Many of these desperate consumers find themselves contemplating a bankruptcy filing, but bankruptcy can carry a legacy you will have to live with for years. A bankruptcy filing will stay on your record for a minimum of seven years, and you may find it difficult or impossible to obtain necessary credit in the interim. There are numerous types of debt, including basic loans, syndicated loans, bonds, and promissory notes. Debt, especially large sums of debt, can also be secured through a mortgage or other security interest over some of the debtor's property, in which case the creditor will have some rights over that property in the event that the debtor becomes unable to repay the debt and defaults on the loan.

If your objective is to reduce interest rates and lower your monthly payments, avoid bankruptcy, consolidate your bills and have one monthly payment, or simply get out of debt the fastest way possible, then a debt consolidation loan could provide the answer.

Creation of a Budget

No man is an island. We all need help once-in-a-while. We're not only referring to personal matters. We're talking about financial matters. We reach a point where we have to buy something out of necessity, but we can't pay in full just yet. An example of this is a home. Now the time has come for you to repay on what you own. You must have the discipline to plan out how much you should have saved so when your time is up and you have to shell out the money you owed there and then (plus interest), you wouldn't have a hard time doing so.

Prioritize which of the debts must be paid first. Prioritize your bills. Make a list so it would be more organized because you could see it right in front of you. This is what you call establishing goals. Establish first what must be prioritized over those you could schedule paying some other time.

The essential debts are debts that should be on top of your list. These are

- Rent or mortgage. Of course, who in his right mind won't pay up as soon as possible. Paying your rent or mortgage bills on time helps you have a roof over your head.

- Child support. If you don't pay on time, there's a possibility you can be held behind bars.

- Utility bills. As much as possible, set aside a budget on gas, heating, water, electricity or telephone when you get your paycheck. In doing so, when the bill comes, then you have something prepared.

- Car payments. This also includes car maintenance.

- Other secured loans. If you don't repay collaterals, the creditor takes the property even without court interference.

The non-essential debts can be set aside because when these aren't paid, they don't have that much of a side effect. It's a desired goal but not really a priority. The only concern that can be considered when you don't pay non-essentials debts for a long period of time is the negative image it could project on your credit report.

- Department store and gasoline charges. Failure to pay these charges may result in losing credit card privileges. If it's too large, you might be sued.

For many who buy wisely, the equity could be substantial. A home equity loan can be used to pay off high dollar items, pay for college tuition, and be used to pay off those high-end credit card accounts. How to address Debt Collectors. There is a law that gives certain conditions for debt collectors as to when and how they should ask you to pay. The federal law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, clearly states that those collecting debts may not bug you, give false assertions, or do practices that are not fair when they are getting to collect money from you. Having trouble paying your bills? Getting dunning notices from creditors? Are your accounts being turned over to debt collectors? Are you worried about losing your home or your car?

The main reason for this risk is that in order to secure a lower interest rate (and thus a cheaper overall payment rate), you'll need to present some sort of collatoral to back the loan. If you have an attorney, the debt collector must contact the attorney, rather than you. If you do not have an attorney, a collector may contact other people, but only to find out where you live, what your phone number is, and where you work. Collectors usually are prohibited from contacting such third parties more than once. In most cases, the collector may not tell anyone other than you and your attorney that you owe money.

- Loans from friends and relatives. Morally speaking, there is an obligation to pay but sometimes since they're family, we think that they will understand if we can't. Check with them if you can delay the payment and ask them for how long.

- Newspaper and magazine subscriptions. Little by little, if you haven't paid, they'll amount to so much.

- Legal and accounting bills. If these remain unpaid after a long period of time, then that's when you might be sued.

- Other unsecured loans. In unsecured loans, there's no collateral for the debt. This means that the creditor can sue and then collect the debt.

Here's the confusing part. Some of the bills border between essential and non-essential. If you let these bills defer for a long period of time, it could have consequences in your personal life.

- Auto insurance. The consequence in some states is losing your driver's license.

- Medical insurance of bills. If you have a tainted record, you might have a hard time getting new insurance in the future.

- Credit and charge cards. If you don't pay your bills on time, you might lose your credit privileges and would have a hard time applying for a new credit card.

Now that we laid out the groundwork on how you can prioritize which bill to pay first, we move on to having a time frame. It's best that you have a calendar in front of you. A palm pilot or the calendar in your Microsoft Office program will do. Mark the dates wherein you would have to pay the specific debt ? be it essential or non-essential. Then what you can do is set aside the bill that is allotted for that debt.

As for the budget, prevention is always better than cure. You know how much you get in a month. That being in mind, you must allot how much percentage of your salary shall go to which. Then do your best to stick to that budget. If this is how much you should spend for leisure, then that's how much you should spend for leisure. If at one point, it went overboard, then there would have to be a sacrifice on another aspect, such as food. That seems off, right?

Debt is a hard thing to live with, reduce debts today! So even in budget, you must also list down which is number one for you. Have the discipline to stick to your priority, your budget and your time frame. If you succeeded, paying the bills won't be any problem. It may be more convenient to make one payment rather than several. Or you can improve your cash flow in the short term by reducing monthly outgoings. But this may cost you more over time because you are paying the debt off over a longer period of time. Interest rates for credit card debt consolidation loans through traditional lenders may be based on your credit score. If high, you are likely to get a credit card debt consolidation loan at a lower interest rate. Stop spending on things that aren't absolutely necessary.

Each individual will have to define what "necessary" means, but it may mean taking a sack lunch to work, bringing your own coffee instead of stopping at Starbucks, and canceling that subscription to HBO. Debt is a hard thing to live with, but we all have it and deal with it everyday. Sometimes it is manageable, sometimes you feel like you can barely keep your head above water and unfortunately many times you feel like you are drowning in it!