Comments on: Debt Reduction 101 – Beginner’s Guide To Debt Reduction

By: Sandy

Sandy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:11:17 +0000

Respected sir, I really appreciate your site, I am a financial writer and I have written many quality articles on debt consolidation, Mortgage, loan modification, debt free retirement, pay off debt for many quality sites, now I want to share my experience and knowledge with your site. And I want to contribute a quality article on Debt consolidation. Please allow me.

By: Ben Malley

Ben Malley — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:11:45 +0000

Here’s a helpful calculator I found. it’s not quite debt reduction specific; it’s got investment options, too.

http://www.debthelp.com/calc/payorinvest.html

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:15:45 +0000

One thing I’ve got to stress, is just make sure you pay as much as you can to your debts with the highest interest. Sure it would look nice to eliminate some off the list if they have small balances, but it does not make sense financially. Interest rates can kill you if you let them.

By: Jane Swire

Jane Swire — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:26:48 +0000

Glad you weren’t hurt or your daughter with the deer accident. Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!! on your weight loss I’m rooting for you. I am now maintaining my weight and its challenging.
Love your articles keep them coming.
Jane

By: San Francisco Financial Planning

San Francisco Financial Planning — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:22:36 +0000

Lovely advice. Also, don’t forget to make it a regular practice to call your credit cards to ask for a lower rate. I have one client who owes over $20,000 on a Visa that was at 18%. He spoke with a ‘rate specialist’, touting his rising credit score and declining balance and got his rate cut in half, from 18% to 9%! His monthly interest charge was instantly reduced by $150, which will help him pay off his debt even sooner. The method described above is the best way to get our of credit card debt, but you might as well make it even easier to see if you can lower those interest rates!

By: Dana

Dana — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:50:58 +0000

What should one do when you can’t make the minimum payments? I have talked to the credit card companies and they won’t do anything until I can tell them when I can pay. My husband is commission only so I really can’t tell them. It’s turning into a nightmare for me. I am trying very hard not to worry over it.

What hurts most is that I was on a good plan for paying everything off. Had my spreadsheet and snowball going…then I lost my job. I can’t seem to get it back on track now that I am back to work.

Any advice?

By: The Happy Rock

The Happy Rock — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:57:51 +0000

Nice guide NCN.

I think changing one’s mindset to not to use debt, freezing or cutting up the cards, not using HELLOC, not getting cars loans is critical. If you don’t shutoff the water you can’t stop the leak.

By: Mike Nash

Mike Nash — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:11:59 +0000

This is a great article – one suggestion is to find an online calculator or software that could do the job. Doing is by hand is to painful.

By: Eric J. Nisall

Eric J. Nisall — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:39:30 +0000

This is by no means a citicizm of your reduction form, but I did notice two items that are missing. Debt reduction begins with understanding cash inflows and outflows. The difference between thetwo is the amount that is left for reducing debt. Without taking into account inflows and outflows to/from all all sources, no debt reduction plan would be complete, because, if there is no money left over from payments of fixed expenditures (food, utilities, gas, etc.) then the debt will not get reduced. In my personal experience, developing a budget and reducing eliminating costs is the first step, especially when attempting to take an aggressive approach to reducing debt. Once the budget is set and analyzed for all possible cuts in spending, then the reduction strategy should be undertaken. Again, this is just meant to enhance the effort to get out of debt, while gaining a new understanding of budgeting and planning.