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Things You Can Do to Get Out of Debt and Start Living a Debt-Free Life

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  • 4 minutes read
  • Sep 09, 2022

 

 

 

Sometimes, getting into debt is a necessary evil.  If you need to finance a car or education, for example, it’s often your only option.  The problem is that too many people let their debts get out of control.  The average American has over $6000 in credit card debt and owes additional thousands on student loans.  While these are some of the most common sources of debt among Americans today, there are others that you should be wary of when trying to manage your personal finances.  For example, car loan debt is growing faster than any other consumer debt due to low-interest rates and cheap financing.  While this can be good for the economy as it makes car ownership more affordable for more people, it also means that many new car owners find themselves underwater sooner than anticipated.

How to Pay Off Debt: Know Where Your Money Goes

The best way to pay off debt is to avoid getting into it in the first place.  This means understanding how much money you make and how much you spend.  The best way to do this is to keep a written record of your monthly expenses.  This doesn’t mean spending hours poring over your bank account but instead taking five or 10 minutes at the end of each month to write down what you spent.  You should also keep track of your income.  This will help you to identify any expenses that are unnecessary and can be cut.  You may be struggling due to a temporary increase in costs or a drop in income, and there are many short-term financial solutions for people who struggle with bad credit, where you can borrow money online.  It is always best to seek financial advice when taking out new credit, even in the short term.

Set a Debt Reduction Goal and Commit to It

If you have a lot of different types of debt, your first step should be to prioritize them based on interest rates.  Certain kinds of debt, like your mortgage and student loans, are generally considered good debt because they are low-risk and have low-interest rates.  Other types of debt, however, have much higher interest rates.  For example, most credit cards have interest rates between 12% and 29%.  This can add up quickly, especially if you don’t pay off your monthly balance.  For this reason, the first step when prioritizing your debt should be to pay off your credit card debt as quickly as possible.  This will save you money in the long run and help boost your credit score, which can be helpful when applying for new loans.

Take Advantage of Zero-Interest Credit Cards

Credit card companies make billions of dollars yearly from interest payments, which is why they quickly offer new customers a high-interest rate card.  Instead of taking on more debt to pay off your existing credit card bill, you can use a 0% balance transfer credit card to transfer your balance to a new card with a lower interest rate.  You’ll then have a set amount of time to pay the transferred debt off before the 0% interest ends, and you’re hit with a higher rate.  This is a great way to pay off your credit card debt quickly and save money on interest payments.  Be careful, though, because if you don’t pay off your debt within the time frame, you will be hit with the card’s higher interest rate.

Diversification: Don’t Just Save, Invest, Too

Many people are trying to get out of debt and focus exclusively on saving.  While this is essential to managing your personal finances, investing some of your money is also important.  Investing your money is essentially trading your hard-earned cash for a percentage of ownership in a company.  There are several ways to invest, many of which have low initial investment requirements.  Investing is also one of the easiest ways to make more money, and it can also help you to get out of debt faster if you use your investment earnings to make extra payments on your debt.

Conclusion

Debt is a part of life, but it doesn’t have to be your life.  By following the advice above, you can take control of your finances and start to pay off debt once and for all.  If you’ve been struggling to get out of debt, now is the time to make a change.  If you can commit to these steps, you can beat debt and start to live a debt-free life.

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