Many people spend a lot of their time and energy worrying about their debt.
Debt can be a scary thing, but if you plan ahead, and plan wisely, you can easily avoid large doses of worry and devote your energy to something far more exciting.
There are quite a few resources that you can access with ease and convenience that can help you with paying off your debt.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s go check it out!
Understand Your Debt
Before you can move further, one of the first things you should do is to stop and evaluate the type and amount of your debt.
There are various kinds of debt that either has to be paid back urgently or have a larger rate of interest that needs to be paid. Debts can range from mortgage loans, and student loans, to credit card debts, etc.
Different types of debt have different levels of payback urgency, thus before anything, it is wise to evaluate the urgency of payments due before planning your payment strategy.
Make Your Notes and Plan Ahead
After understanding the type of debt you have to pay back, you can move on to figuring out a solid plan of action that would help you clear your outstanding dues.
Don’t forget or underestimate the importance of good old fashioned planning in your notebook. Write down all the digits clearly and then build an appropriate plan to cater to your needs.
Remember, where a good plan can make your life so much easier, a poorly laid out plan has the potential to blow up in your face and make you end up paying much more than you should have.
Different people have different priorities when it comes to paying off their debt. These priorities depend largely on the individual differences, thus vary across each person.
If you have debt you need to figure out if you want to pay off the larger debts off first or the ones with the higher interest rates.
Here are several strategies that you can use:
- Opt for Debt Consolidation: you can consolidate debt through things such as balance transfer cards and even personal loans. These are effective as they can help merge your existing debts into one to help make your repayments much easier.
- Debt Snowball Technique: when it comes to devising a repayment strategy one of the techniques used is debt snowballing. This indicates making the use of a strategy where you start by the repayment of your smallest debts, and once you get those out of the way you can devote greater resources to paying back the larger debts.
- Debt Avalanche Technique: this plan is one of the more aggressive plans, which if the planned right can help increase the speed of your debt repayments. For you to save money (and perhaps even time) you can opt to pay the debt which has the largest interest rate the first.
Meanwhile, you can pay the minimum amount for your other debts.
Once you pay off the debt with the highest rate, you can move on to the one with the second-highest interest rate, and so on.
- Management Plan for Debt: if you feel as if your ability to pay off your debt is at a near standstill, it is always a great idea to opt for external help. Numerous agencies are non-profit and can help cut down interest rates and help you figure out a repayment plan.
These are some of the most commonly used strategies for planning debt repayments. Bear in mind that the best strategy is the one most perfectly suited to your financial situation.
Use the Right Resources
We have spoken in detail about planning and strategizing to have effective debt repayments. However, to increase the efficiency in the overall process it is a great idea to opt for various resources that can help you manage your debts, or even stay debt-free.
You can go ‘old school’ and stick with your notes on a journal as suggested previously, or go for the tech-savvy techniques such as new personal finance apps and computer software.
Use a Notebook
A notebook is one of the most traditional yet effective tools to use for keeping track of your debt. There are several aspects to making efficient use of a notebook.
As it is something that you can carry around and personalize with ease, a notebook can keep an excellent track of your budgeting plan as well as habits.
Here are some ways of how a notebook makes an excellent tool for personal financial management:
- Keeping Strict Tabs on your Budget: you can jot join and account for every penny in your monthly expenses to make sure none is being spent wastefully or frivolously.
- Making Grocery Lists: a great way to save money and redirect it towards your debt is to use your notebook to make more grocery lists.
These lists can help ensure that you don’t get tempted to buy unnecessary items from the supermarket every time you visit.
By sticking strictly to your grocery list you can help stay focused on your debt repayment goals.
- Keep an eye on spending: a notebook is an effective method of organizing and keeping track of your spending habits. You can use it to note down daily instances of you spending your money. The fact that you are writing things down would be sufficient in making sure you don’t stray from your intention to avoid unnecessary expenses.
Notebooks have been used for managing debts for hundreds of years now, and they have been proved time and again for being invaluable resources for debt management.
Get a Debt Management App
It is always a great idea to ask for some support in terms of ideas and information when it comes to managing your debt.
With the wave of modernization and technological advances, there have been numerous apps designed to help you with your debt.
Personal finance technology ranges from tax calculators, spreadsheets for the budget, and now to the newer smartphone apps. The apps are effective tools that have a variety of different uses such as managing your extra money to others which suggest or personalize repayment strategies.
With the advent of the great technological age, there are plenty of app options available for both Android as well as iOS users.
Use a Software Program to Manage Debt
Amongst the new things available to users around the world, technology has seen the development of debt-reducing software that can easily aid in tracking debt.
Modern software has proven itself capable of organizing your financial information by using the information you have fed into it.
Now, you don’t have to worry about entering the correct information, the software program does everything for you. It is capable of tracking multiple debts, while also being able to calculate monthly payments along with the total payable interest.
Along with these modern software options, some traditional software programs are still far from obsolete. These include multipurpose programs such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
Remember, your convenience and personal comfort matters over everything. You should only opt for the resources that you can use with efficiency to protect and secure your financial safety.
More Tips for Speedy Debt Repayments
Here are some other bits of advice to try out for faster debt repayment:
- Make a budget for yourself and follow it
- Try to pay more than the minimum balance for each repayment installment
- Utilize option for balance transfers
- Deactivate your credit card to reduce your spending
- Put in the extra hours, or get a side job for the extra cash
- Redirect work bonuses towards paying off your debt
- Sell superfluous home items
- Sell off the extra car at home (save money on fuel and maintenance)
By careful spending and dedicated saving, you can redirect extra cash towards repaying your debts much faster.
Conclusion
I hope this guide helped you figure out which resources are excellent for your financial obligations and debt repayment responsibilities.
Debt does not have to be something that is threatening as long as it is planned and managed mindfully and wisely. Making a month by month plan can help you plan your budget, savings, and even your repayment strategy.
Personal financial apps have come a long way, and continue to be a great support by helping you keep track of how much debt has been paid, how much is left, etc.
There are many resources available to the modern man to keep tabs on their finances to ensure that their debts don’t get out of hand.
I hope this guide helps you make informed decisions regarding the resources you can use for your debt management plans!
Photo credit: Wilfred Iven