Personal Finance Tools

From USA Today...

Create a budget

The first step to taking control is to understand how you spend your money. Start by determining your basic living expenses such as housing, food and transportation.

Then, list other monthly expenses. This may take some work. So pull out your bills and credit card statements. Fortunately, free software can make light work of organizing it all.

SimpleD Budget (Windows) is a small program that helps you track expenses. You enter your monthly expenses and income. After allocating your money to certain categories, you enter payments as you make them.

You'll see when you're approaching the limit for a particular category. You'll also get an idea of how fast you're spending money.

Buddi (Mac/Windows) works much the same as SimpleD Budget. However, it can also help you generate various reports. For example, you can see how your net worth has changed over the months.

Another free finance manager is AceMoney Lite (Windows). It has more features than the other two. For example, it can download stock quotes from the Internet.

Review your credit report

Once you know where cutbacks can be made, you're ready to make changes. Maybe you want to downgrade your car to a cheaper model. Or perhaps you're looking for a car that uses less gas. And, of course, you may want to refinance your home.

Before you do this, you should review your credit report. A poor credit report can stifle your chances of locking in a lower rate on loans.

You'll want to check your report for accuracy and fraud. Then, you can contact the credit bureaus to correct errors.

You can get your credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com. You can request one copy from each of the three major nationwide consumer credit reporting institutions — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — once a year. Those reports are free.

You must enter your Social Security number to get your report. If you're uncomfortable doing this online, you can mail your request.

AnnualCreditReport.com provides information on disputing items on your reports. However, it does not provide your credit score. For that, you'll need to pay the credit bureaus about $10 for each score. If you decide to buy just one score instead of all three, go with the FICO score, which Equifax offers. The FICO score is the most widely used by lenders.

Find your credit score for free

Your credit score can play a large role when you apply for credit. Quicken Loans has an interesting site —Quizzle.com. It will give you a free credit report and throws in a score. A Quizzle score, that is, which isn't used by lenders, but can tell you how well you're doing as a homeowner. Quizzle also will help you gauge your home's value. You'll also find out how to save on your mortgage. Additionally, there's a budget management tool.

Quizzle is interesting, even if you don't need a mortgage or can't qualify. You should come away with a better understanding of your finances.

For now, Quizzle is aimed at homeowners. It should provide service to renters soon.

CreditKarma.com also provides you with a free credit score. The score comes from one of the three major credit bureaus. The site will also help you monitor your score over time.

CreditKarma provides you with special offers based on your credit score. For example, you can get a lower interest rate on credit cards. You may also apply for offers from cable companies and other businesses.