Financial News Features

Having a budget is always the best way to keep costs under control, and in recent years inflation has caused many Americans to take up the practice. According to a survey by debt.com, 80% budgeted their expenses in 2021, compared with only 68% in 2019.

For would-be buyers, it may also turn out to be an opportunity if the market softens. Howard Dvorkin, a CPA and chairman of Florida-based Debt.com, says this is no time for buyers to take on a debt that may prove to be unmanageable. “If you find yourself saying out loud, ‘I think I can stretch my budget to buy this home,’ don’t do it,” Dvorkin told ConsumerAffairs. “Your budget will be stretched after you buy a home. Don’t forget all the background expenses that go into a just-bought home – from taxes to furnishings, from repairs to maintenance.”

Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com, says in a Q&A on that website that most scholarships don’t check how recipients use the money. However, he adds that scholarships usually don’t help pay off student loans, since you have to be enrolled in college to get a scholarship.

“If you’re fed up with bank fees, you’ll really hate P2P loans,” says Howard Dvorkin, CPA and Chairman of Debt.com. “On top of the interest rate you’ll pay, there’s the origination fee, which can be as low as 1 percent but as high as 8 percent. That’s much more than a bank or credit union will charge you for a personal loan.”

“These sound like boring answers to the heavy question of financial security during scary times,” says Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com, “but too many people overreact and take big risks instead of checking first to see if they’ve done all the basics.”

“People have gotten used to Zoom meetings, but that’s still no substitute for shaking hands and seeing someone in a social setting,” says Howard Dvorkin, a New Jersey-based certified public accountant and chairman of Debt.com. “That being said, they’re still going to evaluate whether travel is necessary.”