My Debt Relief Plan

We all know the symptoms of stress: irritability, difficulty sleeping, tense or sore muscles, and depression are some of the most well-known effects. The first step to alleviating stress is to identify the sources. Let’s examine the link between stress and an all-too-common cause: debt.

Being in debt is literally like carrying a load on your back. Just as hauling around weight on your shoulders wears you out and causes pain, so does the ever-present knowledge that you owe lots of money. You know you are working not to prepare for the future, or to enjoy the present, but to pay for items and expenses that you enjoyed long ago. This feeling of working for something that isn’t even bringing joy or enhancing your life is depressing. Once you start to feel depressed, everything becomes more difficult. Finding the motivation to get up and do an honest day’s work becomes harder and harder. Satisfaction in a job well done becomes elusive. Soon you’re not enjoying your work anymore, or for that matter, any part of your life. It’s difficult to relax and enjoy off-time when the shadow of debt is looming.

When you’re in debt you receive constant reminders that your life is not yours to live. You receive bills in the mail daily. Your email inbox is full of credit card statements and notices of payments due. Perhaps the worst part about being in debt is the phone calls from creditors. They usually call in the evening, because most people are home in the evening. How many family meals or other activities are interrupted by phone calls asking when your past due payment will be made? This strategy of never letting you forget you owe money causes enormous stress for all family members. It’s like that weight you have on your back is not only getting heavier, but it’s spreading to your spouse and children as well.

Additionally, being in debt may cause us to feel out of control. No one likes to feel as though he or she is being manipulated by someone else and told how to spend earnings. Yet, the creditors have every right to request the money that they are owed. These conflicting truths further the stress you feel. You know that the only person responsible for your debt is you, and you wonder why and how you could have gotten yourself into such a situation. Knowing that you are to blame for your own troubles causes feelings of worthlessness. Stress and all these negative feelings that come with it make for a vicious cycle: blaming yourself makes you feel more depressed and hopeless, you dont have the motivation to work that you once did, you might turn to buying and spending as a way to temporarily feel better, you become further in debt and continue to blame yourself.

The only way to solve the problem is to realize that it will have to get worse before it gets better. Make a plan to discipline yourself and stop spending on anything that isn’t strictly necessary. It’s hard to explain to your children why they have to cut back on frills, and it’s hard to deprive yourself of things you enjoy, but it must be done. Next, make a strict plan for repaying all the debt you owe. If you can’t do this on your own, find a credit counseling agency that will help you to make repayment plans. Stick to your schedule! Keep telling yourself: it has to get worse before it can get better. Prepare to be uncomfortable and unhappy for awhile. Once you do, you’ll discover that before long, stress will begin to ease. When you find that you truly are in control of yourself and your obligations, you can see a light at the end of the tunnel. This is a tremendously freeing sensation. No one can make you spend more than you want to. Re-organize your priorities, and dont get sucked in by advertising and by a society that tells you what things you must own to be happy. You’ll begin to understand that living simply, and being grateful for health and family, are far more rewarding than acquiring stuff.

Debt causes stifling, debilitating stress, which in turn causes health problems, poor self-esteem, and the dizzying cycle of depression. Grabbing control of your debt will release you from stress and free you to live a meaningful life. Go grab control now!

The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments. Mad Magazine

The above quote is so true for a lot of us. How many of us have things in our homes that we bought because it was a good bargain and we could get it with credit cards? I raise my hand and now I’m trying to get my bills paid off, from buying on credit.

<strong>So I have come up with seven tips on how to pay off bills.

Make a budget: You don’t know what to pay if you don’t know what is coming in and going out. So the first thing to do is educate your self on your bills and money. Don’t forget to add in food, clothes,service bills.

Decide what bills to pay off first: Look at your credit cards. Take the one with the smallest amount and pay it off, then go to the next credit card with the lowest amount, but this time pay the amount you normally do, plus the amount that you were paying on the first card. Do this over and over till you get to the highest card, by this time you will be able to pay a large amount and get it paid off quickly. Don’t start using credit cards again. You will just get in the same rat race. Do you really need that?

Protect Yourself Be wary of credit counseling organizations that:

• charge high up-front or monthly fees for enrolling in credit counseling or a DMP.

• pressure you to make voluntary contributions, another name for fees.

• wont send you free information about the services they provide without requiring you to provide personal financial information, such as credit card account numbers, and balances.

• try to enroll you in a DMP without spending time reviewing your financial situation.

• offer to enroll you in a DMP without teaching you budgeting and money management skills.

• demand that you make payments into a DMP before your creditors have accepted you into the program.

Take a Part Time Job: Yes I know that we are overworked as it is, but couldn’t you find something that you could do on your off hours, baby sit, cook for others, walk dogs. There is so much you could do if you just set your mind to it.

Don’t go use credit cards unless you can pay them off when the bill come in.

Debt Consolidation: You may be able to lower your cost of credit by consolidating your debt through a second mortgage or a home equity line of credit. Remember that these loans require you to put up your home as collateral. If you cant make the payments or if your payments are late you could lose your home. Whats more, the costs of consolidation loans can add up. In addition to interest on the loans, you may have to pay points, with one point equal to one percent of the amount you borrow. Still, these loans may provide certain tax advantages that are not available with other kinds of credit.

Bankruptcy: Should be a last resort, because it is far reaching and seems to haunt you forever. Think very hard about this decision. There are other ways, even through they might seem harder.

So there is a light at the end of the tunnel and you can see it. Somebody ask the other day, what if it gets turned off? Thats a scary thought and I didn’t have an answer. Do You?