Joy Olivia Miller

You’ve probably heard all kinds of stories about debt consolidation. Some of them portray it as the simplest and best way out of debt. Others paint a disturbing picture of escalating debt that leads inevitably to financial disaster.

The reality, of course, lies somewhere in-between. Debt consolidation may or may not be the best way for you to get out of debt. It all depends on a wide range of factors: not just how much you owe, but how much you earn and what kind of debts you’re thinking about consolidating, as well as your attitude to debt and to money in general.

There are, however, a few ‘dos and don’ts’ that should apply to just about anyone.

DO

Do talk to a professional debt adviser if you’re thinking about taking out a debt consolidation loan. You need someone who can help you explore your options, so make sure you talk to a company that doesn’t just provide consolidation loans. Maybe all you need is some advice on budgeting more effectively, so you can handle your debts yourself.

Do think carefully about the repayment term for your debt consolidation loan, if you take one. In general, the longer the repayment term, the lower your monthly payments will be, but the more you’ll pay in total, as your debt will spend longer accruing interest.

Do find out whether you’d be better off with a debt consolidation loan or a debt consolidation mortgage. A mortgage might give you a lower APR (Annual Percentage Rate) and more time to repay the debt, but you’d be putting your home at risk.

DON’T

Don’t keep on struggling if you really can’t afford your debt repayments. If it’s obvious you need help, ask for it – a debt adviser should be able to help you decide whether you need a professional debt solution, and if so, which one.

Don’t assume that the right solution for someone else is the right one for you. Just because debt consolidation worked (or didn’t work!) for someone you know doesn’t mean it will (or won’t!) work for you.

Don’t keep on using your credit cards, store cards and/or overdraft facility once you’ve taken out a debt consolidation loan. This is a real danger of consolidation – if you run up fresh debts, ‘replacing’ the ones you’ve just paid off with the consolidation loan, you’ll be in a much worse situation than you were before you took the loan out, as you’ll have to make payments to it every month as well as to your new debts! It might be a good idea to keep one credit card for emergencies, but you should never consolidate your debts without sitting down and thinking about how those debts got so high in the first place. Are there any mistakes you could avoid from now on? Is there anything about your habits you need to change?

If you are unhappy to pay too much for your car insurance every month and dreaming about smaller premiums you should know the simple ways to save much more money on insurance.

Theses ways become even more valuable in tough economic periods. So saving on auto insurance gets possible if you use internet, search multiple providers and quote as many times as you can. Shopping around can save you dozens of bucks every month. Online car insurance quotes are free and quick, you can compare the features of several plans offered by a number of local agencies before applying for a policy.. Saving money on insurance premiums becomes real for a smart shopper, so take your chance now.. As you look through the plans try to inquire about everything you are unsure about via personal calls and chats. Thus you will be armed when comparing companies and could locate the best auto insurance rates available taking all the details into account.

If you are ready to start reviewing competitive auto insurance quotes you will access them with a few mouse clicks. Though it could take more time on comparing and analyzing – as a result you are to save hundreds of dollars every year on your insurance plus you have more chances to find a plan working best just for you.

If you still hesitate you may want to review what benefits does comparison shopping give..

• Greater savings. With a range of plans from different insurance companies, chances are there’s always something better out there for your budget. Noting down quotes from all trusted providers lets you calculate actual annual savings on car insurance premiums. Don’t forget to compare providers in terms of discounts offer and if you are always eligible.
• More chances to pick the right policy. Besides, comparing rates helps you to get the auto insurance policy which meets your needs to the maximum. Whether it is a teen-driver policy or a accurate driver with a good record, a person with excellent marks at driving school, a truck or a sport car in the end – plans should be chosen appropriately and fairly. This depends on the services offered by specific companies. Make sure you check that certain services and features of your first necessity are included in the plan you have found by the most affordable rate. If necessary make new searchers since quoting is free and you will finally get your way to the desired combination of rates and features.

The notion of quantifying the costs for customers in order to illustrate how much money they are currently wasting or will be wasting if they do not do business with you is a key element in the process of getting a customer to buy from you. This sounds obvious but can be overlooked by many people attempting to trade with a customer.

This process allows someone not only to demonstrate how much money can be saved but also alleviates their concerns about spending money on one’s particular product or service.

Various areas may be addressed during this part of the process however it is not always easy to uncover where a customer’s money is being spent.

