How To Knock Out Your Debt In 2020 - The Shopping & Savings MAGAZINE

If you have debt, you are not alone. Millions of people are in the same boat. On average people carry at least $5000 or more in debt. Many people are frankly fed up with their situation. Whatever debt you have, you can get rid of it with patience, discipline and persistence. The trick is you have to start early.

Knock Out Your Debt

Credit cards are tempting to use because of the ease and convenience they offer. If you go to a store and see something you want but do not have the cash with you, you may be tempted to put it on your credit card. This is where discipline comes into play. Think of what the outcome will be. If you pay the minimum and you owe $6,000, it could take you 15-20 years to dig out of that debt. If you owe $6,000 on 4 cards, you will always owe them for the rest of your life. Something has to change.

The first thing that you must change is your mindset. The way you look, think and feel about your money. Do you have an abundance or a limited mindset? An abundance mindset is appreciating and being grateful for your money and believing more will come while a limited mindset is thinking and saying I don’t have enough to live on. How am I going to live? With a limited mindset it will be hard to make ends meet every month because you already told yourself you can’t make it.

The second thing is to come up with a strategy to pay your debt. If you can pay off the bill (if it’s a credit card) in full, do so. It will save you a lot of interest. It’s different if your debt is a mortgage. If it is pay at least 1 extra payment a year. This will bring down your debt faster. A strategy for debt reduction is paying more than the minimum each month. look at the interest from a past statement of how much you paid in interest. It can be shocking. Don’t get mad, double down and make a plan to pay them off. Think of how much you can save if they were gone.

How to save money and live debt free

Now that you are looking at your statements, see where you are spending the most money. Pay the account with the highest interest first. This is where most of your money is going each month. If you are not making enough money think about getting a part time job. You can even sign up to Fiverr where you can write articles, books, graphic design etc. You can also sign up to rover.com. On rover.com you can pet sit etc. Or check out Amazon.com. The trick is think outside the box.
Avoid late payments. This can be detrimental. Credit cards are unforgiving if you are late or if you miss a payment. So maybe, you might want to automate your payments each month.
Consider transferring the balance to a card with less interest. If you have good credit, this might be an option to get rid of a high interest card. Try to find one that offers a long term 0% introductory rate for preferably 18 months or more.
Consolidate your debt. If you can find a low interest loan you may consider this option.
Work with the creditors. Call them and see if you can give you a better or lower interest rate. It may or may not work.
Get help from a debt management firm. Consider www.creditguard.org they will work with you to help you reduce your debt. The way this works is you have to give them access to your bank account and they pay your credit card each month and send you a statement. They work with you based on your income.
Bankruptcy. This is the final straw. There is no way you can pay your creditors any more. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is where your unsecured debt is wiped clean. Chapter 13 bankruptcy helps you restructure your debt into a payment plan over a 3-5 year period. This one is best if you have assets you want to keep.

Debt is something that can keep you up at night. Don’ t lose sleep. Just become more responsible when dealing with your debt. Think of it differently. Don’t complain. Start living.