Credit Awareness for College Students
There are many and more college students who refuse to use a credit card, afraid that it will put them into instant debt. On the other hand there are some that are already ahead of the competition and building up their credit scores.Need to know terms:FICO: Fair Isaac Corporation, created what can be argued as the most “popular” credit scoring modelCredit Score:There are many different models of scoring credit however the one we are most concerned about is our FICO score. These scores can range form 300-850, the higher the score the better!Experian: One of the 3 major credit bureaus we are concerned aboutTransUnion: Also one of the 3 major credit bureaus we are concerned aboutEquifax: Sounds like a shipping company like the rest but is also one of the 3 major credit bureaus.AAoA: Average age of accountsHard Inquiry: This something that falls on your credit report when someone who is not you checks it (with your permission of course). This will bring your credit score down a couple of a points. These typically show up when you: apply for a credit cards, loans, credit increases and things of that nature.Soft Inquiry: This is when you look at your own report. Businesses cannot see this but they will see a hard inquiry.some things to keep in mind with credit:1) credit is not free money, you must pay it back
2) APR will not matter if you make your payments on time and in FULL
3) the earlier you start building your credit the betterSo what is this credit report I keep talking about:Your credit report is something that contains all the information about your credit history and account information/standing. It will tell a business and you how much credit you have available to use, how long you have had it for (credit history), if you make your payments on time, how much credit you are using (credit utilization) and if anyone is after you to collect a debt as well as any public records such as judgements, liens and bankruptcies to name a few. The 3 major credit bureaus I named earlier, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian compile these reports from the services you use such as a credit card company or bank.Why should I care?They are just three digit numbers you say, not scary at all. Wrong! Those three digits are much more important than you might think and can affect your life in a few ways. Lenders use this information to determine how likely you are to repay your loan and if those payments will come on time.1) No lender will give you a loan if your credit report is nonexistent or says something bad about you.2) If you manage to get a loan (hard inquiry when they check your report) your interest rates will be very high compared to what you could have had.3) Your ability to rent and buy a home depends on your credit report. Why should anyone give you a loan when you don’t have a credit report, no credit history to say “Hey, look at me I am responsible”.4) Your insurance rates will vary with your credit report, the better the report the greater the rates5) The jobs you can get, some employers do check your credit report as it shows what kind of person you are among other things of courseOK, OK, I give in, how is my score calculated. Payment history – represents 35% of your credit score
Amounts owed – represents 30% of the score
Length of credit history – 15% of your total
New credit – 10%
Types of credit used – 10% (credit cards, student loans, auto loans, etc)The exact scoring model is a secret of the companyWhat is not included in my score? Good question.1) Any type of credit counseling you may be in
2) Your age
3)any information not on your credit report
4) Any information that provides no value of discerning your credit performance
5) Where you live
6) interest rates on a credit card or loan
7) rental agreements, child and/or family support
Salary, title, occupation, employer, or employment history though if you apply for a credit card or loan they may ask you where you work for their purposes not the credit bureaus
9) Race, color, religion, ethnicity, sex and marital status
10) Promotional inquiries from credit card companies, administrative inquiries from lenders to review an account and your own inquiriesWhere can I go check this?If you want it for free you can go to: https://www.annualcreditreport.com and do not worry it is safe, the website was setup by the 3 major bureaus due to law. One catch with that is while you will see the report you will not get to see your score.If you want to see your score you have to pay for it sadly and it can cost $14.00 – $20.00 + to see it. There is http://www.myfico.com as well as your banks which may offer a paid service and the 3 bureaus themselves.On the other hand there are free credit report services that use a different unofficial formula to create a score. Now while these scores are not used by any business they provide valuable information on what is bogging your score down and how to fix it up as well as what everything you are doing right now is effecting it. Go check out credit.com or my favorite and definitely the most informative creditkarma.One of my parents have a credit card, can I use theirs?Yes. You can be added to someone’s card as an authorized user. This means you will inherit the cards history, credit limit and payments on time as well as some other things. It can be extremely helpful if you are starting out or if they have a long credit history and a very high limit. Only 2 of the major bureaus count authorized users towards your credit score.Why are all 3 of my scores different?When you go apply for a credit card, loan or whatever the case may be each lender may not pull your credit report from the same bureau though all three give you a score. This means one bureau you may have 0 hard inquiries while the other may show 99. In this way your scores can vary.Do my hard inquiries ever go away!?Yes they will go away in due time. Hard inquiries will fall off 2 years from the date they were requested in cases of credit cards. For account reviews such as a credit limit increase they will go away in one though in all cases the impact of the inquiry lessens after 6 months. They are nothing to be afraid of and the amount of points deducted are typically small.If you are going to look for a loan there is an exception so you can “shop” for the best interest rates. All inquiries made within 14 days will be counted as one.I hope this information has been of some use to use. More will come in the future!
