• Lower your monthly payments
  • Reduce stress and live your life
  • Avoid personal bankruptcy court

Best Debt Reduction Tools

Reducing your debt is the key to a happier life. Success can be measured by how satisfied we are in our lives and finding financial freedom is an important step. It is one thing to want to do something and quite another thing to achieve it. Millions of people each year plan to reduce their debt but it can be overwhelming. There are a number of tools available to help you create a plan, manage debt, and continue to motivate you on your quest of becoming debt free. This article will highlight the best debt reduction tools. It is up to you to decide which program makes the most sense to you.

Best Debt Reduction Tools

  • ReadyforZero

This software is free and it provides you with charts, progress e-mails and a community forum. The charts are particularly ideal for those that like to see their goals laid out before them and the e-mails track our goal progress. The community forum will help you stay motivated and it is nice to chat with other people working towards similar goals.

  • The Debt Snowball Calculator

Dave Ramsey, of radio fame, is the creator of this program. This calculator is designed as a supplement to people who listen to the Dave Ramsey radio program. This calculator has a monthly fee of $7.49 but it offers a free test period. Enter all of your loans, credit cards and other debts including interest rates and it will provide you with a debt free calendar date. The “Payment Schedule” option will show you a chart with your payments for the next few months and years. The format of this program may be helpful to those who follow Ramsey’s plan and it is among one of the best debt reductions tools.

  • Goals with Mint

Mint is a popular program that many households use to track a budget. The Goals with Mint program option allows you to integrate your monthly finances with your personal financial goals. The Goals section can be customized or you can select saving for college, retirement, take a trip, buy a car, buy a home, improve my home, pay off loans, pay off debt or save for an emergency. This program allows you to link a checking, savings or credit card to the software and it will give you a debt-free date. This program is free with an established account from Mint.

  • CNN Debt Free Calculator

This free calculator offers you three choices; minimum monthly payment, debt-free deadline, or fixed monthly payments. This allows you to adjust the way that you pay your debt and calculates the date based on your selection. This program shows you the best way to re-pay your debt based on what you are capable of doing.

  • LearnVest

LearnVest is the best debt reduction tool for those of us who need a long term plan. The financial planners at LearnVest will help you choose a 5-year plan and design a target date for you to be debt free. This program is $19.00 a month and well worth it. Having a financial planner will force you to be accountable and the results will be nearly instantaneous.

  • Debt Eliminator by Suze Orman

This program is free and it works in a similar manner as the debt snowball plan. Suze Orman calls her plan the Debt Avalanche Method. After you have entered all of your credit cards, loans, interest rates and available funds into the system, it will formulate your plan. The Debt Avalanche method involves paying off high interest loans first and the minimums on other loans or credit cards. Once that is paid off, the leftover income will be used to pay off the next high interest debt until you are free of debt.

  • Unbury Me

This plan offers two program options; the snowball and the avalanche. These programs are the same as aforementioned. This free calculator that will provide you with a chart and a debt-free date once your entire loan, credit cards and interest rate information is put into the system.

The key to all of these programs is accountability and knowledge of your debt. It is important to understand debt in order to develop a comprehensive plan for becoming debt free. These are the best debt reduction tools available but no plan will work if you do not work the plan. I suggest trying the free programs first and then if you do not like those, invest in a monthly plan. A financial planner may be necessary to keep you on track and to help you understand debt and finances. Any fees paid to help you get out of debt should be considered investments in your future. Educating yourself in personal finance could lead you to a more fulfilled life. Perhaps you could prepare for a better retirement or take job risks. These things can be attained through the freedom of debt.

The Real Reasons You’ll Never Be Rich

You don’t need to have the highest paid job or to win big at bingo to become rich, it is possible that you can have this wealthy and live in a comfortable way if you follow some sensible financial advice. There are some reasons you’ll never be rich and you might be surprised at some of the ways that you can change your fortune around.

Reasons You’ll Never Be Rich

Making Changes

One of the easiest reasons to see is that you are spending too much of your income, you don’t need the latest gadgets each month to live a happy life. You need to make changes to the way that you budget your money. It is important that you can avoid the need of having your pay come in each week or month to be able to afford the next month’s living expenses, this is sometimes called living pay check to pay check and if you are budgeting in this way you are never going to become rich. This is the main reason you’ll never be rich.

The Changes Needed

If you want to avoid the negative connotation and want to remove the prediction that you can’t be rich then you need to learn how to stop living in the same ways as before. It is going to be difficult to change habits that you have developed but it is possible to change.

One main reason you’ll never be rich is so simple, you are spending too much money each and every month. If you are living beyond your means you are not alone, but if you want to be rich you need to cut back on the money that you haven’t got coming in because to use this money you will need to be paying interest, so you over spending increases to take into account of that interest payment that you will need to make.

You need to start looking at what you are spending your money on each month. Once you are aware of the areas that you money goes to you then need to consider the areas that you can cut back on, try writing out a budget and sticking to it. The idea being that at after you have budgeted you have money spare each month that you can use to save.

