The simple 10 debt elimination solution

Ask a friend what resolutions they made for the new year and your bound to hear them reply “Pay off my credit cards.” Ask them how they planned on reaching that goal and many of them will not have a clear cut answer.

The obvious first step to paying off credit card debt or paying down credit debt load is to cut back or eliminate the use of your credit cards. For some people this first step can often be the most difficult. If you’re used to spending freely with plastic and worrying about the consequences later, it’s difficult to break free from this “buy now, pay later” attitude.

To gain control of their careless credit card spending habits, some people cut up their credit cards therefore making it impossible to use them. Others lock up their credit cards or hide them in a safe place and vow to use them only in an emergency.

The second step to paying down credit debt is to pay more than the minimum balance due. Most credit card companies require a minimum monthly payment of 2.5% of the outstanding balance. For example, if you have an outstanding balance of $1100.00 on a credit card charging an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 18.9% your minimum monthly payment would be $27.50. It will take you 66 months or 5.5 years to pay off your balance of $1100.00 making the minimum payments. The credit card company will make $676.94 in interest from your use of their credit card.

Monthly payments are purposely kept low by the credit card companies so that they can earn as much as possible from the interest rate charged to you the consumer. Paying just the minimum payment will keep you tangled in credit’s web for years and years to come.

If you’ve been paying only the minimum due month after month, ask yourself this question, “Do I have an extra $10.00 I could apply to this month’s payment?” I’m sure that most of us could find some way to come up with an extra $10.00 for the month. Try cutting out a few cups of coffee or lunches at your nearby fast food outlets and in no time flat you’ll have saved up the extra money that you need.

Now, it’s time to unveil “The Simple $10.00 Debt Elimination Solution.” Take that extra $10.00 and add it to the minimum monthly payment above, therefore making a payment of $37.50. By adding just that $10.00 a month to your minimum payment, you’ll trim 23 months or nearly two years off of that credit debt! On top of that you’ll save $277.00 in interest alone! That’s money you can put toward savings or paying off other debts. Imagine how much you’d be able to save if you applied this same simple strategy to each of your other credit card debts!

Paying down credit debt doesn’t always mean having to make huge monthly payments or sacrifices. It just takes some basic planning and a simple effective strategy to make it work.

Solve your financial dilemmas

No one likes to budget. It’s a lot of work for little reward. But the secret of budgeting and personal financial management is simply to ensure that there’s just enough money left over each month to pay your bills and maybe have a little fun. Many people do not budget but it should be done to really help you get ahead.

If you have made poor financial decisions over time – and it happens to the best of us – you may have allowed your bills (your loans) to get out of control. This could come back to haunt you if you want a loan for a car or a house or anything else you need to get a loan to buy.

Here’s what you need to make sure that you have control over your financial situation. Here are some valuable budgeting techniques to guide you in your expenses and income.

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you pay for your utilities on time and in full every month. Don’t wait until it’s too late to pay them. The second thing you need to do is make sure that you don’t have too many credit cards. Only a few credit cards are necessary to get by in life. You should consider cutting up the rest of them. And the third thing you should do you, if your bills have gotten the best of you, is to consolidate them into a single loan. This will enable you to pay them off over time without getting slammed with high interest rates.

Finally, establish a budget for yourself. This seems difficult and that’s why most people don’t do it. And because people don’t have a budget they find themselves in financial straits.

The easiest way to establish a budget is to take a draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On the left, write down your after tax household income. Be sure to write down the after tax amount as you want to measure available income only. After all, you don’t get to spend the before tax amount, right?

In the right column, list an average of each monthly bill. But you should also include your typical spending habits as well, like eating out, or impulse shopping. Don’t forget to include paying off your credit card as part of the bills!

Now that you have a list of income and expenses, see if there’s a way to increase your income, or reduce your expenses. Usually you’ll find a way to do a little to both.

While it seems so simplistic, so few people do it. And yet, creating a budget and sticking to it often separates the successful people from everyone else. What’s stopping you from doing it right now?