Looking for the Car Insurance Estimate?
Car insurance estimate: How much do you need?
Every car buyer goes through a checklist before buying his or her brand new car. The most important aspect of the list is the auto insurance and the car insurance estimate. A car insurance acts as a protection for your car as a whole. Your insurance officer may offer you a varied range of auto insurances depending on the type of vehicle you own, the amount of coverage you need and the number of years you wish to have the protection for, in return of a yearly amount, known as the insurance premium.When you incur a car accident, the cost of damages the car bears is covered by the car insurance you opt for, this, however, does not include any damage incurred above the overall auto insurance amount.The value of your auto insurance estimate is calculated by the IDV or the Insured Declared Value of your vehicle; the IDV is the maximum amount the insurance company is going to pay for the damages your car incurs. The amount of IDV roughly equals to the actual market price of the car you own or the showroom price of your car. The IDV thus is not a constant value and keeps changing periodically.Upon renewal of your car insurance after a year, the value of IDV will decrease because of the amount of depreciation charged on it after a year.What are the damages covered by the car insurance?The car insurance will not cover all the damages your car faces, during the life of the insurance. Coverages in the US are usually seen in a cluster of three numbers separated by a dash, for example, 20/50/30 or 100/500/100. The first two numbers are usually seen for medical coverage. For 100/500/100 the insurance company policy will pay $100,000 per person up to $500,000 combined for all people. The last number covers damages made to the property, that is any other vehicle or property you hit in an accident.A comprehensive auto insurance plan will mainly cover the following types of damages:
Liability Coverage:
The coverage also commonly known as casualty insurance, mainly covers bodily injuries and property damages, that is damage to your car. The amount of insurance will, however, vary from one jurisdiction to the other. The insured is also allowed to increase the amount of the insurance coverage (before the loss), to cover any loss incurred during the accident.If in an unfortunate circumstance, you hit a telephone pole with your car. In such a case, the liability coverage covers the expenses of the damage caused to the pole. It, however, does not cover any other expenses related to the damage being caused such as disruption of services claimed by the Telephone company.A bodily coverage covers the insured from possible injury during the accident as well as covers him or her from any third party damage caused by accident. The coverage covers the court costs and damages the insured is being sued for.
Full Coverage
Full coverage covers both collision and comprehensive damages done to your vehicle. The collision coverage covers the vehicle involved in collisions, by paying out for the repair of the damage incurred or by paying out the cash value of the vehicle in case the vehicle is not repairable.Comprehensive coverage covers the vehicle from damages not ordinarily considered as collision damages. The damages covered by this coverage are damage due to theft, vandalism or impact with animals. Additionally, a lot of insurance companies also include ‘Act of God’ damages that is any damage caused by event or events caused to factors that are beyond human control, such as cyclones, tornado, tsunami etc.Apart from the main coverages mentioned above, insurance companies in the US also provide the following coverages:
Damages done by uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM)
Loss of use
GAP coverages.
Lease/Loan Payoff.
Emergency Road Service Coverage.
Mechanical Breakdown Coverage
Custom Parts and Equipment Coverage.
How can you calculate a car insurance estimate?You can follow these simple steps, to correctly get your car insurance estimate:
Before buying a auto, narrow down on your choices.
Determine the amount of coverage you’d ideally be needing. If you are buying a new car, you should go for insurance that covers collision and comprehensive damages as well. This is however not mandatory in case of a used auto.
Compare insurance quotes for your vehicle. Different companies will have different insurance costs for your vehicle depending on the type and market price of the model. Comparing the quotes will help you narrow down to the best insurance for your auto.
