How do I get out of debt fast?
Posted on Sunday, November 8, 2009 in Credit
tmh33blue asked:
I am not sure what options I have. Any suggestions? More then $60,000 in debt, house, car, loans, and several credit cards.
Credit card debit is my main concerne and stress abour $20,000. Thanks in advance
I have already cut up the cards and stopped spending, I have never smoked and haven’t “partied” since I got pregnant 3 1/2 years ago. I do have a 3 year old still in diapers who refuse to potty train and diapers are costing alot a month!
Barry
I am not sure what options I have. Any suggestions? More then $60,000 in debt, house, car, loans, and several credit cards.
Credit card debit is my main concerne and stress abour $20,000. Thanks in advance
I have already cut up the cards and stopped spending, I have never smoked and haven’t “partied” since I got pregnant 3 1/2 years ago. I do have a 3 year old still in diapers who refuse to potty train and diapers are costing alot a month!
Barry
Ray
work hard
Jane
Get a second job and devote this income just to relieve your debt.
Ashley
Win the lotto
Thelma
Get another job.
Franklin
claim bankruptcy
Ruth
man you is in some deep doo doo like hooked for life, rip the cards up now
Darren
Sell things, work more and take in roommates. Stop spending money, cancel services like cell phones, cable tv and netflix.
Jackie
You need to pay your bills fast.
Laurie
I would definitely work extra time.. if not allowed in your job consider getting a second job. Manage your money and set a true goal.
John
Stack the credit card dept into one card and get the new card to tale on 10 -20 grand…and get a lower interest rate.
You can play the different cards against each other for a lower interest rate it just takes some time on the phone, and always ask to speak to a supervisor.
____________
Look at it this way, the only thing that is of true value is the house.
The car is more of a liability and an expense, if you need to trade it in for a car made in the late 90’s.
______________
As for the cards, every dollar counts so put all of you money towards your cards, then shift your buying habits.
If you like to smoke, don’t.
If you like to go out and drink, by a bottle of liquer and invite some friends over and party at a house.
Buy in bulk, and do not eat out.
Meals that are great and cheap.
Tuna sandwiches, pasta and noodles, regular oatmeal, canned soups and stews.
Find out where you spend the majority of your money, and cut back on it.
Jessie
Move into someone’s house and stop buying everything. Then every penny you make, pay all your bills.
Sean
im 15,000 in debt and i love it
i care nothing of credit or making anything of myself at all im more than satisfied with my normal mediocre life im happy with no g/f no income no worries
i do what i want when i want and who i want
if i want to go to the beach i go if i want to go on a mountain expidition or adventure i go
im free
Jeff
Stop spending ASAP.
Cut your cards up NOW so you are not tempted to rack anymore debt on them.
Start with your smallest card, make double payments until they are paid off, then repeat with the next smallest card, and keep doing it until you get them paid off.
Don’t eat out, and pack a lunch for work everyday.
Buy things like Macaroni & Cheese, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Ramen Noodles etc. that are cheap, and go a long way.
Melanie
stop speending money on unnessisary things, if you car is brand new consider trading it in for something thats more manageable and lower payments
Erik
Double your payments on every thing. This will help. And you will have to get an extra job as well. Good luck.
Jay
Prioritize your debts.
See which ones you charge off
See if you can role the debt into a low interest loan.
CREATE A BUDGET!
Consider bankruptcy and how you may be able to survive without credit lines.
Good Luck
Marlene
Stop spending now!
Go to the bank and see if you can get a lone to pay off the credit card bills you now have. Before you do that offer the credit card company a pay off. See what the least amount is they will take. You will get better rates at the bank.
Stop spending now— live within your means. Stop spending now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Lillie
Refinance your home and make the pymts smaller or cars and pay off the credit cards but first put them in the garbage disposal
Herman
stop spending money.
June
run
run with whoever you have with you, family, children, spouse, or boyfriend. even if it has to be on foot
to somewhere far, far away.
be happy, not in debt. even if that means you must leave everything behind. and start new somewhere else.
