Available Credit

How much can you borrow? How much credit is available to you? If your Uncle Zuck likes your hippie politics, you're golden...massive line of credit. If you have to borrow or get credit elsewhere, it's probably more limited.

Think the credit limit on your credit cards, the amount of equity you could pull out of your house, the amount you could get for a personal loan. Do you have any collateral you could borrow against (stocks, bonds, valuable porcelain kitty statues, etc.)? All that kind of stuff can factor into your available credit.

In stock trading terms, if you're talking about a broker margin account, then the credit available or credit limit is usually 50 percent of the liquid value of securities you have in there.