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Easy Credit and Debt Management Cleaning Up Past Debt Management Mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes. Mistakes may be one of the few things that every human being on the planet has in common with every other human being on the planet. No matter how well educated we are or how street smart we are, we are all going to make mistakes in our lives. It's a given.
Mistakes in debt management are one of the most common of all the possibilities.
Getting in over your head financially speaking has become so commonplace that an entire industry has emerged to deal with the problem. It really isn't hard to see how and why this happens.
The credit card companies make getting into deep debt easy. Anybody who has a social security number can get a credit card. You fill out an application, of course, but the information on the credit card is not verified. Employment is not verified and other debts are not considered when a credit card is issued. Even dogs (the real kind that have four legs) have been issued credit cards.
The spending limit that is set on a credit card can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars.
Then we are all bombarded with advertisements for goods and services that are very attractive. Our friends have stuff, and our neighbors have stuff, and we want the same stuff. With credit card in hand, we set out to get the stuff, and suddenly there is a mountain of debt.
There are about three options: debt consolidation loan, home equity loan, or bankruptcy. Most people will choose either a debt consolidation loan or a home equity loan in an attempt to clean up past debt management mistakes.
Either works, but unless lessons have been learned well enough that they will not be repeated, the industry can depend on repeat business.
See Also:
Responsible Debt Management | Manitoba NDP Caucus
| Debt Management and Family Crisis Debt Management for the Future
We can't foresee the future and I'm pretty sure that's a good thing. Although we can't see the future or what it holds for us, we do need to be prepared financially to deal with it. If you spend like there will be no tomorrow, when tomorrow does get here, you're going to be in deep trouble.
The trick in debt management is to live as well as you can today while preparing to live even better in the future. Just because you live in a financially responsible manner doesn't mean that you always have to do without everything that you want right now. You do, however, have to choose.
There are three important factors in successful debt management today that will prepare for the unseen future.
The first of these three ingredients is saving. It will never work to save what is left at the end of a pay period. There will never be anything left. You must save before you spend. The most painless way to save is to never get the money that you will save at all. Go by the payroll office where you work and sign a form that instructs your employer to deduct some money from your paycheck and save it for you.
The second ingredient is to prepare yourself for debt. Before you make a purchase for which you will have to make a monthly installment payment, save the amount of the monthly installment for three months before you make the purchase to see if you can comfortably live with that much less in disposable income every month.
The third ingredient is a little trickier. You must know yourself. You must make choices based upon your own set of priorities. Would you rather buy that new car, or would it really make you happier to do with the car you have and buy a boat? You really can't have both if you are going to prepare for the future. |
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| Debt Management and Interest Rates Debt Management: Getting the Picture
We all have albums (or shoeboxes) filled with photographs. They collectively make up the story of our lives. Photographs are little moments frozen in time that we can look at and recall whole days, weeks, or months of the good times of our lives.
I say good times because we don't take pictures of the bad times. We all enjoy going through those photographs and revisiting happy times of the past.
If we could take snapshots of our financial lives in the same way that we take snapshots of friends, relatives, and the happy moments in our lives, maybe it would help us to remember financial good times as well. It would be nice to remember what we did that was right so that we could avoid making mistakes today and tomorrow, wouldn't it?
If you could look at a photograph of your checkbook that was taken BCC (Before Credit Cards), you would see a balance that you felt so good about. Maybe it wasn't a really big balance, but it was a balance, nevertheless, and it was there after you had paid every debt that you owed. You had money left over...remember that?
It would be nice to see a picture of your savings account, too.
You can make new memories of positive checking account balances and savings account balances once you get control of your out-of-control debts. The way to do that is to just bite the bullet, so to speak, and seek professional help.
Choose a consumer credit counselor and let him or her help you to get your financial life back on the right track so that you can again experience the good financial times that you once had. There isn't a shortcut, and the trip back may not be painless, but it can be accomplished. |
Related Topics: Responsible Debt Management,
Debt Management-The Controls, Debt Management Is a Good Thing
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