Often people who find themselves deeply in debt wonder how they got in such a bad financial situation. That is because life moves by quickly and all those little and big expenditures go by in the blink of an eye. Anyone who has ever seen a product they REALLY want, and think they REALLY have to have, experiences this pattern;

First we see the product, item, thing, that we really want and MUST have. Then we think about it all the time. We think that the item, trip, or investment is going to make us have more fun, be more complete, even make ourselves happy.

The actual activity of shopping for, choosing, picking out, or imagining ownership, it the most fun you will likely ever have in relation to the item. Once the high of buying is over, it’s just simply a thing or an event that has come and gone. Your mind is now on to something else. This is why I always suggest that people find hobbies and “things to do” that don’t cost money. When you can experience fun and excitement without spending a dime, you will soon see your bottom line improving dramatically.

Getting High On The Buy

Compulsive shoppers are not getting high with ownership – they’re getting high on the buy. They’re excited and feel ALIVE when they are thinking about buying something, and when the rush is over, they are very quickly on to the next item up for bid.

If you can learn to enjoy your day, be “happy” simply living a cost-free life, you will feel much better. Your bank balance will come into line and you will be on your way to being debt free.

You will likely have to take out a debt consolidation loan to pool all your debts into one monthly payment, but if you follow my advice above, over time your debt will be gone and you won’t be building any more debt. This can be done, but it means making a lifestyle change. You CAN do it.

If you a have a living partner that is still on the spending spree then you are hooped. Make sure you get your family in on the changes and stop the bleeding (the debt creation game). This can cause some problems if your spouse andor children are steadfast in the mindset of “more is better”. You will have to try and guide your family towards a different lifestyle. You may think this impossible, but it’s not.

Take your family to places and activities that don’t cost you a penny. Take them for walks, take them to the lake, take them away from the malls and the stores and the TV set. The more TV you watch, the more you are likely to spend. The TV is nothing but mass marketing in steroids.

I know you have heard all this before, but when you become aware, and help your family become aware, you giving them the greatest gift of all – a life without bad debt and worry.

It’s very important that you look after this while the interest rates a really low. They won’t stay low for long so jump on it while you can. We have been seeing thousands of our visitors each month get approved for a low interest debt consolidation loan. Some people who are way out of control in their personal spending have gone the debt settlement route as well.

Debt settlement is a smart thing to do to avoid personal bankruptcy. If it looks like you won’t be in the position much longer to make your monthly payments then a debt settlement is the answer if you want to avoid personal bankruptcy.

Personally, I was close to having to claim personal bankruptcy at one time in my life and I went the debt settlement route. It paid off in spades as I had a lawyer (or trustee) negotiate a debt settlement with all of my creditors. I ended up paying only 35 cents on the dollar with most of the my creditors and I avoided bankruptcy all together. Unfortunately at the time, the interest rates for debt consolidation were quite high.

Now is the time to get your debts under control. I would have been REALLY lucky if I had settled all my debts at the interest rates available in the spring of 2009.

We have few page on the WOF that deal with debt consolidation. Click here for general information on debt consolidation, or click here for an article all about debt consolidation.

One of things you MUST avoid is not looking after your creditors in some way or another. If you let this slide (and it’s easy to do) you will regret it. It’s nothing to be afraid of folks – you will be fine and you can save your credit rating. A debt settlement will affect your credit rating, but not nearly as bad as a full blown bankruptcy.

Take it from someone knows what they are talking about here. Suck it up and get going on it. All the best to you and your family.

Get a free credit report, a credit score and a debt analysis, all on your desktop in seconds, click here

Many of us have overextended ourselves during the Christmas season and we are trying to get rid of all our debt as soon as possible. With the state of the economy and the United States right now even more people than usual are trying to get out from underneath their debt in January.

2009 will be an interesting year for people try to get their personal finances in order. The first thing you need to do is have a hard look at all of your debt and make a list of your goals. Some folks don’t even know how much debt they really have until they make that uncomfortable journey into their bank accounts, Visa balances, MasterCard balances, and department store credit card balances.

I know firsthand that even looking at our true account balances is sometimes something I want to avoid for fear that our debt is that far of hand. We need to avoid detaching ourselves from are true financial state. We need to sit down with a piece of paper and a calculator and figure out our true debt – and then try and come up with a plan to pay it all off.

Debt consolidation is a valid method of reducing our monthly payments and our true debt. Once you have calculated all of your bad debt you can go to a local bank (or perhaps search online) for debt consolidation loan which wraps up all of our creditors into one big ball and creates a smaller monthly payment.

You can even go as far as finding some sort of settlement whereby you pay back a certain amount on the dollar ($25,000 instead of $50,000).

