Ladydebt

These Debt Consolidation or Debt Continuation Companies don’t tell you what you should absolutely know to be debt free.

78% of people who consolidate their debts will fall again in debts after a short period of time, and will end up in the office of a debt consolidation service.

Why? Simply because you think that you will really be debt free after three or five years, but it is not the case. Let me explain… Those company, after giving you a very nice pitch (anyway, you did not have choice: bankruptcy, home equity – you can loose your home – , debt settlement company another kind of wolf -), promise you that you will pay a lower interest rate.

But what is the catch? Yes there is a catch. The catch is that you will stay longer in debt if you want lower interest rates.

It is not the only reason why I call them Debt Continuation Services. Another reason is: While people are trying to consolidate their debts, they still need to live, and they drag out the credit card for their everyday life. Yes, bills are not stopping while you are trying to get out of debt, it is going on. And those services know that you will come back, this is the reason why they want to help you.

They know that debt consolidation companies are gaining in popularity, and because thousands of customers turn to these services, they continue to grow.

How do they catch so much customers?

Let’s review some examples of pitches promising to be debt free:

* We will help you to eliminate your debts, don’t worry

* Consolidate your bills into one monthly payment without borrowing

* Stop credit harassment, foreclosures, repossessions, tax levies and garnishment

* Keep your property

* Wipe out your debts! Consolidate your bills! How? By using the protection and assistance provided by federal law. For once, let the law work for you

Until here, it sounds good… Let’s continue,

* For that, you just need to pay us a one time bill, or a small fee.

Oh great you say! I found these people and they want to help me, and I will be debt free in less than three years. I must give it a try.

What? They just need to get you more in trouble, by having more debts, paying interest rates, work for them (making them richer than they already are).

And upon that, you need to investigate before choosing any debt consolidation service, because there is a lot of scams out there.

Everywhere in the world today, people are becoming submerged in debt. Everywhere you look, it is possible to purchase today and pay tomorrow, consumers are steadily falling into this trap everyday, and before they know it, they are so far in debt they are unsure how to get out. This is where debt counseling comes in; however you need to be made aware of debt counseling frauds. Some are only in place to take your money.

Legitimate debt counseling companies do not claim to be not-for-profit if they are not. There have been cases where a company has claimed this and ended up swindling their clients money. There are ways to protect yourself; you should check a debt counseling company’s reputation thoroughly before investing your time and effort into them.

Never conduct business with a company that requires any upfront fees or asks you for voluntary contributions. This is a red flag, legitimate debt counseling companies advise you on money management, budget development, debt and educational material and occasionally workshops.

Essentially, it is none of their business regarding the details of your situation or requires you to be approved. They should discuss your financial situation and help you in developing a plan to eliminate the problems.

You can also check your local government agency or better business bureau, to ensure that they are indeed legitimate and no complaints have been filed against them.

The other things that will tell you rather or not a debt counseling service is legitimate include the following things. If they promise lowered payments, leave, only interest rates can be lowered not payments. If they ask you for your account numbers prior to giving you a quote, this is not necessary at all. If they group the quotes together instead of giving you a breakdown of how each creditor will be handled, this will leave you with no idea of how long it will take to pay off each account.

There are also questions you should always ask when choosing a debt counseling service. These questions should include charges for educational material, a disclosure in writing of fees that are charged, if they are properly licensed to do business in your area, what will happen if you cannot afford their fees, what type of services do they offer and if the counselors are certified and who certified them. This is your money and your financial well-being, do not leave any stone unturned.

There is a new bankruptcy law that makes filing bankruptcy harder for everyone. To file a chapter 7 will be nearly impossible if you are currently employed. They have formed a test that you will have to pay showing that your income is less than the median income for your area. Along with these new laws, it has become required to obtain debt-counseling services when filing bankruptcy.

Choose the debt counseling company very carefully and ensure they are legitimate. You do not want to cause more harm or damage to your credit, so choose reputable companies wisely.

Why you should know more about Chinese Medicine?

If you understand why Chinese medicine is superior to occidental medicine, you will be able to solve a lot of problems beside debts.

Chinese medicine:

Identify the source of the problem ==> Make The Patient Conscious about these problems ==> Eliminate the problem ==> Explain to the patient how to avoid this problem ==> Explain to the patient what to do to put this problem far away for him

Occidental medicine:

Identify the problem (not the source, only the most apparent) ==> Eliminate (or maybe not) the problem ==> Give the solution

It’s clear now that in the second case, the patient doesn’t really know the causes of his problem, and he is more likely to fall again in the same situation.