Saving Enough

If you want to avoid the reasons you’ll never be rich then you need to consider the amount that you are saving each month and the reason that you are saving this money. You need to put a large percentage of your money away, it is important that you consider the full implications of the money that you are saving, it is good to save for the next festive season, your next holiday but just as important is to save for your future. You need to have a minimum of 3 months money that will cover you in case your income is reduced. This money needs to be in a savings account that is instant access; it will ensure that there is sufficient money to live if you lost your job.

Having Too Much Debt

An obvious reason you’ll never be rich is if you owe too much money. Your creditors are making money on your spending habits, whether it is for a holiday or a new kitchen, it doesn’t matter if you have debt then you are not going to have the money which you can save and become wealthy.

You need to devise a plan to reduce the money that you owe so that the money that you have coming into the home is yours and not going to be making a beeline to your creditors pockets instead.

You might think that it is important to keep up with the latest items but in reality it is going to cost you more in interest payments. If you want an item, you are able to do something the old fashioned way and save for it. It might mean that you have to wait for the item, but you will quickly realize that there are times that you purchase an item that you don’t really need and can do without, and when you are saving for something you can quickly realize that it isn’t as important to have as you once thought.

To recap on the information above it is quickly evident on making chances can reduce the reasons you’ll never be rich.

  • Budgeting and getting the amount that you save higher each month
  • Reduce down your debt as quickly as possible to save on interest payments
  • Increase the savings that you have, and allocate them to different criteria.

Don’t give up on being able to be rich and know that you are free from living from pay check to pay check, but don’t give up working too early because retirement isn’t going to be great if you haven’t budgeted correctly for it.

The Small Ways to Get Out of Debt Free

get out of debt free

When a person is in debt it can sometimes feel like there is no way out of the overwhelming situation. The thoughts of how to get out of debt free can seem daunting. In order to reduce the stress and anxiety over debt is to know your situation and take steps to reduce your debt. One way to get out of debt free is to take each problem separately rather than being consumed with the big problem of debt.

Know Your Money

It is important that no matter your financial situation you know how you are spending your money. This is something that is accomplished through two things.

1.    Know the Facts

It can be a stress saving situation if you decide to know how you spend your money. Take all the money that you spend in a month and track it. Determine how much you are spending on things such as utilities, entertainment, transportation, and groceries. Be sure to account for everything, because knowing exactly where you spend your money is the first place to gain power over your getting out of debt free.

2.    Modify Your Behaviors

Another part of knowing your money is learning ways in which to decrease your expenditures. Take the list of places that you spend money and determine if there are ways that you can decrease how much you spend. In some cases to get out of debt free can be as simple as taking your lunch rather than purchasing lunch at work or carpooling to work.

Know Where to Focus

When trying to get out of debt free you think that you need to eliminate the debt. This can be difficult because all the debt is important to get rid of, so how can you know where to focus your funds. One can have many different types of debt and a rule of thumb is to pay off the highest interest rates first. However in some occasions if you have a balance that is low then it would be beneficial to get rid of that debt before moving on to the higher interest rates. You can try to reduce your interest through communication with your lenders. If reducing the interest isn’t an option through your creditors you need to look into other ways. Some of these ways may be transfer balance or consolidation loan that can reduce many of interest rates in to a single low interest debt.

Enough Income

It is important to understand that no matter how you choose to get out of debt free you will need to have the income to do it. There are times that one does not feel that they are making enough money to satisfy all of their needs. Sometimes we need to think about the little things that we can do in order earn some extra money.

  • Requesting a raise. Requesting a raise may be one of the ways that you can increase your income. Take on extra duties or extend your shifts, these might be options that could help to increase the money you have coming into the home.
  • Short-term freelance. If you don’t have the ability to increase your income through your full-time job, you might look into freelancing with companies that offer short-term jobs. Elance.com and oDesk.com are two sites that are like this. These sites offer the ability to be paid for jobs like writing, transcribing, designing, as well as many other jobs available.

Motivation Can Be Hard

Some people feel that while trying to get out of debt free you life is disrupted and might not be worth the challenges and modifications needed. Whenever you are trying to make a big change in life motivation can make or break the success. There are some basic things that can motivate us through life changes.

  • Family
  • Life goals
    • Education
    • Retirement
    • Family growth
    • Buying a home
  • Winning a challenge
  • Advancements

It is important that a person be willing to embrace the motivations that will help them get out of debt free. Use this to your advantage by creating things that can help you stay on track. This can be accomplished through checklists, or inspiration boards, or even a date to be debt free by. Any of these motivation tactics might help to self motivate you through the process of getting out of debt free.

It is important for one to see how it is possible to make small changes to simple problems that can help to change the entire outcome of your debt situation. Getting out of debt free can be one of the most complicated and stressful situations that you will ever be placed in, however with small steps you will be able to advance and succeed through the process of financial freedom.