Make the final choice, based on the comparison chart.
What should your ideal car insurance estimate be?There are a lot of factors that affect your car insurance estimate. Ideally, you should choose a plan and amount, which covers most of the possible damage that your auto may incur in the lifetime. The amount of insurance you chose typically should be higher than the actual cost of your overall auto.The ultimate car insurance estimate will ultimately depend on your own choices and individual situation. It is always advisable to look at a wide range of options and companies offering auto insurance after calculating the car insurance estimate. Comparing insurance quotes, and what they cover with each other will ensure you get the most out of your auto insurance.
Current Health News – Marketing Unhealthy Cereals to Children is Not the Problem
A study about children’s health released by Yale University in Washington D.C. at the annual meeting of the Obesity Council, shows that the most unhealthy breakfast cereals are the cereals most often marketed to children.The study found that cereals marketed directly to children have 85 per cent more sugar, 65 per cent less fibre and 60 per cent more sodium than cereals marketed to adults. This is a perfect storm of nutritional badness guaranteed to cause health problems in anyone who consumes such a mixture regularly.The authors go on to indict cereal manufacturers for targeting children with advertising and in-store promotions. They suggest self-regulation of advertising is not effective and stronger regulation would be in order.But the question arises, does advertising force parents to purchase products? Do advertisers force parents to feed their children nutritionally bankrupt food? Or is that a choice parents make and follow through with on their own?The fact is, children do not purchase breakfast cereal, parents do. Cereal companies do force parents to put candy-like breakfast products in the pantry to the exclusion of much healthier foods. Cereal companies do not force-feed these products to little Johnny or Jill, parents do.While cereal manufacturers deserve no praise, the problem is NOT the nutritionally bankrupt cereal. The problem is PARENTS BUY IT AND FEED IT TO THEIR CHILDREN.The problem is NOT advertising. The problem is parents buy these ridiculous products masquerading as food, feed it to their little darlings, and then wonder why there are so many overweight kids and why their children are over weight and illness-prone.The solution is NOT government control or increased regulation. There are already a zillion government regulations in all areas of life that, for the most part, do nothing but raise taxes, inhibit freedom, drive up costs and create more problems than they solve.The solution to the “great cereal advertising crisis” is for parents to accept responsibility for their childrens nutritional welfare and not leave it up to the advertising department of a cereal company.The solution is for parents to learn the basics of kids nutrition and learn which foods are healthy and why, and which foods destroy health regardless of how catchy the slogan is or how cute the animal mascot happens to be.My grandchildren have no taste whatsoever for the nutritionally bankrupt sludge many children live on because my children, the parents, understand the basics of nutrition and know without doubt that a diet of high carbohydrate foods makes you fat and destroys your health and they know why this is true. And because they understand the basics of how protein, carbohydrates and fat affect metabolism and how metabolism determines your and your childrens health, they are never hypnotized by dancing lions or cute bears into buying boxes of nutritional junk trying to imitate healthy food.We all think we know everything about everything, but we do not. And if our knowledge of nutrition comes primarily from advertising or from an unschooled recitation of the same old pop-nutrition advice that has resulted in 68% of America being overweight, then we are doomed.Without an ACCURATE understanding of what food does when you put it in your mouth, chew and swallow, you simply cannot make an informed nutritional decision and you are forever at the mercy advertisers claims. And advertisers are in the business of selling things, not producing the healthiest possible products. And no amount of regulation will change that.The ONLY way to make good choices for your children or yourself is to be informed. Learn the basics of diet, nutrition and metabolism well enough that you can apply them when you eat out or when you purchase items at a grocery store you intend to prepare and feed to yourself and the people you love and care about most.Children do not buy breakfast cereal, parents do. Regulating advertising will not make children healthy, parents making informed choices and helping their children develop healthy eating habits will.
What are anti-ligature blinds?
Anti-ligature blinds are becoming increasingly popular in a range of different settings. The way these blinds differ from traditional blinds is that they are designed to prevent suicide by hanging.
Initially, uptake for this type of blind was largely restricted to high-risk environments such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons, where suicide is common. In mental health environments and detention centres, suicide via hanging is common and preventative measures must be implemented. A huge range of objects could be used to create a ligature point, meaning anti-ligature systems are highly important.