In the first case, everything is done for the patient to understand his problem at the root. He will be able to fight with more weapons, and win while in the second case, he doesn’t know who, and where the menace is coming from…

You must identify the real cause of your debts if you want to be debt free. Now that I explained to you how to deal with any thread, let me explain why so much people have so much huge debts.

The reason is that the interest rate is leading to these situations. It is inevitable, for the growth of the economy to establish interest rates, and to be able to adjust them, when it’s time to do so.

Question: Do you remember the Chinese principle? How do you know that the society based on the interest rate is the most advantageous for people?
Like the commerce is based on justice, interest rate is based on injustice, as we have seen earlier. It is the real cause of debts, and the cause of your problem right now. It is the source.

How commerce is based on justice? You will understand after reading this: You own a product A, and other human being need this product for one of these 3 reasons:

Vital Need (water, foods…)

Solve a problem (the car train, bus, plane for long distances;air conditioned…)

Feel Good (beauty products, health care…)

You are exchanging these product A against money. You need that money, and your customers need your products. It is justice because everybody wins.

It is exactly the opposite effect with interest.

Once you understand and start implementing this Chinese principle, you will be able to find even more causes to your problems. See here the inevitable consequence of interest: Mastervisa card, Discovery, American Express. Everybody has one, or more.

You are given the right to buy what you can’t buy. What does that mean? It means that without this loan and the interest that you will pay for it, you will normally not be able to buy your car, or your house, or… Unless you win more money, or borrow from someone!

Our subject here is to find the ways to get out of that debt. But the most important is to let you control.

Are you deep in debt and have a bad credit history? If you answered yes to that question, finding a company who offers a bad credit debt and loan consolidation service may seem like the perfect solution. It is very important however, to investigate all of your options before taking such a drastic step. Bad credit debt and loan consolidation solutions usually come at quite a hefty price so it is important that you choose carefully.

Many people who have large amounts of debt do not need any form of bad credit consolidation as long as every every effort is made to spend less and pay off bills. Obviously, you don’t need to pay a professional bad credit consolidation advisor to find that out.

Before you consider taking out any kind of bad credit consolidation loan, it is important to call the companies that you owe and plead your case for lower interest rates and a longer payment schedule. You may well find that you will be given reasonable arrangements if you explain that you are considering using a bad credit consolidation service. Many firms would prefer you to pay less over a longer period of time than have to deal with the negotiations of a bad credit consolidation agency.

The interest rates of most bad credit consolidation packages are more or less the same and any very low rates that are advertised are for people who have great credit. You need to be sure you know exactly what the cost of entering the bad credit consolidation program is, and whether it will be worth it in the end, so you should inquire about interest charges and any other fees that might stack up during the program.

Your credit rating may or may not benefit from working with a bad credit consolidation plan however it is unlikely to make your credit rating worse. Many creditors will actually see that having a bad credit consolidation plan in effect as a sign of you trying to get your finances back on track.

A bad credit consolidation plan and loan is most certainly a better option than declaring bankruptcy. Bankruptcy will follow you for a long time whereas the bad credit consolidation loan only remains for as long as you are paying it off. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy will be part of your financial history for roughly 10 years. Chapter 13 can be much longer depending on how many years you need to pay off your debts. If you do decide to go forward with declaring bankruptcy, rather than taking a bad credit consolidation loan then make sure you are prepared to deal with the consequences.

9 Steps To Get Out Of Debt – Part 9

Step 9 – Investing

This is the last article in our series on how to get and stay out of debt. So far you have learned the impact of debt, how to analyze your debt, reduce your interest rates, free up some extra income, pay off your debt, avoid falling back into debt, and insure yourself against unforeseen circumstances. This final article will show you how to invest financially into your future.

So far, businesses have been making money off of you by lending you their money, now is your chance to turn this relationship around and make a profit off of them by lending them money. Welcome to the world of investing. There are many things people invest for, but by far the most popular is retirement.

Well start with the bad news, figuring out how much you are going to need for retirement. First, youll want to estimate how much you are going to need, or want in order to get by when you are retired. Granted, your expenses will most likely be lower because your home and other most other major expenses will hopefully be paid for by this season of life. I cant give you a simple guide to tell you exactly how much you will need in this article, so I will leave it to you to estimate.

Now that you have this number, multiply it by fifteen, this is the amount you need to save. The reason for this is so you can live off the interest only, which will allow you to support yourself for the remainder of your life. This will also allow you leave an inheritance for your children. This will probably seem like an unachievable number, but dont abandon hope yet; it isnt as difficult as it first seems.

