Blog

THANK YOU for attending the AFCPE Annual Research and Training Symposium as we celebrated our 30th Anniversary!  Your presence and participation helped make it a truly fantastic event! Our organization, rooted in rich history and built upon decades of research, is in a unique position to continue on as an...

December 12, 2013

The need for personal security seems to be hard-wired into humans, reinforced by eons of experience since early man first ventured from the trees to seek an existence in a hostile world. Modern man no longer worries about saber-toothed tigers or the availability of sufficient prey; the object of today's...

December 06, 2013

The holiday season can be a challenging and intimidating time of the year for cash-strapped college students. In the season of giving, college students are balancing holiday expenses with the usual. Tuition. Study materials. Food. Textbooks. Fortunately for college students, the Internet is literally an endless source of creativity when...

December 02, 2013

Last year, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) foundthat 12 percent of people said they were planning to spend more during the holidays than in the previous year. That number was up from 2011 where only 8 percent planned on spending more than in the previous...

October 23, 2013

No matter how old you are, saving for retirement should be a top priority. While knowing how much you will need to live a comfortable retirement and saving to reach that goal is the key, here are some quick tips for saving for retirement during each stage of life.If You...

September 23, 2013

We all make financial mistakes at some point in our lives. Maybe you forget to pay a bill due to some stressful life circumstances, or maybe you have to let a credit card payment slide because you simply don’t have the money to pay it. Of course, many of us...

August 20, 2013

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs – St. Paul Regional Loan Center recently partnered with the AFCPE to provide training on the VA home loan program.  The four session webinar series was a great success!  The sessions provided information on the entire VA home loan process including benefits of the program,...

August 15, 2013

It’s no secret that today’s college graduates are drowning in student debt. And even though the government recently voted to keep student loan interest rates relatively low, there’s no guarantee that they’ll stay low in the future. With graduates (and many who went to school without ever getting a degree)...

August 13, 2013

Credit card debt – it’s something that hangs over many Americans. According to the Federal Reserve, in April 2013 the average credit card debt equaled $3,364 per U.S. adult. This assumes that EVERY adult has a credit card and that those cards carry debt. But not all adults own a credit...

August 06, 2013

At some point, you’ll realize that the debt you’re carrying has gotten way out of hand. You may have a bit of a panic attack when that moment comes. You may feel a bit trapped.Take a breath. You can get through this. It’s going to take some time and a bit...

August 05, 2013

Back in 2006, The New York Times reported that the credit monitoring business was making nearly a billion dollars a year selling their services to individuals. These services purport to notify you of fraud, and usually allow you to keep close tabs on your actual credit score. But are they really worth your...

June 26, 2013

In 2012, the American Bankruptcy Institute reports that Americans filed 1,181,016 non-business bankruptcies. Even though bankruptcies have dropped significantly from the previous three years, many American families and individuals are still taking some serious financial hits. If you’re among the millions of Americans who have recently filed for bankruptcy, it’s never too...

June 19, 2013