Tom
If you follow getting out of debt blogs more often, it will help you substantially. I’ve done so myself in the past few years. Here are a few links which I HIGHLY recommend.
As of the last 3 months, I’ve bought no christmas presents, no new clothes, no new shoes, etc.. I’m finding out that it’s OK to wear the same clothes over and over again. No one really cares. Cooking at home and bagging my lunch was a big factor.
I really hope this helps.
Jorge
For the CC’s pay every 4 weeks instead of every month.
Paying every 4 weeks gives them an extra payment each year, helping your credit score and furthering you out of the hole.
See if you can downtrade your car or resell it to the dealer, NEVER give it back, that’s always a repo. But see if they can make a trade, something more within your budget.
As for the house…oh boy. I don’t know, just be sure you make them payments as timely as possible.
good luck
Melanie
sell the house and use the equity to pay what you can. If you are still in debt find a cheap place to live til you pay off the rest. If possible you might try managing a small apartment building, they might let you live rent free. Another idea is to trade housing for labor….use your imagination.
Javier
First off all put away or get rid of all your credit cards. Then call your creditors to see if they can work out a payment plan & lower the interest rates they are charging . Start paying off the higest interst rates first or try to consolidate to a single payment @ a lower interest rate. Do not purchase anything else unless you positivly need it! you do not need starbucks, fancy cloths & going out to dinner . Start packing lunches . Good luck , If you are discplined enough I know you can do it !
Sharon
Cut up your credit cards.
Douglas
bankruptcy
Oscar
transfer your credit cards all in one withless intrest or call them to lower the intrest rate try thatt hen u can pay faster and make big payments
Carol
first off all stop using all of ur credit cards if u run out of cash just don’t get anything tell u get payed, no ciggarrrets, beer, that crap. peole rely on there credit cards for money when they have none and u get debt
Lillie
Wow!!!!! Stop spending money, cut up your credit cards and get another job. As for the house, you shouldn’t ever consider that as being a debt nor your car. Try going to see a personal financier. He/she can help you put a budget together and perhaps find someway to consolidate all your credit card bills into one bill w/a lower rate. With the credit card rates if you don’t pay more (a lot more) than your minimum due, you will never get them paid off especially if they are that high in amount. If you buckle down and really control your spending habits and consolidate loans according to your financial adviser, you could be dept free before you know it. Up until then though, life might be a little skimpy, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Lauren
You have credit card debt, and you wan to pay it off as quickly as you can. We will assume that you are going to stop creating more debt. You have changed your ways. You also understand that paying credit card
Glen
Well first of all stop spending. that would be a good thing to do. Second I would set up a budget for yourself to help with your finanices. People get credit cards and such and get greedy. They want everything NOW!!!!!!!!!!!. So next time your out you have to stop and think before you react, most people don’t do that and that’s how they end up in debt. You can’t really get out of debt fast, theres no way unless you consaludate all your loans into one lump sum, that sometimes works, but people who do that think “okay i have my credit cards paid and then go ahead and shop and occur even more debt. So I would set up a budget and stick to it, it may take sometime to pay everything off, but you will if you give yourself a budget.
Dawn
You have to get lower interest on your loans,incl cr card……..
you have to earn more or spend less……………..might need a second job……………
Michelle
Do you have equity in your house? You can use that equity to get a home equity line of credit that should be at an interest rate that beats all the credit cards. Take each credit card company and give them a call and say that you would like the payoff amount as you will be paying them off with your new line of credit. They may counter with a better interest rate, if not, pay them off and move on to the next. By the end of the day, you will have lowered the interest rate you are paying on every credit card, or paid them off with your equity line of credit.
Next, pay the minimum payment on every loan, but the one with the highest interest rate (excluding your mortgage). Pay as much as you can to get rid of that loan. When it goes, you will have one payment less and more money to pay off the next highest interest rate loan. Continue until the mortgage is the only loan left.
