Financial News Features

"You'll need to look over your budget — if you already have debt, you will need to be prepared to take on the additional debt of a mortgage, explains Howard Dvorkin, CPA and chairman of Debt.com. You will also want to monitor your credit score, which will help you secure a mortgage loan, and educate yourself on the overall costs of homeownership. This will include insurance, property taxes, utilities and maintenance."

“Extended warranties are intentionally confusing and limiting,” he explains. “If that washing machine breaks? It might be chalked up to ‘regular wear and tear,’ which is rarely covered.” If extended warranties were such great deals, he reasons, why do salespeople push them so hard? “Obviously, they’re cash cows for everyone but you.”

You can't get out of debt if you don't understand what's keeping you there,” Debt.com's chairman Howard Dvorkin told Fox Business.

“I hate store credit cards the way the Grinch hates children’s gifts,” said Howard Dvorkin, CPA, chairman of Debt.com. “They’re so costly, they should be classified as a weapon of financial destruction.”

“These cards come with expensive offers in order to get the card into people’s hands, and that’s not by accident,” said Howard Dvorkin, a CPA and chairman of Debt.com. “It’s very enticing when you’re standing at the register and the clerk says, ‘Can I interest you in a credit card you don’t have to make payments on for a year?’ ”

Howard Dvorkin, chairman of Debt.com, points out that the annual percentage rate for retail credit cards is now 28.93% on average. Some retailers go higher; for example, Michael’s and Burlington charge an APR of 33.24% on their store cards. Used correctly, though, promotions use can “be part of a smart strategy to save money on large purchases like home appliances, furniture or a new computer,” according to Dvorkin.