Escaping The Bondage Of Debt
You’re going to have situations where you’re confronted with a choice: tread water and “grind” your way to the place you want to be, or take out a loan. The truth is, you should do the grind. But not everybody does. And, sometimes, you’ll be in a situation where you’ll be backed into a corner, and forced to take out a loan.
Then there’s credit card debt, that can creep up on you unexpected. Most people will experience debt at some point in their lives, and the best possible advice is this: pay it back as quickly as you possibly can. That is certainly easier said than done.
Debt Elimination Strategies
Make some strategies. Cut your discretionary spending. You don’t need that $2.65 Starbucks coffee every day. By spending $67.25 a year on coffee you brew, rather than getting one at Starbucks every day, you’ll save up to $900 annually.
You can save by cutting out fast foods, too. If you’re spending $10 a day on fast food, that’s $3,650 a year. If you spend just $140 a month on groceries, you can eat better and healthier for half the cost, saving up to $1,825 a year.
If you fill up your gas tank once a week, bicycle to as many places as you can and cut fill-ups to only three every four weeks, you’ll save—at $50 a tank—an extra $650 a year.
These three strategies can save you $3,375 in one year. Do that for three years and you can pay off $10,000 in debt without substantially changing your life—provided the initial debt was at low or no interest.
Additional Tactics
Not everyone is able to cut out enough to make debt go away, though. Especially as interest compounds debt and increases how much the final cost is. Usually you can expect debt to double during the normal course of remunerating a lender.
If your debt is high, you may want to go beyond mere tight budgeting. Some people pay debt by selling a mortgage note and finding a new living situation until the debt has been overcome. Oftentimes, selling a mortgage note will cover even larger debts. Again, this isn’t always the case—especially pertaining to medical bills.
But for certain debts, communities can be sympathetic, and you may be able to facilitate a charity event of some caliber. Crowdfunding is ideal for this. It makes sense to consider options like Plumfund, that offers its service 100 percent free of charge, when you’re orchestrating a crowdfunding campaign.
Getting Advice
One of the best things you can do in times of debt is to get advice from the professionals. Debt Academy can help you find areas where you can consolidate income and streamline debt dissolution.
You might take on a secondary job, or look for other employment. If you’re only making $1,500 a month, that’s $18,000 a year. You would be hard pressed to pay back a $10k debt in a year at that rate. You may buck for promotion, or look around for a better paying job.
One Bite At A Time
Several debt elimination strategies include consolidating and eliminating unnecessary expenses, securing charity solutions, sourcing information from professional debt analysts and finding a better job.
There is an old proverb. How does a person eat an elephant? They do it one bite at a time. Your debt is an elephant. It’s huge, but you can eat it; just take it one chunk at a time, and don’t give up until it’s gone.
Kevin Bennett
Latest posts by Kevin Bennett (see all)
- Ways To Offset Your Debt - September 7, 2017
