The simple truth about getting debt free
Revealed by a Debt Expert's Personal & Professional Coach...
I first met Jeanna about 6 years ago when I attended a "CASH FLOW 101 Event" in the Bay Area (Northern California). She amazed me, facilitating "financial learning" for a room full of people who came to learn "How to Get Out of the Rat Race". You could feel the level of financial intelligence rising in the room! I enjoyed the ... Read debt consolidation article
Debt consolidation or bankruptcy - Chose your option wisely
Over the last decade Americans have accumulated excessive amounts of debt. Partially fueled by low interest rates and increased equity on houses due to real estate markets driving prices high up. Excessive spending and no financial responsibility often lead to bankruptcy of consumers. Now with the new bankruptcy law in place filing for bankruptcy has become much more difficult and much more expens... Read debt consolidation article
Joining a Consumer Credit Counseling Service for Debt Relief and Financial Freedom
Do You Need to Join a CCCS - Consumer Credit Counseling Service?
Are you in a "debt hell"? If you are unsure, ask yourself these questions:
Do you have bill collectors calling you and home and at work, leaving annoying messages?
Are you afraid to open the door in the morning because you are afraid that the Sheriff's office has left a court goody for you?
When the phone rings, do you get butterflies in your stomach?
If you answer the phone and it's a bill collector, when they ask for you, do you reply "He/She's not in right now", or even just pick up the phone and then hang it up without saying who is on the other end?
Do you go for days on end without checking the mail because there are only bills there?
When you finally do get the mail, do you just throw it in some random location for weeks or even months without ever opening it?
Are you paying one credit card company's bill with another credit card?
Are your credit cards riddled with over the credit limit and late fees?
Do you only receive high interest credit card offers?
Have you applied for credit cards or car loans and been told that you had been denied because of bad credit?
Does your credit report show a lot of late payments, charge-offs, bad debt, 30 60 90 or 120 days late entries listed?
Does filing bankruptcy seem like your only way out?
If you related to at least two of those items, chances are you would benefit from a consumer credit counseling service.
Believe me, I know what you are going through. I was in this situation. I had recently moved from a large metropolitan area with decent pay, to a smaller area where the cost of living was almost just as high, and had to take almost a $20K paycut. On top of that, I just had a baby and was a single-mom to boot.
I had to "live", and with a $20K cut, it didn't leave me with a choice (or so I thought) other than to not pay bills and get the things I needed (baby formula, diapers, etc.). Let me tell you, I was depressed. I didn't open my bills for months at a time. The phone would ring every morning staring from 8 am and continued until 9 pm at night. Bill collectors would call me at work and leave messages with their 800 numbers with co-workers if I wasn't there. It was so embarrassing. I went on like this for about a year before I finally decided to find that I had to do something.
I had seen ads on TV for debt consolidation and consumer credit counselor services CCCS offering freedom from financial worries and the opportunity to gain your life and dignity back, but for some reason, didn't take the plunge. One day I was talking with a friend and they told me how they had joined Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) and they were very relieved and financially stress free. CCCS was able to contact all of the creditors that they had credit card balances with and was able to either reduce their credit card interest to interest rates that were one digit and in some cases down to 0% interest! Consumer Credit Counseling Services was also able to eliminate most of their late fees and over the credit limit fees so that when they made payments, it went directly to their credit card balances and helped them pay it off their debt quicker.
All of this information was exciting and sounded very promising to me, and now I had someone that I knew telling me how it worked for them, so it became much more realistic. I searched the yellow pages for the credit counseling agencies and the found my local branch of Consumer Credit Counseling Services. I called them up, made an appointment and went in. I was assigned a counselor and met with her for about an hour. When I walked out, I had a huge sense of relief. I was setup with a plan of action for how my debt was going to be blasted away. I was assured that the annoying and harassing debt collection phone calls were going to cease. I was only going to have to concern myself with making one payment to my local CCCS office, and they would take care of the hassle of sending all of the credit card payments out to my other creditors. In two years, I was going to be debt free.
If you are in a similar situation, I urge you to look into consumer credit counseling services. They can get you back on track, reduce your stress, improve life for you and your family and change your life overall for the better.
Christina Khan has experienced first hand the benefits of joining a consumer credit counseling service organization. She runs a consumer credit counseling service CCCS blog where she and others can share their experiences and offer advice on consumer credit counseling services. You can find her credit counseling debt relief blog at cccs-credit-counseling.blogspot.com.
Still living from pay to pay? Or envying those great wealth accumulators and wondering how they did it? Every month you make a resolution of saving some dollars from your paycheck, but only end up breaking it. Looking for some magic formula for saving money?
Well, there's no magic formula - only some simple rules to be followed with determination and persistence.
Have you ever taken consumer credit the credit used for personal finance? If not, then that's where you're lacking. Those wealth grabbers, who are the subject of your envy, have smartly used the borrowed money and became rich. They didn't hesitate in taking credit, and considered it as a valuable financial asset.
Credit is not something bad. On the contrary, it makes your life convenient and prevents you from falling in a tight spot. Yes, I know that your goal is to be a financially secure individual. We all have the same goal, don't we? Despite harboring such strong goals, many of us are scraping every month, with no money left to fall back up on at the end.
I don't intend to entangle you in the intricacies of finance, but want to present before you, some simple rules that would help in saving some dough. But promise me that you'll put them to practice regularly. Though it takes some time years maybe to get the full results, yet the trick lies in perseverance.
Spruce your knowledge get smart! I'm not telling you to glue your eyes to the television watching the stock market or enrolling for a finance degree. What I want you to do is arm yourself with the basics of the market so that you don't make wrong decisions that cost you money. Intelligent decisions are the key towards a flourishing business.
Patience pays! Unless you win a lottery, don't think of getting rich overnight. But with time you can certainly think of owning bundles of those crispy dollars. So start saving your money as soon as possible. Let compounding interest bestow you with its benefits. I hope you know about compound interest - it is the reinvestment of your already invested earnings. However, don't lose heart when you find your first reinvested earnings to be a petty amount. Initially, they are small, but over the years you'll watch them magnify.
Set a flexible goal Don't be a ship without anchor. Set some financial goals in life so that you know your target. This will boost your confidence and you'll be able to visualize yourself better in the future years. I would suggest having flexibility in your goals. This is because situations are never the same, they keep on changing and you'll have to change with them too. Hence, you can't be rigid in your ways. Keep reviewing your goals and better still select a good financial advisor that would assist you in achieving your goals.
Get rid of large debts Want to know a wise way? Start paying off all your debts that have double-digit interest rates. If you don't do so, you'll remain chained to these hefty debts for years and end up paying a lofty amount on interest rates.
Once you get habitualized about keeping aside a small chunk of your income every month and updating yourself with the business happenings, you'll lay a strong foundation to build the castle of wealth. The most important thing is to keep on marching towards your goal persistently.
Now that you're loaded with the money-saving tips, I hope to see you going around in a sparkling new car after some years!
James Marriott is a finance writer with more than 15 years of experience in writing financial content, including those related to credit cards, mortgages, stocks, investments, and funds. He has been with RNCOS, a premier financial writing services company, for 2 years as head of financial writing. He is also a regular financial columnist with renowned business journals. For your comments on the article and further financial assistance, please contact our staff writer at info@rncos.com.
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