Struggling with Debt? Debt Advice On the internet can help solve your debt problems with solutions such as Debt management and IVAs. Try our free Debt Test …

So I am thinking debt management or debt consolodation would work better then bankruptcy, but my husband did debt consolodation about 5 years ago, and we were told it looks as bad as a bankruptcy. It actually negatively effects your credit. Is this true with all the companies?

Consumer and personal debt is, perhaps, the number one problem facing most American families this day. The reasons behind the tremendous surge in debt have been related to emerging socio-economic patterns suggesting that we’ve become a nation obsessed with lifestyles and consumerism.

 

America has always been a nation of consumers and the American people have always enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world. Something else has contributed to this national crisis.

 

What has changed in the last several decades is that we have developed very sophisticated technology to acquire debt. Debt acquisition is as close as your cell phone or personal personal and can be accomplished in a matter of seconds.

 

However, we have been slow in developing such sophisticated systems to manage that debt at the consumer level. We have been the victims of a technological gap between debt acquisition and debt reduction.

 

If you do not manage your debt, it will manage you. Or more precisely, your creditors will manage your debt for you and they will, of course, manage it in a way that is most favorable to them, not necessarily you.

 

At the consumer level, we tend to keep our debts separated, divided, and isolated in separate accounts, making it impractical, until recently, to strategically manage that debt.

 

Automated debt management systems have been in use by banks, insurance companies, and other institutions as needed to maintain cash reserve stipulations but, until recently, have not been available at the consumer level due to the cost of developing and supporting these specialized cash flow management systems.

 

Many people in other parts of the world have had access to various debt reduction systems. In this country, however, it is a relatively new opportunity to systematically manage our personal and consumer debt. We now have access to inexpensive technology to manage our debt rather than allowing it to manage us.

 

First, let me explain what a modern debt management system is not.

 

It is not a set of instructions or a “How To…” book available from a variety of well intentioned sources which simply overstate the obvious; instructing us to “stop spending so much money”, or “cut up our credit cards”. It is not a “makeover” system which painfully rearranges our daily spending patterns.

 

It is not a static spreadsheet or plan for debt reduction which does not think about our day to day personal financial circumstances.

 

It does not involve the refinancing of existing debt or consolidating smaller short term debts into larger long term debts. It is not a self administered or pre-calculated repayment acceleration plan. It does not involve negotiating with your creditors or any means of debt reduction which avoids the repayment of legitimate debt on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

 

Just like the bank model, modern debt management systems are integrated with your daily and monthly financial transactions. They are dynamic. Modern debt management systems have the capability to analyze and manage all of your debt, including your mortgage debt, side by side in a single environment and make strategic adjustments based on your daily or monthly cash flow.

 

A modern debt management system is programmed for liquidity. Liquidity is to debt what water is to fire. If you have an abundance of liquidity, you could be out of debt in very short order. On the other hand, if you have a shortage of liquidity, it could take decades to get out of debt.

 

A modern debt management system focuses on ways to harness current liquidity and seeks to fully develop your potential future liquidity. It utilizes that liquidity to systematically eliminate debt. It can develop multiple sources of liquidity and utilize that liquidity as leverage against debt.

 

Because of the importance of liquidity, modern and effective debt management and debt reduction systems are fully integrated with your current monthly income and expense cash flows. That is not to state that increasing your income and/or reducing your expenses is a requisite. A good debt management system takes advantage of existing cash flow, not necessarily changing it.

 

A modern debt management system is relatively painless to follow and does not require significant changes to your established spending patterns. It can be set to aggressively pay down debt, to maintain a certain level of debt but reduce the carrying cost, or fund a retirement or college savings plan.

 

Today’s sophisticated, versatile, and effective debt management systems are not inexpensive. However, in terms of future interest savings, they can make up the cost of the system in the first few months of use and, over time, produce interest savings in excess of the total amount of current and future debt.

 

An inexpensive or do-it-yourself system is probably not a good substitute. While you might be able to redirect some liquidity and do some good, you would not be able to recreate the integrated mathematical algorithms which drive a more sophisticated system producing the best possible results.

 

 

Any current financial plan worth its’ weight in paper should address both sides of the balance sheet and include a modern debt management system.

 

 

David Haslett is Senior National Director of the Freedom Equity Group. To discover how modern debt management technology can help you pay off your mortgage and other debt, go to: http://www.fastestmortgagepayoffplan.com

 

 

I would like to hear from people who have specifically used Take Charge America.org for reducing their debt. I would like to know if they were reliable, helpful, on the up-and-up or do you feel like you got scammed. THANKS!

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR DEBTS: BUDGET MANAGEMENT FOR DEBT MANAGING

(Based on author’s site www.geocities.com/dbtshw)

Creditors could use you and your family at pleasure for 60 days, at one time, then keep or sell you to another at auction as slaves!..

Many in debt do not know how to avoid or ease the pain of innocence of debt management…

But credits we need and that is a considerable problem to many who have no or tiny knowledge of debt management.

Advice on managing debt problems is often source-specific, not of general use ~psychology, politics, law, commerce, each, advises from its own perspective -in practice one needs in all respect relevant basic advice in coping with debt.