Getting customers to realise the value of one’s solution has to begin with asking the right questions; in order to do this one needs to identify the customer’s typical costs and then decide whether or not they could be reduced or eliminated through the use of one’s product or service.

A good example of this would be health care where outsourcing has become a hot topic, as well as with business people and politicians.

There is a natural compulsion to use lower-wage workers abroad who have the same skills as those at home, although this brings with it the unexpected.

The pros of this are that savings will be made in direct costs and staff may be able to be eliminated from the payroll.

The cons are, depending on the industry, that the internet may go down, there will be a lack of rapport between the patient and doctor, there is a lack of accountability, and there would be no confidentiality.

Another good example of this is the construction industry.

Selling bricks is not all that exciting, but it is possible to quantify costs. For example, take someone who sells bricks to homeowners building new houses and construction companies creating new neighbourhoods.

It is very difficult to convince either of these parties to use bricks because they are more expensive than other building materials.

However, presenting the argument in a different way changes the picture:

Bricks hold heat better than other materials so in the long run costs will be saved on heating bills

As opposed to rendering, which needs to be replaced after years of wear and tear, bricks last a lifetime

Studies have shown that, everything being equal, a brick house will sell for fifteen per cent more than a house with rendering

For construction companies, bricks are easier to work with and easier to store than other materials.

In summary using this cost justification system, it is possible to translate the features of a product into considerable benefits and thus largely override the raw, up-front cost of the product; value can be imparted to a customer other than front line savings. However, it must be remembered that coming from the outside it is always easier to see and understand the concept and after all, it is their money that is being spent.

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief in her book “On Death and Dying”: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. If you have a large student loan balance, then you’ve probably experienced some “grief” and are no stranger to the five stages. If you are in the “Acceptance” stage, this article is for you!

Being in the Acceptance stage is a good place to be. It means that: you have discovered that deferrals and forbearances are not forever (Denial stage), you have stopped blaming others for getting what you assumed to be a “free ride” (Anger stage), you have learned that you can not discharge your loan through bankruptcy (Bargaining stage), you have stopped drinking heavily and watching re-runs of the Gilmore Girls (Depression stage), and you now accept your financial responsibility and are prepared to do something about it. You are not going to find any “magic bullets” in this article, but you will find an effective strategy for paying off your loan in the shortest amount of time.

Step 1 – Organize Loan in a Spreadsheet
To better manage your student loan, you must completely understand what you are up against. Creating a spreadsheet will give you insight into how your loan works and show you the positive results of making extra principal payments. To create a functional spreadsheet, you must understand the terms of your loan and know how to organize this information into a spreadsheet. If you are not a spreadsheet user, you will find that learning the basics is easy.

To begin building your spreadsheet, you will need the following information about your loan: current balance, interest rate, payment amount, and how the interest is calculated. This will allow you to create an interactive spreadsheet that will calculate how much interest accrues daily and provide you with a daily balance.

How the interest is calculated may require some digging. You will find this information by reviewing your loan documents, going to the lender’s website, or calling your lender’s customer service number. The number of days used to calculate interest on a loan is known as basis. For example, a mortgage is typically calculated using “30/360″, which means a year is assumed to have 360 days and a month is assumed to have 30 days. Thus, when you make a mortgage payment, your interest will be based on 30 days. Student loans typically use the actual number of days in the month and a year with 365 days (actual/365). Some loans may use an actual/365.25 convention; each loan is different. On a loan with an actual/365 basis, you will pay less interest in a short month (one that has less than 31 days) than in a month with 31 days.

Feeling lost yet? Don’t worry, because once we put it all together it will make sense. I’ll also explain how to test your spreadsheet to make sure it’s functioning properly. The initial setup of a spreadsheet is the most challenging step.

On the top of your spreadsheet, insert the key pieces of information regarding your loan, such as: beginning balance, interest rate, monthly payment, payment due date, and the interest rate factor. The interest rate factor is the interest rate divided by the number of days in the year. Again, every lender and type of loan is different in terms of how many days in the year are used. The informational part of the spreadsheet is important because you want to clearly see the variables that impact your loan.

