If you’re thinking about buying a house, you would think that it’s wise to sell your current house first before buying a new one, but there are some drawbacks to this option. Here are a few reasons why you might want to think twice.

Renting

Once you sell your home you have nowhere to live and because you have yet to find your new home, it is likely you will need to rent after the sale of your old home, while you look for your new one. This is not only an added expense to consider, but you also need to think about the inconvenience and the disruption to your family life of moving twice in a short period of time. You’ll also need to sign a lease for a predetermined amount of time and you could find a home before the end of your lease, but have to pay out the remaining term anyway.

- Pay your credit cards off. Nothing drains your finances more than high interest credit card debt. Consider getting rid of your cell phone, cable/satellite for a few months to pay off your cards.

- Improve your credit rating. Pay your bills on time and your credit score will go up. Next time you need credit,  you’ll get a lower interest rate.

- Buy it used. Buy used books and used movies. You can find these on ebay or amazon for just a couple of dollars, there’s no point in buying these items new.

- Quit drinking beer and smoking. Not only are these things highly unhealthy, but they’re expensive (heavily taxed) and are addictive as well.

- Downgrade your TV options. See if your carrier offers cheaper plans with less channels.

- Don’t drive too often. Discover your community. Find a local park or a local grocery store to cut the fuel costs.

Back in the days when credit cards were a luxury, layaway was the easiest way to pay for large-ticket items or multiple purchases that couldn’t be purchased at the time with cash. Weekly or monthly payments were required by the retailer to maintain the items in lay-away. But layaway has made a comeback with so many American’s living hand-to-mouth while still hoping to provide the extras for their families or for a happy Christmas morning.

According to the About Group’s ConsumerSearch.com, more than seventy percent of consumers are open to using a layaway plan in the next six months. There are both positive and not so great reasons to consider using layaway. Here’s the scoop:

Often times when people are trying to fix their credit report, they pull up their report a few times and wonder, do these types of credit inquiries hurt my credit score? Here I’ll try to answer that question and thus clear up some misconceptions. You see, there are two kinds of credit inquiries, there is a soft credit inquiry and a hard credit inquiry. One impacts your score negatively while the other one doesn’t.

A soft credit check is when you check your own report or when someone accesses your report without you initiating the look up. Examples of this include when your employer does it, utility company does it or insurance company does it.

A hard credit inquiry happens when you’re applying for credit. Examples of this include when you’re applying for an auto loan, applying for a mortgage or applying for a credit card.

For many who are young (16-21 years old), getting credit is almost impossible. The reason is that they haven’t yet established a long credit history. So a car loan company or mortgage company will be wary to loan someone tens of thousands of dollars when they have yet to prove their creditworthiness (I can’t believe that’s a word). So the task is to build up your credit. One great way of doing that is with secured credit cards.

Here is how secured credit cards work. You deposit funds into your credit card account. That amount you have is your credit line. You can then use whatever balance you have to make purchases. There is little risk for the credit card company, since they’re not loaning you any money. These cards are extremely easy to get approved for and are great for a young person to build up their credit. Not only that, but you can even earn a little bit in interest from your balance every month.

The cost of accepting credit card payments can be expensive, frustrating and time consuming for a small business and especially for those just starting up. A percentage of each purchase and a transaction fee are paid to the credit card company, in addition to the cost of a phone line and of leasing a card reader.

The technology that turns cell phones into credit cards is already being used extensively in Europe and countries across the globe. The holdout in the U.S. has been the cost of replacing the current credit card readers with the new smart-phone terminals.

For years financial experts have claimed that carrying around cash as opposed to credit cards is an effective way to save money—it prevents consumers from blindly going over their personal spending limits. But if powerhouse tech company Google has anything to say about it, a different method of payment will actually be the key to help consumers save: swiping your smartphone.

Late September Google officially launched Google Wallet, a digital “wallet” that allows users to make purchases by tapping or swiping their touch screen cell phones. Although there is a slew of mobile wallets in-the-making, Google Wallet is the first-of-its-kind to hit the U.S. market. While the new technology is still in its infancy stages (and is only available to Sprint Nexus S 4G phone owners for now), it’s a technology that if widely accepted by the masses may just render cash, credit cards, and tangible wallets obsolete, according to tech experts. And aside from the obvious—never having to buy an actual wallet ever again— like stated previously it can actually help consumers save tons of money. To find out how, continue reading below.