Over the years, anti-ligature blinds have been supplied to hospitals, schools, student accommodation and even hotels.
How do they work?
There are a range of different systems on the market, but the most reliable could well be the magnetic anti-ligature system. YewdaleKestrel® products utilise load release magnets which separate when a downward force is exerted on the product. This means that the product falls to the ground safely and prevents suicide via hanging.
The magnetic systems used in Yewdale’s products are highly reliable because magnets don’t lose their strength for hundreds of years, guaranteeing a lifetime of lifesaving functionality.
Anti-ligature blinds usually have a magnetic connection point above the blind’s barrel. The blind is easy to reconnect to the magnetic bracket after it has fallen to the floor.
If you are considering an anti-ligature blind, Yewdale is a highly recommended company. Based in the UK, Yewdale produce a wide range of anti-ligature products, commercial blinds, and healthcare products including hospital cubicle tracks and medical curtains.
Yewdale produce other anti-ligature products too including a soft, lightweight en-suite door and other accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet roll holder, shelves and artwork. You can see the full range on the website using the link below.
Complete weight loss strategy
For those who want to lose weight
Research on the causes of obesity, knowledge about weight loss, and various diets for weight loss are updated every year. However, with the update of knowledge and the release of diet pills one after another, the obesity rate continues to rise every year, and there is no sign of wanting to decline. I used to be very, very fat, and I am also a person who is prone to obesity.
So I understand the voices of fat people, I really want to lose weight, but I tried many ways to lose weight at that time without success.
I have tried the common boiled meals on the market, eating less and moving more, but it was not until I tried other diets that I managed to lose weight. After I lost weight, I began to study the essence and method of losing weight, and wrote him in this weight loss strategy article, hoping to help you.
A few key myths about losing weight
The weight loss myth of eating less and moving more
The phrase “eat less and move more” is actually true, but most people do it wrong. Many people think that they should eat less of everything, so they limit their calories to a very low level, and it feels a bit like eating an ultra-low-calorie fairy meal. Then, for the hyperactive part, the first thing that everyone thinks of is aerobic exercise such as running, cycling, etc., but in fact, this is a very short-term and easy way to regain weight, mainly because eating too little is an easy way to lose weight. The reason for the loss of muscle mass, coupled with the fact that aerobic training is not helpful for muscle mass growth, causes the metabolism to drop too much.
Maybe you can lose 5 kilograms in this way, but if your metabolism declines, you will easily regain the weight. And it’s all the fat that gets back up, not the muscle you lose that makes you look fatter than before. This is what we call the yo-yo effect, lose weight, get fat back, get fatter than before, lose weight, get back on Fat, get fatter than before.
Stop taking diet pills and meal replacements
At this time, you may start to seek other ways, eat weight loss meal replacements, taking diet pills, and so on. But believe me, most diet pills will inevitably hurt the body, especially the gastrointestinal tract. You may actually lose weight in the moment, but when your gastrointestinal tract is damaged, you will be fatter than before.
The key to understanding how to lose weight
You must have thought, why some people will not gain weight no matter what they eat, while some people will gain a kilogram the next day after eating a little bread? What is the cause of obesity? This is not a simple answer that can be solved!
You can see the link to the picture below, mainly talking about the influencing factors of obesity, which are very, very complicated.
Image source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/296290/obesity-map-full-hi-res.pdf
In the middle of this picture is the heat balance
So we can know that calorie balance is very important
But this article doesn’t keep preaching that calorie balance is the key to losing weight like other sites
If you don’t know what calorie balance is, you can probably imagine that our body has calorie consumption (exercise, thermogenesis, basal metabolism), and calorie intake (eating).
When calorie consumption exceeds calorie intake, the weight will drop, so the truth of weight loss is to eat less and move more, very simple. In the short term, it is really possible to simply achieve weight loss by eating less and moving more, but simplicity is not simple, because the operation of the body is very complicated. Many people think that they can control their calorie consumption, that they can achieve a lot of calorie expenditure by running all the time, and that eating fairy meals (low-calorie meals) can reduce calorie intake and then easily lose it.
