Credit card debt hampers our lives. It gets in the way of our days, it interrupts our blissful nights, and it destroys our futures. How can you save for tomorrow when you have tens of thousands of dollars of debt to pay for first? The answer is simple: you can't. You need to eliminate your credit card debt in order to pave the way for a more tranquil, more secure future.
Why Eliminate Credit Card Debt?
You may think that your monthly payment to your credit cards are low. Why should you spend my hard-earned dollars getting rid of it? The answer is simple: The sooner you rid yourself of credit card debt, the sooner you can enjoy your life to its fullest.
It should not be that difficult to convince you to pay off your credit card debt immediately.
Let's take a look at what happens when you carry a balance on your credit card. Let's say that you owe the company $12,000. Assume you are paying back the debt at 12% interest. If you pay the minimum monthly payments, it will take 256 months to eliminate the debt. That's over 22 years! Twenty-two years! In that time, you will have paid an additional $6,500 in interest. (Please note: Even if your interest rate is considerably lower, it still takes years to pay off your payments. AND you will pay thousands of dollars in interest payments. That's money wasted!)
Ouch. Often time, the minimum payment is the only payment that individuals can afford. It is that minimum payment, though, that continues the vicious cycle of credit card debt. Credit cards--and minimum payments--keep you in financial bondage.
Now, if you were able to find a way to add an extra $100 to that payment, guess what happens? You would be able to cut the life of that loan by 19 years. Additionally, you would save over $5,000 in interest payments. Although for some, it is impossible to find an extra $100/month, for most is simply not that difficult. One-hundred dollars a month is less than spending 4 hours a week at a part time job.
It is that simple.
How Can I Find The Extra Money?
As I have just stated, it is not that hard to come up with an extra $100/month. You can find part-time work on the weekends. You can sell stuff on ebay. You can sell stuff at a garage sale. You can babysit during the weeknights or weekends for friends and neighbors. Deliver pizzas. Work at a coffee shop. You can cut out the vices and trouble spots in your budget that only prove to be a financial drain. There are more than a million ways to make an extra $1200/year.
The interesting part about it: Once you start making more money and once you start paying down that debt, you are not going to want to stop. So, take the important first steps and figure out a plan to pay down your debt and get your financial life in order.
How To Pay Credit Card Debt
We are all living in a world of heavy consumer spending. Everywhere we go, we are plummeted with advertisements, urging us to spend more and more money. These advertisements fuel our wants and desires. After some time, there will be items that we sought after. Who doesn't like to own the latest hand phone, the newest gadget, and the most fashionable designer hand bag?
The problems is, many of these items come with a hefty price tag. A designer hand bag or a portable gadget may cost up to several hundred dollars. The higher end products may cost up to thousands of dollars. After being exposed to countless advertisements, the average consumer finally caves in to temptations. Here is where trouble starts brewing.
Loss of control leads even the most financially savvy consumers into credit card debts. How did that happen?
You see, the trouble starts when the consumer starts to spend money on items that he or she cannot afford. In other words, the individual is spending money that he does not have - he is spending future earnings. This is possible with a simple piece of plastic - the credit card.
The credit card allows a consumer to go on a spending spree just by flashing the cards and signing for items. The bill is sent to the bank, and the bank pays for it upfront. Now the consumer owes the bank. Everything is all fine and dandy if the consumers pays back the bank on time.
Aha! Here is where the consumer finds difficulty. Because he is spending money that he does not have, eventually he finds it hard to pay off all his credit card bills on time. So he pays the minimum amount and leaves the balance unpaid. But banks don't let the consumers off so easily. If the balance is not paid off on time, the credit card holder now officially owes the bank money. That also means he has to pay whatever interest that the bank charges. And you can be sure that interest can build up quickly to a substantial amount.
Everything goes downhill from here. The consumer already has difficulty paying all his credit card bills on time. So how can he possibly pay off all the current balance PLUS interest? It's an uphill battle all the way.
Usually, unless some form of drastic action is taken, the consumer goes deeper and deeper into debt. For severe cases, specific programs have to be put in place to help consumers get out of debt. The recovery process is usually a long and painful journey.
The only way to avoid this situation is to remind yourself how it all started. You will only find yourself in the same predicament if you spend beyond your own limits. If you can't afford an item, don't buy it. Wait till you have saved up enough money before making a purchase. That way, you will never be in a position where the banks are chasing after you for interest repayments.
Both J. Richard Shanley & Gen Wright are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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