Debt management is more personal than you might think.

Put simply: there is no “tried and true” method of fixing a debt problem you might have. Everyone is different; different ways of coping work for different people. What helps one person to clear their debts in a short amount of time can leave another flailing and confused. Understanding that you have to find your way to debt management is key to understanding how to unpick the tangle of your personal finances.

Below, we’ll discuss four different ways you can tackle your debt problems. Read through them and see which might work well for you.

1. Redirecting Your Income

If you feel you are able to cut back on luxuries — such as entertainment costs — in your monthly budget and redirect your income to debt repayment, then you should be able to make a significant dent into your debt. When you have paid all essential bills and allowed yourself a small amount to live on, all your other finances should be directed toward debt repayment. It’s tough, but if you can embrace the necessary frugality, then it will work. You can find some tips about living more frugally on morningchores.com to help you along the way.

2. Debt Consolidation

Debt consolidation as discussed on consolidatingdebt.co is a rather simple process, which may be worth undertaking if you are struggling with managing various different credit accounts. The process tends to involve taking out a loan, with which you then pay off all your existing debts — leaving you with one, manageable monthly payment instead. This can also save you money spent on interest repayments, too. If you struggle to keep a handle on all the different payments you have to make, this might be the best choice for you.

3. Negotiating With Creditors

If you want to stave off bankruptcy, then negotiating with creditors is an absolute must. This means making phone calls or writing letters, explaining your situation and asking for their assistance in putting together a management plan that can help you pay off your debts quicker. There’s no doubt that talking to creditors is nerve-wracking, but you will likely find they are more understanding than you might otherwise expect.

4. Making Minimum Payments

Making minimum payments to your debts and nothing more might not sound like a debt management strategy, but it can be if you do it right. If you just make minimum payments and spend the rest of your income on whatever you please, then no, that’s not the best idea in the world. However, if you use the money you save to build an emergency fund — and thus reduce your reliance on credit in the future — then this could be a sound financial move. Just ensure that when you have got a decent emergency fund built up, you then begin paying back more than minimum payments on your debts.

When you find the strategy that works for you, then your way to a clearer financial future should become much more obvious.

Share to Explore !!

Facebook

Digg

Pinterest

Twitter

Reddit

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Tumblr

Print

email

Yummly

Buffer

When you get yourself into financial trouble, your credit score is going to suffer. Having a bad credit score affects in so many ways and it’s not a position you want to be in. Trying to borrow money or buy things on credit is a nightmare so your dream of starting a business seems so out of reach. But there’s no need to give up on your dreams just because you’ve got bad credit. It’s going to be made more difficult by your low credit score but if you’re serious about it, there are ways to deal with it. If you’re worried about your credit score affecting your business goals, check out these tips to get around it.

Increase Your Score

The first thing you need to do is to try to increase that credit score, even the smallest increases will help your situation no end. Paying down debts is the simplest way to do it. If you’ve borrowed a lot of money, seek the services of companies like consolidation.creditcard who can help you to combine all of those separate debts into one easy to manage payment. Clearing those debts will put you in a better financial situation and improve your score so it’s easier to borrow the start-up capital that you need for your new business.

Find A Partner

Having a business partner is always a bonus. Two heads are better than one and it also helps to reduce the financial strain that starting a business will put on you. If you’re struggling to get loans in your name, consider collaborating with a business partner that has better credit than you. They will be able to borrow the money that you need for start-up costs but make sure that you make clear agreements beforehand because they will be shouldering the lion’s share of the risk so you need to be bringing something to the table as well.

Crowdfunding

The internet has given birth to lots of alternative lending streams that aren’t bothered about your credit score at all. Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter are perfect for your situation because they offer a platform where you can showcase your business idea. If people like it, they can make small donations to help towards your costs. It runs solely on the quality of your idea so you aren’t hindered by any financial mistakes you’ve made in the past.

Peer To Peer Lending

Another new lending stream that has started to become more relevant in the past couple of years is peer to peer lending. These sites pair up investors that are looking for opportunities with entrepreneurs that are looking for alternate lending streams. Again, you won’t be bound by your credit score and you can find investors that are willing to take a chance on you based on your ideas rather than your financial history.