After you input the key pieces of information, you can begin the construction of your interactive spreadsheet. Your goal is to create a spreadsheet that shows when each payment is posted, how much of each payment is applied to principal and interest, and what the ending (or current) balance is. The column names that you will create are (from left to right): Payment Date, Principal, Interest, and New Balance. Below is a more detailed explanation of these columns:

• Payment Date – This is the date that your payment is actually posted to your account. This is critical since the interest on your student loan is likely based on the actual number of days between payments.
• Principal – This will be a formula that equals your payment amount less the interest portion of your monthly payment. It’s the part of your payment that will be applied to reduce your balance.
• Interest – You need to know how your lender calculates interest on your loan. Typically, it is based on the actual number of days multiplied by the previous month’s balance multiplied by the interest rate factor. Your Excel formula will be: (current payment date minus previous payment date) x previous month’s balance x the interest rate factor.
• New Balance – This is equal to your previous month’s balance less the principal portion of your current payment.

If your lender has a website that allows you to see information about your loan and/or make payments, establish online access immediately. Print the balance history of your loan and begin building your spreadsheet using your first payment as the starting point. The balance history should show how much of each payment was applied to principal and interest. This is how you can test your spreadsheet to make sure it is working properly. Check to see if your formula results match the history on the website. If they do not match you will need to troubleshoot to figure out why. It could be that the lender made an error, but more than likely the error is on your spreadsheet. If you have a friend or family member who is an Excel user, see if they can give you some assistance. The web is a great resource as well.

The real power of a spreadsheet is that you can simulate what-if scenarios easily. For example, let’s say that you receive a large cash windfall. You can input this figure into your spreadsheet and easily see what the results of such a big pay-down would be. You might learn that if you made this extra principal reduction payment your loan would be paid off in ten years instead of 15. You may find this very motivating. However, if you don’t have a tool such as a spreadsheet to generate this type of information, then you might choose do something else with your money.

Step 2) – Strategies to Accelerate Payoff
Congratulations on building a spreadsheet where you can track your student loan balances and payments. Tracking a loan in this manner gives you control over the loan. Getting a statement in the mail every month and not really understanding why your balance moved so little is not motivating and adds to a sense of hopelessness (and you really don’t want to go back to the cheap beer and Gilmore Girls re-runs). Here are some specific strategies to help you pay off your loan quickly:

Pay a little extra each month – We’ve all heard this before, especially when talking about mortgages. Well, the same holds true for student loans. When you make a monthly payment, part of that payment is applied to interest, and the rest to principal. My suggestion: Pay the amount of extra principal that will result in your loan balance having two zeros at the end of it. For example, if your balance will be $37,845.21 after you make your next payment, pay an extra $45.21 to make you principal balance $37,800. Getting your loan to an even hundred dollar figure is a strategy to encourage you to pay extra each month.

To facilitate this strategy, I suggest you pay your loan electronically. You have no control over when your payment is posted when you mail it. When you make an online payment, you typically select the payment post date. In addition, there will likely be a section to input the extra amount of principal you wish to pay.

The benefit of paying more than your minimum payment is that when you make your next loan payment, a bigger portion will be applied towards the principal and less towards the interest (compared to if you did not pay extra the prior month). If you continue to pay more than the minimum due, this effect will be compounded each month. The result is that you will pay off your loan significantly faster than if you only made the minimum payment. That is because as your balance decreases, the amount of interest you pay decreases. More of each payment will be applied to reducing the principal. This effect is easy to see when you track it on a spreadsheet, which is why doing so is an effective strategy.

Make a plan to pay “a lot extra” on a regular basis – If you get a tax refund each year, apply it to your student loan balance. This will have a tremendous impact on how quickly your loan is repaid. If you get a bonus each year, apply that as well. Any windfall, or instance of “found money”, should be used to reduce your balance. It is not uncommon for people to treat “found money” differently. “Found money” is often wasted on “splurge” items. Resist this urge! Use any extra money, no matter where or how you got it, to pay down your student loan balance!

In summary, the steps needed to help you pay off your loan quicker are:
1) Utilize a spreadsheet to track your loan so that you can see how much of each payment goes to principal and interest. Perform what-if scenarios so that you can see the impact of paying down your loan and formulate a strategy for doing so.
2) Pay a little extra each month. One strategy is to pay an extra amount such that your balance is an even increment of $100.
3) Commit to making large payments when you have a cash windfall, such as an income tax refund or bonus. While this may not provide an immediate reward, the long-term consequences will be sizeable. Time truly does fly, and what may seem like a huge balance now can be reduced to zero in a lot less time than you think, but only if you make it a priority and a goal.

