Do you have credit card debt? Do you have loans that you make monthly payments on
? When you get your next month's bill do you look at it and wonder if you made even a dollar dent on the debt? The worst is when you are only able to make the minimum payments on your monthly payments. That is when you really feel like you will never reduce your debt and pay off your credit cards and other debt. Are you currently experiencing this scenario or have experienced this in the past.
If you have experienced this in the past, but have finally reduced debt and actually got out of this situation think about how you did it. If you are wishing you could reduce debt to zero eventually or for that matter just see some progress, but don't have any idea how you are going to do this then keep on reading. There is hope.
When we were first married we had debt and accrued some additional debt. Then we had a baby and had some major medical bills so we took out a loan and eventually ended up consolidating our debt into one loan. We then had the payment to bank and then kept a couple of the credit cards open for emergencies. Eventually we ended needing to use the credit cards and then a little here and there put us in an additional financial mess.
Then we opened up a business and took out additional loans to get the business open. Throughout the business we gradually paid down some of our personal debt, but then when the business closed we had that debt. We decided that we did not want to take out another loan to consolidate all of the debt. We felt like that would not help really reduce debt. We felt like that would get us in another downward spiral.
Instead we got on the phone with a credit counselor and started looking at our options. We weren't sure what we were doing and didn't know if we would really get out of the debt ever in our lifetime. We found a great company to work with and they negotiated with the companies we had debt with and got it so that we were putting out less per month. We would make one payment to the debt management company and then they would make the payments to each of the companies. For the first couple of years it looked like we would never reduce our debt.
Once we paid off one of the debts they rolled over that portion to the next company. Then that one paid off quickly and they rolled that whole amount to the next company we owed money to. Eventually we only owed a couple more companies and when you roll that whole amount into two companies you come out with a total reduction of debt. It was amazing to go from thinking the debt would be around forever to completely reducing debt.
The nice thing with working with a company was that we kept the payments the same and got used to living on what was left. If we would have been doing that on our own we might have found it easier to move the money to something else instead of sticking to rolling the money over and paying things quicker.