Having bad credit makes it more difficult to start a business, but there are so many successful businesses out there that are run by people that have been bankrupt multiple times, so don’t give up on your dream of owning your own business.

Share to Explore !!

Facebook

Digg

Pinterest

Twitter

Reddit

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Tumblr

Print

email

Yummly

Buffer

Keeping your finances in check is a very important thing to do in the 21st century. You’re going to need to be able to keep everything where it is because the world revolves around money! Everything you need and want you have to pay for with money, including your house and food, so it’s important to make sure it’s all in order so you don’t go without anything, but how can you do it? Well, if you read on, you’ll learn how!

Keep A Good Credit Score

Credit scores have been around for a while but have only recently become used, so what is it? Well, your credit score is a representation of how good your financial standings are in terms of credit. It takes into account things like how much credit has been used in your past, how long it’s taken you to pay it back and if there were any discrepancies with the payment. When you apply for a loan, banks will look at your credit score and judge you off it; if it’s in a poor state then they’re going to be likely to turn you down for the applied loan, however if your credit score is good then you’re going to be in the green and get your loan! Not getting loans can become a very serious problem if you need to money urgently, so we need to find a way around this, and luckily there is. Websites like usarepaircreditinc.com are able to repair your credit score by filtering through very small loans and repayments through your account, improving your credit score so you don’t have to worry about getting turned down for a loan ever again!

Opening A Savings Account

Savings accounts are brilliant ways to raise money without actually having to do anything or invest anywhere, so what are they? They are small accounts that are attached to your main bank account and serve as a way to store money. Each month, your savings account will take a predetermined amount of money from your main bank account into your savings account, which will stack up and accumulate after a while. You can open these accounts from banks like american express, and the real beauty of them is revealed once you’ve been paying into them for a few years. You’re going to have a sum of money that has interest on it so that it grows within the account, which can be a huge amount depending on how long you leave it! This can get you through a rainy day when you need funds but don’t have the available in your bank account. Another good thing about them is that they are temptation free; you need not worry about accidently spending what is in your savings account because you are unable to access it with your card, perfect for anyone that might find themselves buying extra things because they think the money is there which makes it a great tool for keeping on top of your money.

Debt Consolidation

Having and dealing with debt is part of life, and an unavoidable one at that too! Debt just means something that you need to pay back, and with the amount of things we have to borrow money for in the 21st century this covers a lot of things. Debt can come in the form of credit card payments, loan repayments, mortgages and so on, and the single thing that makes them a pain is how many there are. Debts become a problem when you’ve got lots of them; they become hard to follow and track, which means that you’re going to struggle a bit trying to work out how much money is going out of your account each month to what company! This means it’s more difficult to budget, meaning that life gets more difficult. However there is a solution. Debt consolidation loans that you can find more about if you read on at DebtConsolidationUSA.com, operate in a way that allows all of your debt repayments to be funneled into one, monthly repayment. This reduces the amount of tracking down money you have to do, you know how much you’re going to have to pay at the end of the month in one easy instalment making life easier for you!

Smart Meters

This is a great way to keep a track of how much you’re going to be spending on your utility bills at the end of the month! Smart meters are installed into your system, and it will gather data from all of the different sources your house pulls from, mainly being electricity, gas and water. It will be able to read how much of each commodity you have used, and by inputting how much you pay for a given volume or measurement of each of the commodities, it can tell you how much you’ve used and therefore how much it’s going to cost at the end of the month. It will be able to make basic predictions about your resource usage so you can effectively plan for the month ahead by knowing how much your bills are going to be instead of being stuck doing guesswork like the days of old!

Coupon Shopping

Everyone loves coupons; they’re given to us by supermarkets and other retailers and give us brilliant discounts that we then go and take full advantage of, but there is a problem with them. Nothing in the world comes for free, and unfortunately neither do coupons; they’re given away when a customer spends over a certain amount, which means that if you don’t reach the quota like a lot of us won’t, you’re not going to be eligible for the coupon and this means you’re going to miss out! So what can we do to circumvent this? Well, websites like groupon exist to serve this purpose for us. They have online coupons available for free, for everyone to use however they’re only available for a limited time so if you’re wanting to use something for a later date it’s best to do it sooner rather than later! They’re able to do this because the company coupons are a form of advertising, meaning that it’s completely legal and nothing for you to worry about getting in trouble for. Some coupon sites are illegal though, so you will have to use your head and avoid websites that look dodgy to save yourself from having a nightmare!