Some consumers think that getting a debt settlement will hurt their credit rating and of course they are right, but the decision not to seek out a debt settlement is far worse than getting one. There is a certain point when you have to face reality and get your financial house in order.

There are so many things that we don’t need a daily basis that we spend money on and if we could get our spending under control and learn to have fun on the cheap we would soon be our way to having a balanced financial spreadsheet. It just takes some tough decisions, or some tough lifestyle changes.

Once you have made an appointment with the trustee or an attorney they will soon alert all of the creditors you’ll money to that you are the process of a consumer settlement. This will immediately stop all of the bill collectors and collection agencies who are filling your mailbox, your e-mail box, and your answering machine with nasty messages. This will be a huge relief for you and I encourage you to make an appointment with the trustee or attorney if you’re spending has become out of control.

You want to make the best of 2009 and start slowly to change your spending habits and develop a lifestyle that is realistic as compared to your monthly income.

Do not think for a minute that your lifestyle will have to go into a slump for ever, because if you are willing to work for you can find a new job that pays better or perhaps start your own little business to increase the streams of income coming into your family household. Why not try to make a small business your hobby instead of a hobby the cost you money.

Honorably and ethically rid yourself of burdensome debts using the little known Negotiation Strategy, without having to experience the loss of control and privacy associated with filing for bankruptcy, consolidation, or credit counseling.

Like you, many people continue making their minimum monthly payments believing that they are making progress. They are living in a state of denial saying “Someday, somehow, something will happen. Things will get better, and my debt problem will be gone.” Then years go by and they only find themselves in a downward spiral getting nowhere. They have paid their creditors thousands of dollars but their debt load never gets lighter. For example, if you were to continue making minimum payments on a $9,000 debt, and not add any more debt, it will take you over 10 years to pay it off. You will end up spending many thousands more than the original amount and 80% of the money paid will have gone to interest and fees. Most people add more debt as they go, so the reality is this – Without an aggressive approach to terminating debt once and for all, you will NEVER get rid of debt.

If you are one of the millions of Americans burdened with debt and have trouble making those never-ending monthly payments, help is available. You don’t need to go it alone. If you are a typical American family, you have $25,000-$30,000 worth of credit card debt (excluding mortgages, car loans, and student loan payments), and you’re paying $500 to $900 every month in endless minimum payments.

Today, people have options. There are four strategies for dealing with problem debt you will see advertised: Debt Consolidation, Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCC), Bankruptcy, and Debt Negotiation. Each strategy must be considered carefully!

Debt Consolidation:

Unfortunately debt consolidation is the most common solution people think of when they fall victim to financial problems. It is a sad fact that about 75% of people who consolidate their debt find themselves in much deeper financial trouble than they were in to begin with. All consolidation loans do is transfer debt from one place to another and is invariably a short term fix with long term pain. A debt consolidation loan will not reduce the amount you owe. You will still pay back 100% of the loan plus interest. This is not going to get you out of trouble and most of the time will only make things worse. Again, consolidation is not a plan to get out of debt but is instead just getting new debt to pay off old debt.

If you were to decide to consolidate, you would need to qualify first. Qualifications include equity in a home you own or other valuable, good credit and debt to income ratio. Most people burdened by debt find that even if they wanted to consolidate their debt they couldn’t qualify for the loan anyway. Once you have taken out this loan, you have just gone from an unsecured debt to a secured debt – and gambling with all your assets. Consolidation loans are spread out over a 15 – 30 year period, leaving you exposed to losing your assets over the life of the loan. If you run into further difficulty in the future you stand to lose your home, car, and valuables.

The fundamental problem that people run into is that once the debts are paid off by the loan, they discover they have a new line of spending potential: empty credit cards. It’s not long after these accounts are cleared that they are run up to the limit once again. This will leave you with both the consolidation loan and maxed out credit cards to repay. How are you going to repay the loan and the credit cards when you were unable to pay the previous debt in the first place? You will find yourself back in the bank for a second consolidation loan, extending your debt and making your debt problem even worse.

Bear in mind that being in debt leaves you with less cash you need to buy and plan for life’s necessities. Although a consolidation loan may give you a lower payment and a little more breathing room, consolidation is not going to leave you with the cash to get you and your family through the next 10 to 30 years.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services:

Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCC) programs have a failure rate of 85%. They simply aren’t effective. Here’s why; you meet with a counselor who analyzes your monthly budget. The counselor will submit a proposal to your creditors for a reduction in the interest rates. You would then pay a monthly payment to them and they would then distribute that monthly payment to your creditors. These programs generally take 5-7 years to complete. The theory here is that your overall payment per month is lower due to the counselor’s success at obtaining lower interest rates and more favorable terms with the credit card companies and banks. This approach is most often recommended by the banks themselves.