Paying off a student loan can seem overwhelming. However, if you employ the strategies provided here, you’ll learn you can succeed more quickly than you ever imagined. You can apply these same ideas to your mortgage and other loans. Gaining control of your finances is empowering. And by the way, I started this article by referencing the five stages of grief. If you die, please know that in most cases your loan will die with you – unless you consolidated with a spouse. In that case, unfortunately, the loan will live on!

By Paul Anacki

Obama’s loan modification housing plan basically aims to assist borrowers by making their existing loans more manageable in line with household budget. We cannot possibly say for sure how well the plan will work out the long term, nor how sustainable it is, but the advantages laid out have been massive. As well as assisting borrowers to regain control of their finances, it is now also easier than ever for a homeowner to qualify for this assistance. It is much easier, for example, than qualifying for traditional refinance.

Obama’s loan modification housing plan is even open to those who are not yet in arrears. So even if you are up to date but do anticipate trouble paying in the near future owing to a change in circumstances, you can still apply. Homeowners on this scheme are given the opportunity to have the terms of their existing mortgages adjusted in order to make their monthly payments more affordable. Loan modification attorneys with infinite knowledge and experience in this area are also on hand to offer advice. This plan is basically the government run initiative to try to end the current housing crisis by avoiding foreclosure.

Although widely covered in the press, many consumers still do not really fully understand the details of Obama’s plan. Essentially the measures that can be taken in modifying existing mortgages and loan include reducing the principal, the interest rate and the monthly payment. Through government initiatives, both lenders and borrowers alike are finding themselves more willing to partake.

Fundamentally, the plan wants to prevent borrowers in arrears from ever actually losing their home to foreclosures. Lenders receive incentives to take people onto these schemes as well.

It is estimated that a huge 5 million borrowers will enter into Obama’s loan modification housing plan, with those most at risk of losing their home saved by more manageable payment plans. Although incentives are paid to both delinquent borrowers and to lenders alike, lenders actually receive extra incentives if they take on people who are NOT yet in arrears but who are struggling. It seems that Obama’s plan is winning favour with borrowers and lenders alike and is making massive progress in recovering the housing market.

If you are having problems with debt but have too little equity in your home to fall back on or if you are renting, there are three options for credit card consolidation care that you should be aware of.

Debt Consolidation Programs

A debt consolidation program is one where all of your debts are combined and paid off with one larger loan. This can save you a lot of money by reducing interest rates paid to several different companies and lowering your monthly payment into one that is more manageable. There are two types of debt consolidation programs you may be interested in, credit counseling and debt settlement.

Credit Counseling

For people wishing to avoid filing bankruptcy, consumer credit counseling may be a good alternative. You will meet with a credit counselor who will assess your debt situation and work out a repayment plan based on your current income. Once that information has been processed, the credit counselor will contact each of your creditors individually in an attempt to negotiate lower payments and interest rates. After each creditor accepts the negotiated terms, you will begin making one monthly payment to the credit counseling agency, who in turn disperses the funds to your creditors.

There is a usually a start-up fee and a monthly maintenance fee to be involved in a credit counseling program. You will need to consider whether that fee is worth the convenience, since you always have the option of working out reduced payments and interest with each individual creditor yourself.

Debt Settlement

A debt settlement is an agreement entered into directly with a creditor to immediately pay part of the balance due and then have the rest of the balance forgiven. There are also professional agencies who can negotiate debt settlements for you. Creditors are more open to this type of arrangement than you might think. It is better for them to receive part of their money than none of it if you declare bankruptcy or continually avoid their collection efforts. It is also costly for them to employ collection agencies. Although they may ask for proof of hardship, such as a death in the family or the loss of a job, it is best to approach them with a potential debt settlement rather than try to dodge them forever.

Personal Loans

A final option for people who are deeply in debt is to apply for an unsecured loan and then use the funds to pay off all of their other accounts. In this type of loan, you are not offering the lender any collateral so it is riskier for them to undertake. Therefore, expect to pay a higher interest rate than you would on a secured loan. However, the interest rate is generally fixed and the payment due is the same each month, so it makes it easier to budget for repayment. A personal loan is generally a better option than credit cards since it doesn’t encourage continued spending, which is a habit that should be avoided from this point forward.