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Augustine Birrell








 




 
Featured Debt Articles

Bad Credit Debt Consolidation by www.alifeoutofdebt.com
Are you afraid of bad credit? Then this article is perhaps for all of you who feel bad credit is an issue. Let this be your first step towards Consumer Credit counseling. No doubt there are numerous bad credit personal loans but hunting for a secured ...

Debt Reduction Program And Slowing Your Spending
The best idea available to any individual or business for debt reduction program is to slow your spending. There are two important factors to be remembered for debt reduction and slowing spending. First one is commen sense - Stop adding to your debts. If ...

Small Business Debt Collection Laws
In your small business debt collection laws will eventually become important, as your debt grows and some clients do not pay. To collect small business debts legally, you must send a written notice that collections have begun, within five days of first ...




Avoid the Trap When You Consolidate Debt, part iii
 
Avoid the Trap When You Consolidate Debt
===================
To consolidate debt is a great idea with a trap built into it. The technique described here helps everyone in debt, but if you have an ongoing credit card debt you desperately need this article.
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* Part I Don't get into debt. Ways to avoid it.
* Part II The big advantages of student loan consolidation
* Part III This article
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The Trap
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When you consolidate your debt, will you celebrate your freedom from credit card debt by going out and buying more on your credit card? Do you really want to live your life in debt, or would you prefer to take charge of your finances?
It's too easy to consolidate debt. If it hurts to get rid of your credit card debt you'll find it easier to resist getting into debt again.
Are you getting married? If your partner likes to live in debt, and you want to become a millionaire, who is going to give way? Most divorces are caused by money arguments. Discuss it before you marry.
You should consolidate debt if you have no ongoing credit card debt. The trouble when you consolidate debt is that the whole thing loses immediacy when you have thirty years to repay.
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List your debts
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Make a table showing all your debts, the amount still owing and how much you pay per month. Call the last column "Damage" and calculate it by multiplying your repayments by a hundred and dividing by the amount that you owe. The larger the damage, the more harm it is doing to your finances.
Imagine you had a fictitious list like this
Mortgage , $100000 , $500 , 0.5
College loan , $50000 , $333 , 0.66
Personal loan , $10000 , $100 , 1
Car loan , $10000 , $360 , 3.6
Visa Card , $4000 , $250 , 6.25
Master Card , $2000 , $200 , 10
You should realise if you consolidate debt then nearly all your monthly payments will be interest, so your debt won't shrink much. When you pay an extra $100 your debt shrinks by that amount, and you won't keep paying interest on it either.
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List your surplus
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Using the methods in part 1 to earn and economise. Work out your surplus each month after all your expenses. Suppose you can spare an extra $456 each month. If there are two of you working, try to use all of one income to get out of debt, because you won't always have both incomes.
See which damage figure is highest. That is the haemorrhage you must stanch first. In this example it is your Master Card.
Add your $456 to your monthly payment (mostly interest) of $200. You will shrink your debt by more than $456 because of paying less interest. You'll have smashed that debt in about three months.
Now your self-discipline comes into play. Don't go out on an expensive celebration! After 3 months you'll be starting to build the financial discipline to make you a millionaire.
You've been paying $656 per month that is now surplus, so you add it to your visa account. That makes your repayments $906 each month. You'll get rid of your Visa debt in a little over four months.
Now you can pay princely sum of $906 + $ 360 = $1266 per month on your car loan winning free in less than eight months... quite a lot less because of shrinking interest payments.
To cut a long story short, when you start to concentrate on your mortgage you'll have $1266 + $100 + $333 = $1699 to add to your mortgage repayment of $500 per month.
When you start making repayments of $2.2K /month your twenty year mortgage will suddenly shrink to less than four years. You'll have everything paid off before your first child is ten years old.
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Is it worth the effort?
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You may think that the big benefit is freedom from debt. The biggest benefit is the mindset that you've developed as you escaped from debt. You are now in charge of your finances... not letting the loan parasites continue to leech you of all your money.
But it gets better. An Australian kid used the above method to get out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, then became a millionaire while still in his twenties. He no longer needs to work, but he has a hobby of showing people how to become millionaires.
There's just one problem. He isn't interested in helping people who can't save up $20 thousand to invest, because he says they aren't trying very hard. Now if you take your $2.2 thousand, and start saving for $20K that will take you less than ten months.
He says that mindset is everything. Now you have the right mindset and have saved up $20K...
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Get more information before you start building your millions. Get more information before you start building your millions. See parts i and ii about debt consolidation.
Better than student loans
Consolidate debt.
About the Author
At 65, Ian McAllister has left his run a little late. He still intends to have a go, but wishes he had learned these ideas earlier. Read more at
http://studying-techniques.com/student-loans.html
http://studying-techniques.com/student-loan-consolidation.html



Debt News


Los Angeles Times

Europe debt crisis dragging world economies down
Los Angeles Times
(Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg / May 24, 2012) By Don Lee and Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON — The Eurozone debt crisis is intensifying a global slowdown, with new signs that even powerhouse Germany may be faltering, adding to worries about China ...
Merkel Considers Debt-Sharing Plan as Monti Says She's IsolatedSan Francisco Chronicle
Debt crisis now taking toll on German economyMarketWatch
Eurozone debt crisis Greek exit?Balkans.com Business News
Sydney Morning Herald -msnbc.com (blog)
all 8,322 news articles »

euronews

Spanish debt increasingly held by pressured local banks
Reuters
Spanish lenders held 146.26 billion euros ($184 billion) of sovereign debt in April, 30 percent of total Spanish government bonds in issue, up from 13 percent of the total in the same month one year ago, Treasury data showed on Friday.
The Uncertain Fate of the Olive Growing Countries and the EuroBenzinga
Not for the faint-heartedReuters Blogs (blog)

all 58 news articles »

Malaysia Star

Spain's Catalonia seeks government help to pay debt
Reuters
By Fiona Ortiz MADRID May 25 (Reuters) - Spain's wealthiest autonomous region, Catalonia, needs financing help from the central government because it is running out of options for refinancing debt this year, Catalan President Artur Mas said on Friday.
Catalonia needs a bailout from governmentTelegraph.co.uk
Euro falls below $1.25, a July 2010 lowRTE.ie
Reuters: Spain's Catalonia region needs government help; running out of debt ...ForexLive (blog)

all 18 news articles »

Some Investors Avoiding Low-Yield German Debt
Wall Street Journal
The appeal of German debt in times of crisis was underlined Wednesday, with an auction of two-year paper—known as Schatz—attracting solid demand. The issue carried a zero coupon for the first time, meaning the bond offers no regular interest payments ...

and more »

Card debt still choking low, middle incomes
Chicago Tribune
Americans have been successful at getting some of their debts off their backs, but many still have a long way to go. Low- and middle-income people are finding an escape difficult as they pay interest on top of interest. Forty percent have turned to ...