This Pig is Perfect for Kids

"It's the cutest little thing you ever saw"…

If you're a parent of an elementary age school girl hooked on Full House reruns (there happen to be quite a few of us out there!) then you've heard that phrase more than once.

It's the first thing that popped into my mind when I received the Money Mama piggybank from Lori Mackay.

As a parent and financial writer, I am constantly on the lookout for great financial education tools for my daughter (and fodder for my blogs and articles), and the Money Mama piggyback kept popping up in online recommendations. Lori generously sent me one to check out. 

The bank itself is absolutely darling, with Mama pig and her three little babies in front. The quality of the ceramic bank is excellent, though I wouldn't test the durability on my tile floors. Alone it would make a great gift for your child, or for someone else's.

But it's the book that comes along with the bank that's the clincher. Beautifully illustrated, Money Mama and the Three Little Pigs explains to kids the concepts of using money for investing, charity, savings and spending through a story that is engaging and not the least bit preachy. My daughter and I loved it.

She's in second grade and, as my guinea pig, already exposed to a variety of financial education tools. We both felt it was a bit young for her. But it was the perfect fit for her four-year old cousin. Kids at that age are very hands on, and the bank is a good way to allow them to keep an eye on their money, while learning how to divide it up among the things that are important to them.

If you're a parent or grandparent looking for a better gift for your child than the latest GameBoy release or Webkinz toy, I'd highly recommend the Money Mama piggybank and book.

How To Outsmart The Credit Bureaus?

A very cheesy press release came across the wires this morning promoting a book called "How to Outsmart the Credit Bureaus." They should just rename it "How to Outsmart Consumers Out of $16 Bucks." Sure, this type of book has a lot of curb appeal; who wouldn't want to get bankruptcies off their credit reports, remove inquiries or buy a "new Xbox 360?" But, really the whole premise of the book is just wrong. Here is the truth:

There is no way to outsmart the credit bureaus. Or I guess it would be more accurate to say: there is no legal or safe way to outsmart the credit bureaus.

I know this from experience, I used to work for a credit bureau and I've been helping consumers to manage and improve their credit for years.  Just like trying to "outsmart" the IRS or law enforcement, trying to outsmart the credit bureaus isn't a good idea. There is no secret to the credit industry or a special way to beat the system.The rules are pretty simple actually:

Rule 1: Accurate information will stay on your credit report for many years. This is true for positive data like on-time payments and it is true for negative data like bankruptcy filings. There is nothing you can legally do to remove accurate information for your credit report before the set expiration date. You can't outsmart the guidelines established by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Rule 2: Inaccurate data is very different from negative data. True inaccuracies such as records that don't belong to you, mistakes in your account reporting and accounts that should have expired can be easily disputed and removed from your credit reports. But negative data, no matter how much you would like to see it gone, can't be disputed and removed before the expiration date.

Rule 3: Make responsible financial decisions and you will have good credit. Make bad decisions and you will have bad credit. Credit reports are designed to evaluate your past financial behavior so lenders can predict your future financial behavior. If you've made good decisions such as keeping your debt balances low and paying your bills on time, you're likely to continue doing so. If you've gone into deep debt, missed payments and had debts sold to collection agencies, you are a riskier borrower. Just like a college transcript or police record, you can't change the past on your credit report. You have to instead focus on the future.

Rule 4: You can't dispute inquiries. Except for a very few limited cases, the credit bureaus will not dispute or remove inquiry records. It is a waste of time, paper and stamps to try to dispute inquiries. The good news is that these records start to lose their impact after just a few months and fall of your report after 2 years.

Rule 5: Any company promising you things like instant credit improvement, secrets the FTC doesn't want you to know about, credit score repair, a 50 point score boost in 30-days, erasing negative records, etc is not a good company. If you sign up for a credit repair program, the best case scenario would be nothing happens. The worst case scenario is that your credit is destroyed, you're broke and you've broken the law.  Credit repair is illegal for a reason.

That's it! Those are the basic rules...pretty boring, right? The real world of credit scores and credit reports is pretty basic. As cool as it would be, there are no hidden secrets or short cuts when it comes to your credit. So please, please do me a favor and avoid offers like this book that promise to reveal the "truth."  The real truth is available for free on sites including Credit.com, myFICO.com, Equifax.com, TrueCredit.com, Fool.com, Bankrate.com and more. Or by just asking our team of credit experts via tidbits@credit.com.