For those regulars, or anyone visiting the site in general, I must apologize…

Without forewarning, I disappeared for several weeks and now the readers deserve an explanation.

If you’ve followed my trail on this site or other financial blogs, you may have surmised that I was in the process of getting married. Well, now there’s officially a Mrs. FinEngr!

The event came off flawlessly and many guests are still raving about the great time they had. Then after a long and relaxing honeymoon in Belize, it’s back to the real world.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

Is the American dream of homeownership still in your dreams?  Thanks to USDA loans, more and more Americans are becoming homeowners, and you can become one of them. With huge benefits and easy qualification measures, if you’re looking to buy a home in a rural area, a USDA loan could be the perfect finance option for you.

When financing a home, one of the biggest hurdles is often coming up with enough cash to make a down payment on your loan. But with a USDA loan, you don’t have to worry about this.  USDA loans are the only non-military loans that offer $0 down payment even with 100% financing, so you don’t have to wait to start looking for a home. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Popularity: 29% [?]

The following is a guest post by Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff.  Her blog covers living expenses, saving for your future, and the fun stuff in between.  Quickly gaining popularity and a strong following, make sure to check out her other great articles before she goes big-time!

I don’t hit on parental subjects very often since I only have dogs, but I liked these tips in the Yahoo Finance article, The Six Mistakes Young Families Make.  I think these are mistakes made by lots of people, not just young families.  Here’s their six mistakes and my view on them:

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Popularity: 100% [?]

Probably one of the more fun articles I’ve written, I was ecstatic when Budgeting in the Fun Stuff let me reprint this article.  The original link is included, so check out all the great comments!  I’d been on a string of career-type articles, being added to a few Wisebread listings courtesy of Linsey Knerl.  ENJOY…

Parallels are all around us. Browsing the site, you may have already come across Financial Lessons From Engineering or Financial Lessons from Running, which made relationships to personal finance from other experiences.

Making the connections can be a lot of fun, and the more adventures we have in life – the more overlapping themes we’ll notice. The funniest part is, you’ll be surprised at where they pop up!

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Popularity: 23% [?]

Today, we’ve got a quick guest post from one of the community members over at Credit Magic. Still on autopilot, will get back to regular writing after The Big Day.

Repairing your credit report and removing negative items can make your financial life much easier. The reason? Because good credit is required to get home mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, and more. Credit repair thus, becomes very essential. To repair your credit record, you can get help from a credit repair company or do it on your own.

These are a few steps that you can follow in order to repair your credit record. This, in turn, will improve your credit score.

1. Evaluation of credit report

The first step in credit repair would be the evaluation of your credit record. Before you start repairing your credit, you must first know what you need to repair. You can order your credit reports from any of the three bureaus: Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union. Remember, the only free credit reports are found at AnnualCreditReport.

2. Review your reports

Go through your reports and highlight what needs repairing. These could include: any past due or charged off accounts, accounts sent to collections, or any incorrect information. All of these will then need to be disputed with the credit bureaus.

3. Dispute inaccurate information

You have the right to dispute any negative items contained in your credit report. The credit bureau has 30 days to verify the information; if this cannot be done the information must be deleted.

4. Past due accounts must be tackled

Past due accounts have a negative impact on your score. Try to repay charge offs. A charge off is a debt assumed to be noncollectable, by debt collectors. However, it is still legally valid and the creditor can attempt to collect the full amount.

5. New credit

You may need to establish new credit by opening up a new account. Try to get positive items added to your credit history. Keep your balances at a reasonable level and make payments on time.

In case you cannot handle the credit repair yourself, seek the help of a qualified credit repair company. Accepting professional help may also be worthwhile if you have a particularly difficult credit history.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Following the earlier post on Asset Aggregation, we’re continuing to run guest posts which were featured on other sites. This time around, we’re re-posting an article which appeared on Sweating The Big Stuff. Daniel has gone through a lot of great changes, so make sure to check out his other articles.

If you’ve been keeping up with Sweating the Big Stuff, you’ll know Daniel’s been hard at work funding his Roth IRA. He’s done a great job of adjusting his lifestyle to accommodate his aggressive investing goals, which leads in nicely to the topic at hand.

Most people understand the concept of compound interest and the benefits of starting sooner rather than later, but did you know you can squeeze EVEN MORE out of your investments by starting EVEN EARLIER?

That doesn’t make sense?

How can someone so young start any earlier?

ANSWER: FRONT-LOADING

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Popularity: 27% [?]