Budgeting Properly

Budgeting is the key to managing your finances properly, it’s an essential skill that you need to learn in order to be able to properly manage your finances. Budgeting involves being able to plan out where your money is going to go for the next month, or where it should be going at least! You’re going to have to know how much you spend each month on each bill that you have to pay, as well as for food and taking into account how much money you’re going to be putting away each month! This can all be very difficult to do when you’re starting off and chances are that you’re not going to be able to do it very well, but there is a helping hand available to you! Online budget planners are available for free on the internet, which you should take advantage of if you find yourself struggling! They’re able to take out all of the pain of trying to do all the maths work manually; instead, these planners do it for you and show how much money you’re going to have at the end of the month and how much you should be saving each payday to keep some spare.

It’s recommended to do all of these things to make sure that you keep on top of everything to do with your money, if you have a good credit score you’re not going to have to worry about getting refused for a loan when you need it most, you’ll have a savings account that you can dip into as and when you need it for those days that cost just the little bit extra, you could have yourself a debt consolidation loan to help you pay back all those small niggling debts that somehow creep up on you, a smart meter so you know exactly what your bills are going to be that month too. And then to top it all off you’ll have loads of coupons at your disposal to make your life cheaper and you’ll have a proper budget so you know what your plan for your money is for the month! When you’ve got all this income, it’s important to not only know where to spend it, but how to protect it once you’ve spent it. If you go out and buy something new with all your savings, only for it to break, you’ve just lost yourself a lot of money, so if you want to know how to keep what you invest in safe then read this!

Share to Explore !!

Facebook

Digg

Pinterest

Twitter

Reddit

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Tumblr

Print

email

Yummly

Buffer

Shakespeare once said “Neither a lender nor a borrower be”. That’s a nice sentiment, but the bard didn’t live in an era of subprime mortgages, negative equity and business insolvency. In his day, all you had to do was write a few sonnets for a wealthy patron and you were golden. In the 21st century, however, lending and borrowing are not only essential in a realistic business climate, they’re the basis of our entire global economy.

In both personal and business finances, peaks and troughs are inevitable, and even the most successful among us have our rough times. From hip hop icon 50 Cent to Mark Twain, many of successful business and creative types face stared down bankruptcy and come through it stronger than ever. Even the billionaire president Donald Trump has been declared bankrupt four times.

Myriad circumstances may result in individuals and businesses filing for bankruptcy. While it’s undeniably a stressful and upsetting experience, it’s important to remember that though there are certainly repercussions following bankruptcy, by no means is it the end.

If bankruptcy is looking like a possibility, or even an inevitability here are some tips that will help you to make an informed decision whether or not to file:

Remember… You are not alone

Facing bankruptcy and feel like an isolating experience, but you are most assuredly not alone. In fact, over 800,000 people applied for bankruptcy in federal court last year. Filing will neither make you a social pariah nor mark you out as a failure. It is, however, important that you do it right, so hiring a bankruptcy attorney should be one of your highest priorities. Your spouse or partner doesn’t even need to file alongside you.

There are different kinds of bankruptcy

In the US there are two forms of bankruptcy; Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 and which you file for will depend on your circumstances. A Chapter 7 requires the business or individual’s assets to be liquidated, using them to pay creditors as much of the outstanding debt as possible. A trustee will be appointed to facilitate the liquidation and ensure that creditors are paid in proportion to the debt. A Chapter 11, on the other hand, reorganizes the debts and adjusts them in terms of repayment amounts and interest rates (much like consolidation).

You may still be able to get credit

You may feel that it’s the end for you and your business, but lines of credit will still be open to you. Remember, however, that over-reliance on credit is what leads many to bankruptcy in the first place. Bankruptcy is a highly instructive tool for many as it teaches them to really appreciate the importance of budgeting and financial planning. That said, the bankruptcy is not quite as prohibitive in terms of credit as many believe.

But it’s important to be realistic

Bankruptcy is intended to wipe the slate clean. It’s a fresh start for businesses and individuals, but it’s not without financial consequences. Credit gets harder to come by (but not impossible) and it could have repercussions on your business borrowing. Bankruptcy can help you but it should also be considered a last resort. You should first consider an alternative such as a consolidation plan before filing for bankruptcy.