Here are the facts: CCC Services were created in the late 1970’s when credit card and loan companies began to notice that many people were having problems making their minimum payments and defaulting on their debt. In short, the so-called “non-profit” companies are owned by the credit card companies and banks! CCC agencies are funded by commission by the credit card companies based on the debt recovered from you, normally around 12 – 15%. This means that for every $1,000 you give them, they can take as much as $150. If you’re paying them a service fee of $20 per month, and the creditors are paying them $75, you can quickly see that CCC agencies are not working for you but for the creditors.

In addition, you have no insight into what the CCC agency is doing on your behalf and no control over the repayment process. They send in their single monthly payment, with no idea of how much is going to which creditor. Since most counselors are busy people who work based on high volume, getting a return phone call can be difficult.

It’s key to know that with CCC programs, you still pay 100% of the debt plus a lower interest rate. The debt you walk in the CCC is what you walk out with. With all things considered, it works out to be about the same as your current minimum payments.

Bankruptcy:

Today more people than ever are turning to personal bankruptcy as a way of solving their financial problems. Estimates indicate that 2003 will see nearly 1 in 70 Americans filing for bankruptcy. People owing as little as $5,000 are unknowingly filing, not knowing of alternative methods of eliminating their debt. The reason people take this hasty action with such a low debt amount is the harassment and overwhelming pressure from impatient collectors trying to recover their money. In the case of Consumer Credit Counseling agencies, once they find that they are unable or unwilling to help, they will suggest bankruptcy as the answer – unconcerned of the effect it will have on your future.

In bankruptcy, a court order forces all commercial creditors to cease and desist from attempting to collect the debts you owe them. Depending on the bankruptcy declared (Chapter 7 or 13), it stops wage garnishment, reverses judgments, and generally wipes out debt.

For some people, bankruptcy is the only sensible option. If you have $60,000 in debts, and you’ll never earn more than $1,200 per month, then you’re broke! The sooner you eliminate the debt, the sooner you’ll have a fresh start. With more than 1.4 million bankruptcy filings in 2000, Congress is passing legislation that will make it tougher to declare bankruptcy.

In bankruptcy, certain personal property is treated as exempt. The banks and creditors cannot touch that property in attempting to recover the money owed to them. Your home, car and other personal effects like clothing, and other assets are considered exempt, but this varies from state to state. Any property that is not exempt is liquidated and distributed to the creditors under the supervision of the court. Since most people entering bankruptcy have only exempt property anyway, there’s usually nothing left to distribute, so the creditors typically get nothing.

Seems like a good deal? Many people mistakenly see bankruptcy as a good, low cost way to rid themselves of debt. There are other costs associated with bankruptcy that make it a very bad solution for most people. The cost of filing bankruptcy itself is minimal. Depending on what state you live in, you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 on up to $1,600 for the whole process. That’s just the beginning. The bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for 10 years – and on your court records for 20 years. The seemingly “low cost” method will cost you dearly as it will follow you for the rest of your life. If you ever apply for a loan, job, apartment or insurance, one of the first questions normally asked is “Have you ever filed for bankruptcy?” And, for the rest of your life, you’ll have to answer “Yes.”

You might be able to eliminate your debt, but the effects emotionally and the effect on your personal life will last for many years to come. Consider applying for a terrific job after you have filed bankruptcy. These days, employers will run a credit report to determine how you faired financially. This will effect whether the employer will give you that dream job or not. Even if you do get the job and your employer later runs a credit report on you, you will still have to explain the bankruptcy. While employers can’t fire you because of a bad credit report, they can certainly limit your future promotions.

Future purchases are affected as well; after several years, you may opt to purchase a home. If you’re in sufficient shape at that point to qualify for a mortgage, you’ll pay a higher interest rate than the average consumer who has never filed for bankruptcy. Assume you want to purchase a $100,000 house a few years after filing bankruptcy. You make a $10,000 down payment. This will result in applying for an $80,000 mortgage. While your “good credit” neighbor would obtain an interest rate of 4.5%, you would get a rate of 7%. While it seems that the extra 2.5% difference is not bad for having filed bankruptcy in the past, it’s what you will pay monthly where you will feel the pinch. That extra 2.5% on a mortgage will increase your monthly payment by $200 per month with the total of your payments reaching more than $70,000 over the 30-year life of the mortgage.

Besides being a devastating blow to your credit, a bankruptcy can also be a very stressful and embarrassing decision to continually have to explain to every potential lender. If you have no choice, then you should proceed, understanding the consequences. However, the majority of people who take this method of debt elimination don’t know what they’re getting themselves into or the consequences thereafter. They are desperate, and they get talked into filing bankruptcy by the collectors or attorney without understanding the impact on their financial future.