Mortages are pretty low interest compared to other investments. If the mortgage interest rate is too high, consider refinancing. You may find that investing in a Roth IRA will keep the money that you would have used to pay off a mortgage available for retirement or other life changes.
At any rate, regular payments on a morgage will keep your credit rating high and worth more money in the long run to keep around then pay it off, or not. If you can afford to pay it all off and still have major money left over, you will be completely out of debt.
Vincent
Here is how it is done.
Make a list of every monthly expense you have. Include how much you take in. Itemize everything you spend on. See where you can cut back.
Then make a list of each bill owed. I suggest using a spreadsheet. Top row should have the name of the debt. Second row from top has amount and interest rate.
Try to negotiate a lower rate from all debtors. Start with paying down the smallest debt. Pay the minimum of all others. Suppose your total debt payment is $1000 a month. Once the first one goes down, pay the second smallest but keep paying the $1000 a month. Take the money paid toward the first debt and pay it towards the second. Continue this until the last debt is paid off.
Then stay out of debt.
DO NOT REFINANCE OR COMBINE DEBTS UNLESS YOU CHANGE YOUR SPENDING HABITS. I have seen people combine without changing spending habits. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
I also noted to pay smallest bill down first because you need to see progress. Contrary to the very bad advice offered, interest rate is important, but the mental part of this is far more important.
Albert
Here is an article from yahoo today in their financial section. It’s a couple of tips on how to battle debt.
Victoria
I wrote an article last fall actually describing a situation almost exactly like yours! Check it out…This excerpt shows you how to go from $72K in debt to financially free in a very short time….Hope this helps…
Here’s a bit of a “debt strategy” that seems to really work. It will shave tons of time off your debt repayment and will get you out of debt faster and will also create a great habit for savings and building up assets.
Let’s use this as our example of someone’s debts:
VISA: $2000 – Minimum monthly payment $50
Master card: $5000 – Minimum monthly payment $125
Loan: $15,000 – Monthly Payment $400
Mortgage: $50,000 – Monthly payment $400
Step 1: Check your debts for ways to shave costs.
One area people often overlook on their debts is the insurance they have on them. Instead of having separate insurance on all your debts, take a look at an individual insurance policy covering all of them in one. You’ll likely save a good chunk of money each month on that alone. Furthermore, sometimes the insurance you are paying for is worked into the loan amount, so you are paying interest on the insurance payments as well. There are many different reasons for changing from creditor insurance to personal insurance but that’s a whole other story. See if there are any other options in your debts that you are paying for that you don’t need as well.
Step 2: Analyze your budget and free up a little extra money.
That’s right, the dreaded word “budget”. You don’t need to analyze every penny, just find some ways to maybe free up an extra $50 or $100 a month. Chances are if you are reading this your debt situation is enough of a concern that making a few simple changes like going out for beer one night less a month or brown bagging lunch 2 or 3 of 5 days a week instead of eating out every day, or making your own coffee at home instead of those $4 latte’s every morning, is something to seriously consider. The more you can free up the better, but don’t think you have to completely change your lifestyle to do it.
Step 3: The game plan….
Let’s say you were able to free up $100 a month. What the game plan is, is to get rid of the smallest debt first and work your way up to the biggest one. Instead of a shot gun approach of just fire in a bunch of direction, we are going to focus our aim at one thing at a time, so it’s a little more manageable. Using the example situation above, here’s what it will look like:
A) Take that extra $100 and apply it on top of your VISA payment each month (now you are paying $150 a month to the VISA instead of $50). Continue making minimum payments on the other debts, until the VISA is paid off.
B) When VISA is paid off, you are now used to making those $150 payments anyways, so take the $150 you were paying on the VISA and add that to the minimum payment you were making on the master card ($150+$125 = new payment $275/month). You’re now making more than double the payments, it’s pretty easy to see that this will get paid off much sooner.
