By: Julia Aidan
Submitted: 2011-09-28 05:04:07 | Word Count: 729
Getting out of debt is not an easy thing, in fact many people who incur big debts, think that it is impossible to get out of debt. However, it is possible to get out of debt no matter how much debt one has. Though it is not easy, you should know that you are already in a situation and you can't reverse it. You need to have faith that, you can manage to get out of debt. To do this; there are several steps needed to be taken in order to get out of debt.
The first step is to accept the problem and work out what you already owe. Calculate how much the debts are taking from your monthly net income. You can even write down in a piece of paper what you owe and the urgency of repayment. Here, urgency means how close the payment dead line is. The next step is to stop getting into new debts. Many people start using credit cards to repay debts. What they do not realize is that, they are just getting into more debt. You should stop the use of credit cards immediately. Also do not be tempted to buy goods online when in this situation. This will avoid use of credit cards.
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The third step is to group your monthly expenditure. Write them down according to whether, they are classified as needs or wants. In the needs group, you will have things that you can not do without for example, food, rent and medicine. Avoid including stuffs like new clothes, although they are needs they can wait. In the wants group, you should have things you can do without, but they improve your life. For instance; while it will be very comfortable to use personal car to go to your workplace, opting for a public transport like trains and buses, will definitely cut down your expenditure. Therefore, car fuel can be classified as a want. You will find that, by doing this, the total monthly expenditure will cut down remarkably.
The forth step involves generating an emergency fund. If you do not have a savings account you should set up one. Many of the saving accounts have a set period within which, money can not be accessed. In doing this, you will have some money saved but not readily available to you thus making it impossible for you to misuse your money. However, you should save money after you have gone through step three. Some of money that remains after calculating your expenditure should be kept in a saving account. Note that, you should be comfortable with what you intend to save, to avoid financial strain afterwards.
In step five, you should crate a monthly spending plan. In this step you should list your monthly bills for such as the electricity bills and rent. Then, list items that are in the needs group which vary in a month like groceries. You should note events within the month, that may increase your expenditure. Also approximate properly all the bills and needs for the month; not forgetting to put aside some savings for emergency purposes. After all the calculations are done, the remainder should be used to paying debts.
In the sixth step, you should plan on earning extra income to help in paying some debt. You can look for a second job. Other ways of earning extra income includes: selling some of your valuable items that you no longer use. If you have several television sets in your house, consider selling some and remain with one. You can also sell your car for a second hand one or a smaller model. As said earlier, go for public transport instead of using your personal car. You can even walk to your working place if its not far; it is a good exercise anyway. You should also look out for discounted items in the supermarkets when doing your shopping. Finally, you should follow down your progress. Make sure you have followed your monthly budget to the detail, you have not done impulse buying and make sure that you have stopped using credit card among other things. Stick to this plan and enjoy the process of getting out of debt.
