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Being in debt is simply no way to live. You feel stress
every day, knowing you won't be able to pay all of your
bills at the end of the month. If you are thinking about
bankruptcy wait! You may be able to get yourself out of
this hole with a change in lifestyle, a strict budget and
possibly debt consolidation. Often times as people fall deeper and deeper into debt they stop looking at their credit card statements. If you are ready to get yourself out of debt the first thing you must do is to know how bad it is. Look at all of your statements. Make a list of all of your credit cards and loans. Write down how much you owe and how much your monthly payments are. The next step is to check your interest rates. You need to know the interest rates on all of your credit cards and loans. This includes your car loans, mortgage and student loans. You need to know your interest rates in order to know which line of debt is hurting you the most. Once you know where you stand it is time for the hardest part of getting out of debt. Sell off the items you don't need. If you drive an expensive car sell it and get an affordable car. If you mortgage leaves your wallet empty; sell the house and move to a smaller house in a more affordable neighborhood. After you have paid down your debt as much as you can it is finally time to think about debt consolidation. Look at your list of debt, calculate how much you must pay each month and how long it will take until the debt is gone. Debt consolidation is only a good idea if you can pay off your debt in a more efficient way. If consolidating your debt will help you pay off your debt more quickly by lowering interest rates then it might be a good idea. If consolidation will lower monthly payments but cause you to take longer to pay off the debt then it is not the best choice. Working out all of these calculations can be very time consuming and difficult. If you need help, don't spend a fortune on a financial planner. Go to a website like www.personalfinanceissues.com. They offer online financial calculators that will help you make well informed decisions about your personal finance. However you got here, you can get yourself out. You just need to commit to do whatever it takes. When you are in over your head the idea of being debt free seems like a distant memory or a dream that cannot come true. Don't give into these negative thoughts. Just take it one day at a time and before you know it, you will be out of debt and saving for your children's college education. Basdeo Paul is a skilled webmaster and owner of the website http://personalfinanceissues.com. He offers a list of 35 online financial calculators which helps to control and resolve the financial issues like credit card payoff, savings, mortgage, etc. |