C) When the MC is paid off, take that $275 and add it to your loan payment (new loan payment = $675/month). Sounds like paying $675 a month is a lot, but remember, you’ve now been used to paying these payments for several months now…it’s just going to one spot now, right? Keep paying $675 on your loan until it’s gone and continue making your minimum on the mortgage.
D) Now that the loan is paid off, take that $675 a month and apply that to your mortgage payment. Many mortgages have limits to how much you can increase your payments by, so it is important to plan things out. EI: When your mortgage renews and you know you will be making massively high mortgage payments (adding the $675 to $350 is almost tripling your payment, most banks only allow up to double), renew it to an open mortgage so you can make the payments as high as you can. Now that you are making $1025 payments each month, you will have the mortgage paid off in less than 5 years instead of 20, plus you will save roughly $40,000 in interest. IF you can’t think what you would do with an extra $40,000 in your pocket instead of the banks, feel free to give it to me.
Step 4: Getting ahead…
Congratulations, you are now completely debt free and likely decades sooner than you ever thought you would be! Now is the best opportunity to get ahead. You now have been used to paying $1025 a month (in this situation) towards your debts for probably about 5-6 years. You’re used to that expense, why not keep paying it….to yourself! Start building in investment portfolio or savings plan of some sort. Remember when you were in debt and you couldn’t even fathom the thought of having $100 free each month to save? Now you have $1000 a month! That’s $12,000 a year! Imagine in 2 years, you could buy that new car, and you don’t even have to finance it this time! You can pull a Jim Carey from the movie The Mask and say “Do you accept CASH!?!” CHA-CHING! And drop 25 grand on the table! It’s really up to you what to do with your money. You’ve worked hard to get out of debt so you deserve to treat yourself, but if you are used to putting that $1000 a month towards something why not really treat yourself with retiring 10 years sooner than you thought was even possible? If you are 30 years old and putting away $1000 a month to a retirement plan, retiring at age 50 is very attainable!
Step 5: Financial Freedom!
Enjoy life! You’ve gone from being $72,000 in debt to being debt free with an extra $1000 a month going towards savings and planning on retiring at age 50, in less than 5 years! Many people spend their entire lives in debt, but you’ve tackled it now in a couple years! You now have the choice to do what you want financially and not worry about it!
Bonnie
Debt is always a problem. If you have credit card debt the situation is even worse. I say this because your credit will go down and your future financial situation will be in question mark. So better pay off the credit card best by taking a bad credit loan -
Zachary
Not saying much just visit this site.
Hope you will find the answer of your question. And it is my personal experience with this website.
Jeff
Hello Every body,
I live in the US and i really have never seen goodness shown to me this much in my life as i am a struggling mum with three kids and i have been going through really rough times in my life and my name is Helen Peters and in all this hard times, a worse incident occured in my life as i lost my job which was my only means of survival and things became really bad as i had bills to pay and my last son suffered a knee injury incurred when he fell from a tree house and the doctors informed me that he needed a surgical operation for his knee so he could walk again and at this point, life was useless to me as i have no family and no one to run to and each night, i will sit down and cry till the break of dun until one day, i read an advert on yahoo answers of man that stated that he could help people in my shoes with loans and in my desperate situation, i had no choice but i had to try and so shocking and suprising, it was like an impossibility becoming a reality, i got a loan of $60,000 USD even with my bad credit within 48 hours and my sons surgery was done and thank GOD it was successful and now, i am okay and living in comfort with my kids and i said to my self, i have never ever seen this kind of wonder in my life and i decided i will tell it to the whole wild world and i need every one to thank GOD for Mr Patrick Harvey, the man GOD used to rescue me and my family even when all hope had been lost and gone and i will say to every one, no matter how dark and sinful the world is today, there are still GOD fearing and reliable people on earth and if you are in my former situation or require a loan legitimately, i will advice you contact this loan lender and you can reach him via and i want you all to pray for this man for me.