X

Top 5 Ways to Pay Down Debt

 

 

Do you have a lot of debts and you do not know where to get started to pay it off? If so, you are not alone. As a matter of fact, most people have thousands of dollars credit card debt based on a recent survey. If you are searching for some ways to pay down your debt, consider these following:

1. Try to Stop Borrowing Money and Be Wise with Your Financial Decisions

If you like to get out of debts quickly, you need to stop using debts to fund your lifestyle. It means no need for financing furniture, no test driving cars you do not have the money to pay for, and no signing up for the credit cards. This would help you concentrate solely on debts that you have currently so you could develop your own game plan when paying it off fast.

2. Make a Budget

Another step to solve your problems on debts is by establishing a budget. You may use some personal finance tools or make your own spreadsheet that includes your expenses and income. After that, scrutinize the budget categories for you to see where you could cut the costs. If you do not scale back your spending, you will dig yourself to a much deeper hole.

3. Stick to Your Budget

Making a budget that will help you track your expenses and income is important for you to get out of debts in a particular period of time. This would help you gauge where you’re with your finances so you could move forward to your goal. Making a budget will also expose whether you have some money left over or if you’re in deficit. The primary goal that you should take note is increasing your surplus and using the money for paying down your debts.

4. Organize Your Debt

It is important to map out a plan when you’re paying off your debts. There are some approaches that you can take for consideration. The first approach is where you list debts from small to large no matter what the interest rates are. It’s the method you can use for paying off your debts and for some people, this approach works because it enabled them to build momentum. Once they paid off their first debt, it would put wind to their sales. Although the interest rates of the debts are high, this will motivate you to do more to pay off your debt. Laddering is the second approach, which most people prefer since it will save you more money in the end. But, it does not really matter hat approach to consider, as long as you stick with it, you will be able to pay debts while saving more money.

5. Throw Excess Cash at Your Debts

When you’re getting out of your debts, there are some cases where extra money may fell in your laps that you hadn’t factor into your debt elimination. You can take that cash and use that when tackling your debts. A good example can be a tax refund. You can also win a bet, inheritance or sell a car. The more money you could put towards your debts, the faster it’ll disappear.

Melissa Clark: Melissa Clark is a personal finance reporter at Creditmergency. She has earned a master’s degree in business and economic reporting from New York University. Clark has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and grew up in Miami, Fl.
Related Post