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Money is one of the biggest causes of stress that there is. If you ever get your hands on any, chances are you won’t get to keep it for long. If you are someone who has struggled with debt, you will know how quickly it can spiral completely out of control.
Keeping on top of your debts can be very tricky, and this is particularly true if you have a number of different loans or credit cards. Keeping up on top of payments is one thing, but when there seems to be no end in sight, your debt can cause you serious worries.
If you leave the situation unmanaged, it is likely to cause you a lot of stress, and may even cause breakdowns in relationships, depression and a host of other significant life problems.
Facing Up To Debt
Taking ownership of the situation is one of the hardest things to do. For many people, the temptation is to try to ignore the problem is massive. But pretending that you are not in trouble will not solve your problem.
Owning your problems means taking stock of the situation. Go through all of your debts and work out how much you owe in total. Try to work out how long it will take you to pay them all, and where you are in terms of the health of your loan. If you have missed payments you may have incurred additional fees, and it could have had a detrimental effect on your credit rating.
Taking Out Additional Loans
You may want to look at consolidating all of your existing debt so that you can just make one payment each month. This is much better for you than having several payments going out. If you have credit card debt, chances are you are only repaying the minimum monthly payment and this will only cover the interest. At least by consolidating your debts you will be able to see an end date that you will be clear by.
If your credit rating is bad, you may need to take out a secured or guarantor loan. Buddy loans are one such company that can help if you are finding that you are getting refused credit elsewhere.
Work Out Your Expenditure
Breaking down the money that you have coming in and going out is very helpful when it comes to solving your financial problems. Very often we don’t know how much we have going out in total, and it can be difficult to work out where our money is going to. This is particularly true if you are not looking at your bank statements.
Sit down with your online banking and an open spreadsheet. Start to note in all of the money that you pay out each month. When it comes to your food and travel expenses, try to work out an average that you spend.
If the total that you have going out each month is more or very close to the amount that you have coming in, then you need to make some changes to your outgoings.
Removing Non-Priority Spending
Priority spending means anything that you cannot cut out of your budget. This will be your rent or mortgage payments, along with any debt payments that you may have. After that, everything else is open to negotiation.
Utility bills can be reduced greatly if you look at the way that you are using electricity in the home. You can also switch suppliers to get a more favorable tariff. You may be able to switch your phone contract, and you could look at changing your insurance policies when they are up for renewal.
If you have any unused gym memberships that you are paying out for, cancel them. If you subscribe to any streaming services that you are not using so much, cancel these too. Take a look and see if there is anything else in your expenditure that you can live without. The more you can cut from your monthly outgoings, the better.
Get Help From A Debt Organization
There are several debt organizations out there that can help you if you cannot cope. They will be able to go through your bills and statements and try and look for a way through your situation with you. They may be able to give you advice on how you can go forward if you cannot pay any of your debts at all. There may be options available to contact the loan company and have your payments reduced.
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