Keep in mind that personal bankruptcies are usually unnecessary as there are better options available. Many people are forced, against their wishes, to file bankruptcy to protect themselves from aggressive creditor tactics or attorney. Ultimately, bankruptcy still means failure to employers and creditors.

Debt Negotiation – Light at the End of the Tunnel:

Few people realize that there is another solution to burdensome debt, an approach that levels the playing field between you and your creditors, without having to go to court. The debt negotiation strategy will put you back on the road to financial freedom and in control of your life again.

The Negotiation Strategy allows you to turn that $25,000 of credit card debt into $12,500 or even as little as $9,000. In most cases, our clients have debts totaling $8,000 and have successfully saved them thousands while maintaining a reasonable credit rating. With a professional debt negotiator working for you, your debt can be cut in half or less.

How it works: Put yourself in the shoes of a manager of a collection department for a major credit card company. You know that bankruptcies are at an all-time high and that the chances of collecting on the outstanding debt worsen as the debt ages. You have the opportunity to close your books on a delinquent account by collecting 50 pennies for every dollar owed by the debtor, or take a chance on never collecting a single penny by trying to hold out for the full value. You also realize that once the debt leaves your bank (usually after six months or so), it will go to a third-party collection agency. The agency will take at least 15%-20% commission right off the top of whatever they collect, and they are unlikely to collect more than 70% of the debt even with the most aggressive tactics. So you’ll probably never retrieve much more than half the money anyway. When you look at it this way, collecting 50% now doesn’t seem like such a bad deal.

The way it’s described, it sounds easy. You might be thinking, “I’ll the collectors and do this myself.” You’ll reach the “customer service team” and the representative will inform you that other banks may settle for 50%, but their bank never settles under any circumstances. Of course, they do have that “great” hardship program for you. After you’ve called a few times and received the same treatment, you’ll probably end up with the idea that debt negotiation doesn’t work. The banks will rarely take a debtor seriously. They simply don’t believe you and they think your hardship story is phony. The banks are quite prepared for the amateur do-it-yourself negotiator. They have the telephone scripts set up so that by the time the conversation is over, you will feel guilty about the money owed, and their lame hardship plan sounds like a great deal after all.

Having a third-party professional on your side makes all the difference in the world. Once your creditors realize that they are talking to a professional, someone who knows the laws and regulations, they quickly change their tune. A negotiator will obtain better results than you could ever obtain on your own, simply because all of the bank’s tactics are stymied by the fact that they can’t talk directly to you. They can’t apply psychological pressure to you since this is filtered out by your Professional Debt Negotiator.

Consider this: Creditors pull out all the stops when you fall behind. They have gangs of collectors ready to pressure you with carefully scripted techniques and mind games. They have attorneys and collection agencies ready to step in and go after you full throttle. You need to level the playing field. The best and only way you can concentrate on improving your financial future is to let a professional deal with the aggravation of the nonstop phone calls. Bottom line – If you’re looking for the most effective, low-cost, and fastest way to terminate your debt problem once and for all – Negotiation is the answer.

About The Author:

Drakeport Financial will host a free Debt Management Seminar for people who wish to correct existing debt problems or avoid the possibility of such problems developing in the future. Seminars are held Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 a.m. at locations throughout the United States. Call Drakeport Financial today toll free at 866-676-4945 for more information. You may also visit the website: www.drakeport.com

I declared personal bankruptcy once in my life due to overwhelming debt problems, so I know the tortures of money problems and rude bill collectors. It seemed that I was having more conversations with collection agency staff than with my own family and co-workers. It’s extremely demoralizing to have some of these nasty people tell you that you’re a pathetic dead-beat. After awhile you start to know them all by name, and you can actually have some fun with them. I asked them questions like, “how can you work a job like the one you have”, or “did you know that everyday you do that job you are creating bad karma for yourself”. Anyway….I know what it’s like to have debt problems, and I know what it’s like to lose it all.

This series will focus on the day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year aspect of keeping a balanced budget, at the same time paying down your current debt load. These debt reduction ideas will touch on;

• ways to make extra money without over-taxing yourself
• ways to make sure extra money goes to the right place
• what to do with any savings you have
• what to do if you are way over your head
• when to consider bankruptcy
• ways to avoid ever getting deep in debt again
• the difference between good and bad debt

So I’ll look forward to getting down to work on the laptop Monday, and we’ll get this debt thang under control. Before I go, here is a nice little piece on Debt Reduction over at www.savingadvice.com

Bev