Get Out Of Debt Forever

In most families, there is one person whose job it is to take care of the family budget. It usually is dad or mom whose job it is to make sure all the bills are paid and that the family budget is healthy so the family can afford the good things everyone needs to live a comfortable life. This is an important job because no family can continue to function without a viable and realistic budget. Many have said we would all be better off if a lot of companies, or even our country, were run with the same sense of reality and making the books balance that the average mom uses.

The only problem with this system is sometimes it is easy to look at the family budget as “mom’s problem” or the problem of whoever takes care of paying the bills. So, when a serious problem comes up like an explosion of credit card bills, mom can get pretty overwhelmed. Especially if there is no way to curb credit card spending so there is enough on hand to pay off those bills.

This is where taking on the challenge of beating high credit card debt has to be everybody’s job. For starters, everyone needs to know the limits on spending. It does no good if the person who does the budget knows exactly how much everyone can spend on food, entertainment and new things when nobody else follows those rules. If the other spouse and the kids are out on the town on a spending spree, that is going to overwhelm the budget.

So, if that is one of the sources of credit card abuse in your family, it is time for the family to get together and have a discussion. Each member of the family must understand that there is such a thing as fiscal responsibility. If credit card abuse is done by any one member of the family, the privilege of that credit card is going to be taken away.

However, the family unit can really become a powerful force for change when it comes to taking on a mountain sized credit card debt. It will take some skill to present the challenge to the family that defeating this foe must be a family job and everybody has to get into the act. Not only will it bring about a lot of family unity, it can be a lot of fun, too, if you do get everybody in on the challenge and take it on as a big adventure.

The attack plan must be seen as just that, an aggressive attack on the credit card problem that can threaten the family’s financial safety. Have everyone in the family come up with one way to save money each week. Cutting costs might be as simple as turning off their lights before leaving for school or as ambitious as giving up cable TV or cutting in half the number of times they go to the movies. If each person can contribute one big cost savings a week, that sense of accomplishment and self esteem for pitching in to win this war with credit card debt will pay off.

In the same way, if each member can think of ways to increase income, that can really help the budget out. It might mean the kids picking up more chores so dad and mom can work second jobs for a little while. I also might even mean that the kids will do some chores or take part time jobs and add a little to the budget from what they make. Whatever the contribution, if everybody gets into the act, the family can win against credit card debt. And that is a worthwhile family project.

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When the economy or personal issues and problems result in a high credit card debt, we often find our debt spread over three or more cards. So you may have a Visa, several MasterCards, a Discover card, a Capital One card and maybe many more, each carrying a several thousands of dollars of debt. The result is an ugly parade of bills from each company each needing a minimum payment that pays the interest and takes just a small amount off of your debt.

If it seems that the debt mountain never seems to go down, that is not an illusion. The situation is not designed to help you get that debt down. It is a cruel mixed message the credit industry sends because if you have high credit card debt, your credit rating goes down. But even if you have too much debt, the credit card companies just keep raising your credit limit and sending more credit card offers to lure you into more debt.

The instinct to keep taking out more accounts and transfer money to those deceptive zero percent offers that expire in a matter of months and leave you with yet another bill to pay that only makes managing that debt even more impossible. If you do get a little money ahead, the instinct is also to pay more down on the debts that have the highest interest rates to try to slow the erosion of your finances because of high rates.

There is another approach, however, to handling this debt that goes completely opposite your instincts and gives more control to begin seeing headway against those debts. To use this approach, you will have to think with your head, not your emotions and not panic. Think about how to get as much principle paid down as possible. This inside out approach to paying down credit cards is simple and gives you a road map to freedom from debt.

First, stop taking out more accounts. That only gives another credit card company access to your money. They can charge you membership fees and try to lure you with credit insurance. If you have three or more credit resources already, that is plenty.

Second, use short term offers wisely. If one of your existing accounts offers you a zero percent deal for a few months, transfer a small amount to that account. Then you can focus on paying off that transferred amount and see 100 percent of your payment go against the principle which is the fastest way out of debt.

Third, pick a card and pay it off. The card with the lowest balance might be the one you pay the least on so you can pay on the higher level debts. But if you pay that card off, that is one less bill coming in each month and it gives you a great feeling to know you are slowly killing off the monster of credit card debt one card at a time.

That brings us to the cornerstone of the inside out method. Instead of paying on the card with the highest interest rate, pay them the minimum payment and put your excess funds against the cards with the lowest rate. This way you are getting the most bang for your buck with the small amount of extra funds you may have to pay on the debt. That debt will go down more quickly and then you can attack the bigger accounts and begin to whittle away at them, too. By using a smart approach to the credit card debt you have. You take control of the problem and put it on a program to go away, and that will be the greatest feeling of them all.

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As the economy continues to be a challenge, everyday people like you and I find it difficult to keep up financially. This is especially true as credit bills begin to add up, plunging you into credit trouble. However, if you are not in trouble yet and able to start learning about the world of credit cards, there are a lot of things you can do to avoid credit card debt before it becomes a problem.

If you are just getting your first credit cards, learning the ropes early is an outstanding goal that can save you a lot of headaches later. Anyone who is battling tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt can tell you it can take years, if not decades, even under the best of conditions, to pay off the debt. And during that time, the thousands of dollars going down the drain to pay off the credit interest does not buy food, entertainment or clothes. It just goes away with no value to you at all.

But if you are new to the world of credit, getting a credit card is a good thing. However, once you get one, keeping it under control is vital. It is amazingly easy to use a credit card once it comes. In fact, the retail world makes it difficult to conduct many transactions any other way. You can pay for gas at the pump with a card and even use it to pay for groceries. But for all the convenience a credit card offers, you can have a whopper of a credit card bill at the end of the month. And if you don’t pay that bill off, it becomes the first step on a lifelong sentence in credit card debt jail.

