Southhaven Legal Issues Blog

People paying off debts in Mississippi often stop using credit cards and switch to making purchases with cash. Although this is an appropriate way to tackle debt, careful use of credit cards does help people maintain their credit ratings. Credit cards that offer reward points provide consumers with multiple advantages when paid in full every month.

An active credit card account that's in good standing could help a person secure a low interest rate when financing a car or home. This benefit emerges after cultivating an excellent credit history on the same account over the long term.

Your parents worked hard all their lives to save for a retirement that would ensure their comfort in their golden years, as well as to build a nice nest egg for their children and grandchildren to enjoy after they are gone. It would break your heart to discover they were victims of scammers who are determined to separate them from the assets they spent a lifetime building. Unfortunately for many residents of Mississippi and elsewhere, there are many financial scams that target the elderly and the vulnerable.

According to the National Adult Protective Services Association, about one out of every 20 senior citizens in the U.S. is a victim of financial scams or of people they know and trust. Your parents may have been intelligent and financially savvy throughout their lives, but sophisticated cons and declining mental acuity can make them easier targets in their senior years. The following scams are common against the elderly and the mentally vulnerable:

• Fake calls by scammers pretending to be IRS agents or utility companies, demanding immediate payment and saying the victim faces fines or arrest if he or she doesn’t comply
• A trusted caregiver, sometimes a family member, who has the elderly person sign over control of the finances or makes him or her the sole beneficiary of a will
• Emails falsely claiming to be a relative or friend who is in desperate need of money
• Viruses that shut down a computer and direct the user to a con artist who says he or she can fix the computer for a fee
• False sweepstakes or lottery notifications that require an upfront fee before the “winnings” will be paid

Debt is a problem for most millennials in Mississippi and in other states. In 50 large cities across the United States, millennials are carrying an average of over $23,000 in personal debt excluding mortgages. San Antonio is the area with the largest average non-mortgage debt for millennials at $27,122 followed by Pittsburgh and Austin.

Student loans account for the largest proportion of debt in the U.S. for individuals age 22 to 37 followed by credit cards. Car loans are another major source of debt for millennials. One problem faced by many is that even in areas where the cost of living is low, wages are also lower.

In the 2017 fiscal year, individuals in the United States filed a total of 767,721 personal bankruptcies in the federal courts. Residents of Mississippi may benefit from learning about some common mistakes people make that may lead them to file for bankruptcy.

For example, overspending with credit cards is a major culprit as many individuals do not have an updated budget that is based on what they really need. Not having a well-developed budget means that individuals are unaware of how much disposable income they have and what they can buy without having to incur any debt. It also means that they are unaware of how much money they can actually borrow and repay within a sensible amount of time.