| In this day and age, it only takes a few | | | | what is spent per week on household items and |
| financial missteps and many consumers can | | | | living expenses. For example, rather than |
| find themselves in trouble. The one factor | | | | buying lunch during the work week, pack a |
| that exacerbates this is debt, or, to be more | | | | lunch. Rather than going to the theater, rent |
| precise, overwhelming debt. | | | | a movie and watch it at home. You may find |
| | | | that getting a part time job for a while is a |
| For some consumers, getting out of debt | | | | good way to increase your income. The key is |
| simply means tightening the household budget | | | | to monitor your savings and protect those |
| and being more stringent on new purchases. | | | | savings so that you have this cash available |
| For others, the challenge of getting out of | | | | at the end of the month. |
| debt can be more daunting. In either case, | | | | |
| the best self-help plan for relieving debt is | | | | In order to decrease the amount of cash |
| planning and discipline. | | | | needed to pay your bills you may want to |
| | | | consider a consolidation loan on your credit |
| The first step to relieving debt is to find | | | | cards. A consolidation loan allows you to |
| out where you are. Make an income list and an | | | | bundle up several outstanding loans (all of |
| expense list. On the income statement, list | | | | which require an individual payment) and make |
| all of your income. On the expense statement, | | | | one single payment, usually at a slightly |
| list all of your current bills. Once this is | | | | lower interest rate. The total of the one |
| complete, subtract the expenses from the | | | | payment under a consolidation loan is often |
| income and you will have your disposable | | | | substantially lower than the total of the |
| income. For some consumers, this may be a | | | | multiple payments you were making before. |
| negative number, which means you are paying | | | | |
| out more than you are bringing in. | | | | If you have any disposable income available |
| | | | for use after paying your bills, you may want |
| In order to maintain a clean credit report | | | | to find the loan that has the lowest |
| and keep a high credit score it is imperative | | | | outstanding balance and begin making double |
| that you pay all of your bills on time. This | | | | payments on that one particular account. Once |
| is simple common sense, but what if you do | | | | this account is paid, you can use the money |
| not have enough money to pay all of your | | | | that you would have been using to pay this |
| bills on time? What can you do? | | | | account to help make additional payments on |
| | | | the next lowest balance account. |
| When expenses outrun income you have two | | | | |
| viable options. One is to increase your | | | | With some planning and discipline, you can |
| income; the other is to decrease the amount | | | | begin to pay down your debt obligations and |
| of cash needed to pay those bills. | | | | begin to see some real progress in your |
| | | | financial status. The important issues during |
| There are many ways an individual or family | | | | your self-help in debt reduction are patience |
| can find fast cash by simply cutting back on | | | | and diligence. |