In order to keep building your credit rating, which has real value to you, there are some guidelines you should follow to use credit responsibly. Remember, credit card companies do not tell you that making a charge on a credit card is a loan. Even if you just charge $10 to go to the movies, you took out an unsecured loan to finance that movie ticket.

So, keep in mind you will be paying back everything you charge once you start using a credit card. It is NOT free money. A good practice is to save every receipt every month and keep a running tally of what you have spent on credit. Not only can you use that to cross check the credit card statement each month, you can update your tally so you know for certain you will be able to pay it off when the bill comes.

Although the number one best way to keep credit problems under control is to pay off the credit card each month, it is not a bad idea to let a little bit of the debt drift from month to month. This builds your credit history and credit rating which will pay you well down the road when you want to buy a larger purchase. But staying on top of your credit, and what is going onto your card, you will start out with the kind of habits that will lead to a life of good credit use without credit card jail. And that is a wonderful gift to give yourself early in life.

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There is another level to what should be the purely financial problem of how to handle your credit card debt. That side has to do with the human toll that carrying that debt from month to month and year to year can have on a person and on a family. A family’s finances are at the core of what make the family work. The old joke goes “Money can’t buy happiness but it can rent it.” And while that’s cute, money and debt can make the difference between a family that is able to live peacefully within its means and one that is on the verge of disaster.

So when you sit down and decide that its time you took seriously the challenge of conquering your credit card debt, you have some battles to fight that are not just about interest rates and minimum payments. The truth is that none of us can face down something as overwhelming as a massive credit card debt if we just don’t think we can do it.

A person’s self confidence is rooted in the idea that he or she can and has had success at facing a challenge before. So we can take on a new challenge because you did it before and you can do it again. But when it comes to facing tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt, it’s possible you have never faced such an elusive enemy. It is an enemy that seems to want to swallow you up. And that can cause despair and make you just want to throw up your hands and give up.

So the question comes, when is the best time to panic? Well, you know the answer to that question is – NEVER! This is not just pie in the sky optimism talking here. There are some very pragmatic reasons that you should stubbornly refuse to panic no matter how bad the credit card debt threatens to get.

For one thing, if you are the responsible adult in the house whose job it is to handle the finances of the family, those people you love depend on you to guide your family out of messes. This is the job of a head of household so the last thing they want to see is for you to come unglued because of a few bills. So for the sake of the people you love, keep your head and keep looking for options and answers.

The other reason to not panic is that there is always something you can do. You can get another job or find another income source to keep paying those debts down. And as long as you can make the payments on any given month, there is hope the next month you will start to pull ahead. As long as you have your health and there are jobs to be had, you can work and get out of this mess. It might take some hard work but you can do it.

But even if you cannot work and the bills keep getting higher and higher, that is not a good reason to panic. You can renegotiate with lenders to get some control over the debt. You can use a credit consolation service to get your payments down and get on a schedule to pay them off over time. And at the very end of the spectrum of what you can do, there is bankruptcy. And as bad as that word sounds, bankruptcy is not the end of your world. Lots of people use it and come out the other side of it fine and ready to take on the world again.

So take some heart in the fact that you really are not doomed and there is always a way out of the mess you are in. It might take some looking, some creative thinking and some leadership to get there. But you can only find those resources inside yourself if you stubbornly refuse to panic.

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In this modern time where the economy has been such a challenge for everyday people like you and me to keep up, it’s easy to get into credit trouble when your credit bills begin to stack up. So if you are in the position to just start learning the ropes of the world of credit cards, there are a lot of things you can do to avoid credit card debt before it sneaks up on you and keep your nose clean, as they say.

This is an outstanding goal for you if you are just getting your first credit cards. If you know or talk to anyone who is battling tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt, you know what a jail sentence it can be. Once that credit card debt gets that high, the time it will take even under the best of conditions to bring it down runs into the years if not decades. And for all that time, thousands of dollars of money goes down the drain to credit interest that doesn’t buy you any food, tickets to the movies or new clothes. It just goes away with no value to you at all.

But if you are new to the world of credit, getting a credit card is a good thing. But once you get one, keeping it under control is job one. You will find it amazingly easy to use a credit card once it comes. In fact, the retail world makes it difficult to conduct transactions any other way. You can pay for gas at the pump that way and even charge your groceries at the grocery store. And while all of these great uses for credit are helpful, you can end up with a whopper of a credit card bill at the end of the month. And if you don’t pay that bill off, that is the first step on a lifelong jail term in credit card debt jail.

So there are some guidelines you should follow to both use credit responsibly but also to keep building your credit rating which has a real value to you. Remember that what the credit card companies don’t tell you is that making a charge on a credit card is a loan. Even if you just charge ten bucks to go to the movies, you took out an unsecured loan to finance that movie ticket.

So once you start using a credit card, keep in mind that you will be paying back everything you run up on it. It is NOT free money. A good practice is to save every receipt every month and keep a running tally of what you have spent on credit. Now only can you use that to cross check your credit card, it keeps you honest because each time you add a charge to your credit card, you can update your tally so you know for certain that you will be able to pay it off when the bill comes.

Paying off the credit card each month is the number one best way to keep your credit problems under control. Now it isn’t a bad idea to let a little bit of the debt drift from month to month. This builds your credit history and credit rating which will pay you well down the road when you want to buy a larger purchase. But by staying on top of your credit and what is going onto your card, you will start out with the kind of habits that will lead to a life of good credit use without credit card jail. And that is a wonderful gift to give yourself early in life.

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