Tips To Avoid Debt
Whether you need to eliminate debt or create a debt solution for yourself; your first item of business is to take a look at those paychecks and add them up for the month. Now add up all the bills you typically have over a month and subtract your answer from your paycheck total. If you don't have your finances together, you will find that you get a rather negative number here. The greater its negativity the more effort you are going to need to put into this problem. This is actually quite a common situation but people do not ever realize it, as they are allowing their credit card to take up the slack. It is actually not taking up any slack at all, but rather tightening the noose around your neck all the more; which brings me to the subject matter of the credit card debt solutions.
There is yet another imperative step we must take, and this goes along with the tips to stay out of credit card debt. Take out all of those credit cards stuffed into your wallet and put them away far away, because otherwise we just keep throwing these pieces of plastic away, and they just keep popping right back up again in our mailbox. Keep one credit card stashed away in your wallet for emergency situations.
Now, take out that list of things you buy over a typical month and really look it over good. Cross out all the unnecessary things you tend to buy. This is for you to decide, but be sensible with your bare bones needs rather than wants. Your goal here is to get your monthly bills down to having at least $200, but hopefully more like $500 to $1,000 left over at the end of each month. This is your emergency stash. And as we all know, emergencies seem to pop up all the time; whether it is your car, refrigerator, furnace, or air conditioning.
Beyond the emergency stash, you may also need to take out a percentage out of this fund in order to pay back the debt that has occurred over those months you were making less than you were spending; and making up the difference with that of your plastic buddy (a.k.a. credit card). If things have become more out of control than you would like to admit; DO NOT put your head in the sand and hope that it will all just go away; because it wont. Things are only going to get worse from here on. Even if you straighten yourself out, the high interest rates on previous debt may still be enough to do you in.
This is where you will want to look into consolidation of your debts. It is quite common today to seek out the help of debt consolidation companies that spread throughout much of the yellow pages and Internet. Often times you can do a number of items; such as refinancing your house, cashing in a few policies, get rid of an overly high car loan, and then consolidating whatever is left over in order to get you out of the bottom of that barrel. Just do your research first before signing any papers; there are just as many consolidation practices designed to get even more money out of you than help you. But if you do your homework properly, and possibly even get the opinion of a lawyer before moving ahead with your debt solution, you will find yourself breathing easier within the first few weeks. But once you see the light of day; you are going to have to continue to work hard to keep your entire finances in tip top shape.
Some people spend their lifetime in and out of the barrel, and never really know the freedom of ever being completely out of it. It is all just a matter of paying attention to your finances, and where you are at any given moment. So take control of yourself before you have to let Uncle Sam step in and take all of your valuable possessions and leave you with a giant L on your forehead with an ink expectancy of no less than five to seven years!
There is yet another imperative step we must take, and this goes along with the tips to stay out of credit card debt. Take out all of those credit cards stuffed into your wallet and put them away far away, because otherwise we just keep throwing these pieces of plastic away, and they just keep popping right back up again in our mailbox. Keep one credit card stashed away in your wallet for emergency situations.
Now, take out that list of things you buy over a typical month and really look it over good. Cross out all the unnecessary things you tend to buy. This is for you to decide, but be sensible with your bare bones needs rather than wants. Your goal here is to get your monthly bills down to having at least $200, but hopefully more like $500 to $1,000 left over at the end of each month. This is your emergency stash. And as we all know, emergencies seem to pop up all the time; whether it is your car, refrigerator, furnace, or air conditioning.
Beyond the emergency stash, you may also need to take out a percentage out of this fund in order to pay back the debt that has occurred over those months you were making less than you were spending; and making up the difference with that of your plastic buddy (a.k.a. credit card). If things have become more out of control than you would like to admit; DO NOT put your head in the sand and hope that it will all just go away; because it wont. Things are only going to get worse from here on. Even if you straighten yourself out, the high interest rates on previous debt may still be enough to do you in.
This is where you will want to look into consolidation of your debts. It is quite common today to seek out the help of debt consolidation companies that spread throughout much of the yellow pages and Internet. Often times you can do a number of items; such as refinancing your house, cashing in a few policies, get rid of an overly high car loan, and then consolidating whatever is left over in order to get you out of the bottom of that barrel. Just do your research first before signing any papers; there are just as many consolidation practices designed to get even more money out of you than help you. But if you do your homework properly, and possibly even get the opinion of a lawyer before moving ahead with your debt solution, you will find yourself breathing easier within the first few weeks. But once you see the light of day; you are going to have to continue to work hard to keep your entire finances in tip top shape.
Some people spend their lifetime in and out of the barrel, and never really know the freedom of ever being completely out of it. It is all just a matter of paying attention to your finances, and where you are at any given moment. So take control of yourself before you have to let Uncle Sam step in and take all of your valuable possessions and leave you with a giant L on your forehead with an ink expectancy of no less than five to seven years!
