Micro lending – which involves loans of small amounts – got its start as a research project meant to study the possibility of designing a credit delivery system targeted to the rural poor. In 1983 the project – created by Professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, India – was transformed into the Grameen Bank.
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FICO – an almost universally used credit scoring system that was invented and is calculated by the Fair Isaac company and then sold as valuable information to financial services companies – is changing this year. As a result, many consumers will have their credit scores evaluated differently, and they may wind up with worse credit than they anticipated.
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Most of us overlook the obvious ways to save, as evidenced by the fact that the average savings rate in the USA had dipped into negative territory for the first time since the Great Depression. That means that most Americans spend more than they earn each month while not saving a penny. To turn that trend around, here are three simple savings ideas:
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Saving money on gasoline has become more critical than ever, as millions of Americans try to cut back on expenses and deal with the unexpectedly high prices of fuel.
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