However, according to research, 90% of people who use calorie control, eat less and move more to lose weight will fail or regain the weight.
Because eating less and moving more for too long, metabolism will easily drop, hormones will easily become imbalanced, and muscle mass will easily be lost. Even if you lose 10 kilograms, you will easily regain weight.
When losing weight, the body is like a factory
For me, the key to long-term weight loss and maintaining good posture is the environment in the body, such as hormones, the level of inflammation in the body, and the gastrointestinal system.
Think of the body as a factory
-Your hormones are the managers and workers of factory operations
-Inflamed condition is how good factory machinery and hardware are
-Calorie intake is wages for factories as well as fuel
If the manager of this factory is an idiot, or if the hardware in your factory is completely rotten, then no matter how it works, it will create a pile of waste. Just as our hormones are already out of balance and the level of inflammation in the body is very high, no matter how much you eat, if you don’t solve the existing problems, it will easily accumulate into fat. It may be easier to understand with a few examples.
Hormones vs Weight Loss
This study looked at the effects of sleep and weight loss
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921542
Both groups of humans were calorie-restricted, but one group slept 5.5 hours a night and the other 8.5 hours. Both groups lost weight, but the group that slept less lost 55 percent less body fat and 65 percent more muscle mass than the group that slept more. It is equivalent to losing weight, but most of the loss is muscle mass, which reduces metabolism and makes it easy to regain weight later.
There is such a big difference mainly because poor sleep has a negative impact. The imbalance of the secretion of these things will easily increase fat and reduce muscle.
This next study looks at the effect of insulin sensitivity on body composition!
Research source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471290
Basically, many chronic metabolic diseases, obesity, and poor muscle-building effects are closely related to low insulin sensitivity. Insulin is an anti-catabolic hormone whose main function is to store nutrients in cells. For example, after heavy training, our muscles will be more sensitive to insulin, and the nutrients we eat will be more easily absorbed into the muscles. When insulin sensitivity is low, the nutrients we eat are more likely to be stored as fat rather than absorbed into muscles.
We can simply say that the nutrients in the food eaten by people who are insulin insensitive are more likely to be stored as fat, and the relative fat mass will be much higher than the muscle mass.
To put it simply, the key to losing weight is actually to improve hormones, improve inflammation in the body, and add an appropriate calorie deficit. It is not difficult to achieve a calorie deficit. What is more difficult is how to choose the type of food that suits your body to improve hormones and achieve a long-term good body.
If you only pursue short-term weight loss and rely on a lot of calorie deficits to achieve the effect of weight loss, and then the hormones are still the same after the loss, then I can guarantee that you will gain weight very easily.
With so many ways to eat on the internet, which diet should I try?
When talking about losing weight in Taiwan 30 years ago, everyone would definitely want to use boiled meals
When it came to losing weight five years ago, everyone might think of using a low-sugar diet. When it came to losing weight in the past two or three years, everyone might directly think of the ketogenic diet.
I lost 30kg in 3 months on a low-sugar diet myself for the first time, so I used to believe that a low-sugar diet was the best way to lose weight
But after my long-term understanding of weight loss-related research, genetic cognition, and observation of students, there is no diet that is most suitable for everyone! Although it is said that high-carbohydrate foods will most stimulate insulin secretion, which in turn promotes the storage of nutrients into fat, some people are naturally good at metabolizing carbohydrates, so they can still be healthy and strong after eating high-carbohydrate throughout their lives.
For example, this study compared the responses of people with high and low insulin sensitivity to high- and low-carb diets.
Research source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2005.79
The study concluded:
-For people with high insulin sensitivity, eating high-carb and low-fat to lose weight is very helpful
-However, people who are insulin insensitive use a high-carb low-fat diet to lose fat, but the weight loss effect is not so good.
But on the contrary, studies have also shown that people with low insulin sensitivity have a very good weight loss effect on a low-carb high-fat diet, which shows that improving insulin is very important for weight loss, and it also shows that people with insulin insensitivity are more suitable
Lose weight with a high-carb diet.
So if you have been obese for a long time, you know that you eat carbohydrates easily, or you know that you have diabetes in your family and want to lose fat, then I would suggest that you can start by reducing carbohydrates, which is what we call low carb diet!