Share to Explore !!

Facebook

Digg

Pinterest

Twitter

Reddit

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Tumblr

Print

email

Yummly

Buffer

It is not unusual for family finances to take a tumble and for everyone in the family to get concerned about how you are going to get through it. Many things can trigger a very sudden financial crisis. In many cases, it is a business failure. Many new businesses fail and they can take all of the money that you have invested in the ventures with them. On other occasions, it is a gradual decline and you have been throwing good money after bad for years. Perhaps you even saw the crisis coming but chose to ignore it.

At other times, it is a job loss that triggers the crisis. Most families can survive a redundancy or a job loss of one wage earner if there is another wage earner that can support the family for a few months. However, if there is only one wage earner, a job loss can throw the whole family into financial turmoil.

For many families, it can be an unexpected expenditure or an accident or ill health that triggers a financial crisis. Perhaps you had a car accident or an accident at work and you can no longer earn the money that you used to. If the accident was not your fault, you may be able to start a personal injury claim and it is worth looking into that. You may even be able to get an interim payment of compensation to help you get by. Sometimes it is a big purchase that tips the family finances over the edge and it can be hard to get them back on track.

There are only two ways to get yourself out of a financial crisis. You either need to borrow or earn your way to financial security. Here are a few ideas to help you decide which is best for you.

Keep your outgoings to a minimum

You need to get a clear picture of how much you have to earn or borrow to get by each month before you can put a plan together. There will have to be some cutbacks in your family budget in the short-term. It is important that everyone participates in the savings so sit the whole family down and explain to them that you need to tighten your belts for a few months.

Start by listing everything that you pay out for each month. It is useful if you have your bank statement in front of you when you do this. List the large outgoings first. These are usually the items that you can’t avoid paying out and include the mortgage or rent, car loan and utility bills. You even have to list the minor items such as children’s activities and the takeout coffee you have every morning.

Try to work out which ones you can do without. Try to negotiate a rent or mortgage reduction for just a few months and agree to make up the shortfall once your finances improve.

Luxuries will have to go! Eating and drinking costs a lot and is a luxury that you can do without for a month or so. Try a takeout instead or save even more money by making your own. Healthy, home-prepared meals take a while to make but save you a lot of money and do you good!

Borrow what you need to get by

There will be occasions where you need to get hold of money fast and you will not be able to wait to earn yourself out of trouble. Quick loans give you the cash that you need when you need it. Everything is done online and there are hardly any forms to fill in so the process is much quicker and streamline. There is a credit check involved and there is a huge variety of lending options so you can always find the loan that is just right for your circumstances.

If you have fallen behind on your mortgage repayments, the last thing you should do is ignore the letters demanding money. It is important that you contact the company quickly and sort out a repayment schedule that is manageable.

Borrowing what you need can give you peace of mind and free up your time to get on with what is important which is finding another permanent source of income.

Find a new source of income

Obviously, your ultimate aim is to find another permanent job or to get another business up and running but this can take time. Dig out your CV and give it an overhaul. Refresh your personal statement and update your qualifications. Then start sending it out to potential employers.

In the meantime, it may be possible for you to take on a part-time job to help out with bills. There are always retail jobs and positions in catering and hospitality available. Could you do some babysitting in the evenings or sell some things to raise some cash?

Whilst you are finding it hard to manage financially, you must check that you are receiving all the benefits that you are entitled to. Check out with your local authorities or go online to find out more. There may also be welfare organizations that can help you.

If you have a spare room in your home, it may be possible for you to take in a lodger. The rent will help towards the cost of the mortgage and they will chip in for the household expenses such as gas and electricity.

You could also look into earning some money from home. Many people make good money working from their bedrooms! You just need an internet connection and a laptop and PC. You could work as a website tester, an administrative assistant or even as a freelance writer. There are literally thousands of jobs available through sites like Guru.

You do the jobs in your own time and so you will always be available to attend that important interview to get your new full-time job.

Share to Explore !!

Facebook

Digg

Pinterest

Twitter

Reddit

Linkedin

StumbleUpon

Tumblr

Print

email

Yummly

Buffer