an "arrangement between a financial institution . . . and a customer that establishes a maximum loan balance that the [financial institution] will permit the borrower to maintain.

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Personal Finance

Christmas in July: 5 Steps to Paying Off Holiday Debt

So, you saved up, created a holiday budget, given affordable gifts, and celebrated the season frugally, but you still ended up with far more holiday debt than you'd like. It's no fun to kick off a New Year with financial stress and feeling totally broke. Here are some ways you can get rid of that December debt as quickly as possible.

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Debt Management