All About Debts

I want you to take a good long look at your debt. Do you really know what it costs you to be in debt? Are you thinking that you can handle it or is it getting you down?

Debt Help Once you start really analyzing your debt position and the cost (to yourself) of having the debt, the results can be mind-numbingly shocking.

How to stop three quarters of your money going down the drain. South Africans now spend 75% of their monthly income on debt repayments! That's three quarters of every Rand earned! And considering that your cheapest debt is costing you probably at least 11% interest a year, your average debt about 23%, your most expensive debt possibly 40% and old debt 50% per annum, what this all adds up to is that most of your money is going down the drain (or to make the banks richer, if you prefer!).

Counseling Debt I've found that debt is a lot like smoking. When you start out, you believe you're in control and you can quit at any time. As the months and the years roll past, this initial belief does not fade away. With every debt you incur, the mantra "I can afford this", repeats itself in your subconscious until you wake up one morning and realize that you're in over your head.

Lets assume, for example, that you have R1 000 available to repay debts. This is the money that you will be using to accelerate your debt repayments and pay off several debts quickly. Does it matter which debts you repay first Very much so! This is a very important point because they are costing you anywhere from about 30% to 100%+ loans! Other baddies are credit cards (23% to 39%), small personal loans (15% to 45%) and old debts (40% to 60%).

Consolidation Consumer Debt Debt has well and truly caught you in its trap. Debt has become a bad habit.

When you take loans, you get into debt. When you take loans from many lenders, you have multiple debts. Multiple debts are real headaches. This also increases the risk of defaults and you have additional pressure of repayments. Taking debt consolidation loans can solve your problems.

Debt Settlement And just like any bad habit, debt requires as much hard work and discipline to shake. The first step in the process is to acknowledge that you have a problem - instead of turning a blind eye, hoping it will go away or thinking that you'll get around to it some day in the future.

Your Debts and Debt Collectors You are responsible for your debts. If you fall behind in paying your creditors or an error is made on your account, you may be contacted by a "debt collector." A debt collector is any person, other than the creditor, who regularly collects debts owed to others. This includes lawyers who collect debts on a regular basis. You have the right to be treated fairly by debt collectors.

Debt Free One of the motivators to setting your feet on the path to debt free living is to look at the real cost of that debt. What is it doing to you? Where does it hurt the most?

Consolidation Debt Service Most debts (the ones that make you cry into your morning coffee anyway) are the ones that are incurred for a period exceeding one year. You've probably seen or heard advertisements that go something like this:

Company Consolidation Debt Buy your 'Wiggly Snoogle' for this special one time limited offer today - 24 easy monthly instalments.

Consolidation Debt Online Beware - this is where you can fall into the deadliest trap of them all. The interest rates are usually above average and you're stuck into a long term contract. Yes, getting your Wiggly Snoogle with the 25 000 features sounds like a good idea because of the easy monthly payments; especially if you compare it to the one time lump sum payment. (By the way, using the 'lump sum' to 'monthly payment' comparison is a well known sales technique to separate you from your hard earned cash.)

Consolidation Debt Free Let's take this out of the realm of philosophy with a real world example:

Debt Problem You borrow $ 10,000 to buy a new car. Over a 48 month period - that's 4 years of monthly payments - you will be paying an additional $ 2,000 in interest. So, your $ 10,000 vehicle is actually costing you $ 12,000. The cost of that debt is a whopping $ 2,000. If you had taken that $ 2,000 and invested it over the same period, it could have grown to $ 3,000. Instead, it has disappeared into someone else's pocket - never to be seen again.

Credit Debt This is where the lenders make their money. The longer they can have you in their clutches, the longer they can smile all the way to the bank and you groaning on the way to work.

Advice Debt Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a car - it's just an example of the REAL cost of debt. Sometimes debt is unavoidable, but as a species we've become too complacent about debt and we jump into it without thinking.

Card Credit Debt Eliminate Your Magic Plastic (a.k.a. Credit Card) is another one of those fiendishly sneaky evils the banks developed to rid you of your money. If - and that's a big if - you manage your credit card correctly and pay off the full amount at the end of each month, they can be great to have and smooth the little rough patches in life. But most of us only pay the minimum amount required each month - and that's exactly what the banks want. It leaves you in the red and owing them money. Which gives them ample opportunity to apply the thumb screws. Remember, every month you're in the red, you're paying interest on the outstanding amount which gets added to your bill.

Debt Recovery The big mistake we all make is to look at our monthly statement and say: "Hey, that's not too bad. I can still afford my repayments. And I have some credit available to buy that wiggly snoogle as well!" The problem arises when you battle to make your income stretch through the month because of the various different repayments you have to make.

Counseling Credit Debt It's critically important that you start looking at the TOTAL COST of your debt over your lifetime. Once you're over the shock and horror of how much of your hard earned cash is going up in smoke, you'll be in a position to tackle the problem head on and take the path to debt free living.

Consolidation Debt Uk Remeber: Bad debt is a bad habit.

Debt Reduce Gerard runs a website aimed at helping you getting rid of your Debt. If your debt is getting you down consider debt consolidation.
http://www.debtconsolidationweb.info

Get Out Of Debt

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