The following seeks to combine these ~it is easy to learn how to manage debt, cope with it, and then avoid debt and problems -here is how:-

>> First, know these –it helps manage your debt, and do not panic if civil debts are causing you anxiety –there are ways of managing debt.

1. Normally you might not be imprisoned for debts unless concealing funds -you may complain to the police if the creditor harasses or tells your employer…

2. Creditors might not repossess goods you have bought on credit or by loan -unless hire purchase goods of which remains unpaid still a portion of it specified generally by law yet…

3. If you think that the price was extortionate you can take the creditor to court -if you can show so the court may reduce your debt and you owe less…

4. Creditors must show that help in debt management, in paying your debt was considered ~many accept small regular payments if realistic -some might freeze the interest on the debt…

5. If a creditor sells your debt to a non-bona-fide party you might select not to deal with other than the creditor’s own staff or lawyers in respect of that debt… Indeed the creditor having by such sale of your debt lost title to it, you might be able lawfully to deem your debt erased if you can show the party to whom it has been sold not to be a bona-fide celebration.

6. Debts up to sums specified by law may be arbitrated at courts, often at no cost -if you need it free legal representation may be available…

7. If you lose in court, repaying the debt in time given you by law protects and keeps your credit rating from being adversely affected…

8. If you can not manage to repay a debt and worse comes to worst, you may ask the court to pay by instalments or, if you can satisfy that you will be able to manage the debt and keep up with them, by lower instalments -if circumstances change or you can not manage the instalment you may ask again to give you more time or lower the instalment more…

9. If you can’t manage debt repayments and bailiffs got involved, lawfully may not be confiscated any essentials -e.g., beds, bedding, clothes, cookers, tables, chairs (or anything that you may need to continue earning your living)…

(Also, beware: administrative or clerical errors are known to have resulted in the form of demand for bailiff notice fee and under payment of seizure of goods for credit amounts –i.e. if one has overpaid by additional instalment and the credit balance has been mistaken for short payment.)

10. Credit agencies by law must give you details of your credit rating, and if you have been successful in managing your debt after a judgment against you and have satisfied it, credit rating agencies must correct their records.

(Laws to do with debt vary among countries and states –it helps to enquire)

>> Second, do the following: if you need to budget differently and fear that you might not manage to repay debts as expected, ensure to contact your creditors for more time or lower instalments.

1. Work out your net income –debt management begins with knowing what you have regularly coming in…

2. Work out your essential outgoings -rent, mortgage, electricity, gas, food, toiletry, child-care, telephone, fares, car, in Britain the television license fee, and the like…

3. Calculate your disposable income -what’s left for other things…

4. Trying not to upset your budget for essentials, see what you can offer who…

5. Write to your creditors and explain your circumstances and the above and make an offer, e.g., time-wise, or instalments-wise ~keep duplicates of all letters, records of payments -and where sent.

(If taken to court you will need to show all of the details above ~if you can not sort these out, you may ask the county court to do so for you -that is not bankruptcy but last-resort administration: it is the court managing you debt by way of you regularly paying to the court what it decides -for all of your creditors, for the court to pay each creditor separately on your behalf)

>> At the meanwhile, and later, you need to budget, to manage not to get into debt… You do not want your home or valuables sold, nor your employer ordered to deduct from your pay ~nor the worry, the anxiety affecting your wellbeing.

(A branch of humanistic psychology, indeed, thinks about financial wellbeing to be a basic essential to one’s proper functioning.)

There is a way to avoid such risks…

Change your money habits -this is not so difficult to do…

If you often have debts or debt management problems, list them, look for a pattern…

You may be compulsive

(A test advertisement in an experiment by the New York Times offered “nothing” for $1.- -many responded, most of the sent money and ordered it).

You might not be adequately money conscious -money goes, you do not know how or where…

You may be insufficiently organized, overlooking, delaying and allowing repayments to accumulate (delayed instalments might add to any interest payable, and might involve a charge)…

You might be panicky in debt management ~running to ‘loan-sharks’ and trying to manage and repay your debts by debts by loans to be repaid themselves, for ever paying the interest on them –with interest charged on interest too and often amounting to several times what you borrowed.

(If you do need to borrow, think about joining a credit union ~their loans are interest free.)

There is a tried, tested and proven psychological technique to help manage your debts and become debt-free…

The rewards awareness technique ~it is not difficult and works in managing your debts by overcoming the negativity opposing changing your money habits.

Keep a daily record of what you spent, what is left, if you wasted or could have saved.

Be conscious, especially, of what you could have saved but wasted -and haw the waste accumulates and what it adds up to ~it is important in managing debt, changing money habits

(This, in experiments carried out, not only with group support, but also at lone individual level, it has been enormously, and popularly as to the ease of getting into the habit of it, successful).

Think of this: It will constantly keep you aware of your income and out-goings -habitually ~it will enable you to manage your debts and make free of debt problems and risks involved in debt.

This is as much a budget management technique as a debt management and essential.

I will also boost your self respect and the pride and confidence in yourself to show to yourself and those around you that you can be, are, in charge of your money affairs more, better and easier.

It is also fun ~give it a try -do try it.

The author has a website at: http://www.geocities.com/eoa_uk