The reason this isnt as difficult as it first seems is because of the magic of compounding interest. If you were to start investing 100 each month at the age of 20 at 10% return per year, by the time you are 65 you will have approximately 780,000. However, its very important to start as soon as possible. If you start at the age of 30 investing the same amount each month, youll only have 294,000. Youre not out of hope though, youll just have to invest more. If you start at the age of 30, youll need to invest approximately 260 a month to have the same 780,000 at the age of 65. As you get older the amount youll need to invest goes up significantly, but typically so does your income.

Where to invest your money is something you should really talk over with a financial advisor. Ill provide some very basic tips, though. First off, never put all of your money into a single investment no matter how good you think it is. Nothing is guaranteed, and many people have lost everything by investing in a single company. You should always diversify. I would suggest five different investments, minimum.

Typically the higher paying investments are often the riskier investments, also referred to as aggressive. If you are close to retirement, you should avoid these and go with something much safer. If you have several decades until retirement, you can afford to ride out the ups and downs in the market and will usually come out ahead by investing in more aggressive stocks, early on. As you get closer to your retirement age, you should gradually start moving your money into more stable investments.

I hope you have enjoyed this article series and it has helped you to get your finances in order. If this article series has helped you, please pass it on to your friends and family so it can help them as well. For more advice, consider finding a personal financial advisor.

9 Steps To Get Out Of Debt – Part 4

Step 4 – Reducing Your Interest

If you have read the previous articles, so far you have learned how wide spread of a problem debt is, the true impact it can have on your life, and how to determine exactly how much debt you have and how much it will actually cost you. The next step is to attempt to reduce your interest rate. There are several ways you can accomplish this.

Well start by looking at what are typically known as the highest-interest debt, credit cards. Believe it or not, one of the easiest ways to do this is to simply call your credit card issuer and ask them to reduce your rate. This sounds laughable at first, but quite often it actually works. Credit card issuers typically charge customers much higher interest rates for the money they loan than what they pay to borrow it from others. This leads to huge profit margins, which means they really want to keep you as a customer, especially if you regularly pay your bill on time. They know you have plenty of options available, and are likely to switch to another credit card issuer if you feel you can get a better deal, so theyre happy to make a slightly smaller profit and keep you as a customer by lowering your rate.

If that doesnt work, a second option is to find a lower-rate credit card and roll your balance over to it. You may be tempted to go with a card that has a 0% introductory rate. This is probably not your best option though, unless you plan on paying off the card within six months. What you want to look for is a card with a low permanent rate. There are several sites available to where you can compare credit cards from multiple issuers such as Creditor Web, http:www.creditorweb.com.

There are also several broader options available for credit cards and other types of debt. One of which is to look into refinancing any loans you have. Interest rates go up and down over time, and its quite possible the rate you can get now is lower than what it was at the time you originally financed the loans. Often there will be a refinancing fee involved, so use the amortization calculator from the previous article to make sure the amount you are going to save is greater than the amount you will have to pay.

You can also get a debt consolidation loan. You need to be careful when considering this option though, because although there are several legitimate companies offering debt consolidation loans, there are also several companies trying to make a quick buck at the expense of others. I highly recommend checking out any company you consider getting a loan through with the Better Business Bureau, especially if its not a reputable bank you are familiar with. In addition, once again use the amortization calculator to make sure you are actually saving money with the loan. Just because your monthly payments are lower doesnt mean youre saving money. 300 per month for 10 years is going to cost you more than 500 a month for 5 years.

The last option I want to suggest is for those of you who own a home. There are actually two options here, you can take out a second mortgage, or refinance your home for its current value and some additional funds, to pay off other debt. As with the one before, this can be both good and bad. It can be good because these loans typically offer the lowest interest rate because they are relatively safe loans for banks. That is also the same reason they are bad; if you do not pay them off, the bank can repossess your house. The other built-in benefit is by refinancing, you can often get a lower interest rate on your house, which can save you a bundle. As with the previous option, theres often a refinancing fee, so use the amortization calculator, http:www.destroydebt.comcalculatorsAmortizationCalculatorJs.aspx to make sure you are saving money by doing this.

With all of these methods let me stress that you should be very careful not to fall into the same trap many others have. Too often families will take out a second mortgage or debt consolidation loan to pay off their credit cards, but instead of using this is a means to reduce their debt, they charge up all the credit cards again and end up in a worse situation than they were before. Dont let this happen to you. Once you have refinanced to eliminate any credit card debt, close those accounts. Just keep one open for emergency use only until you get to a later step in this guide where you can destroy that one, as well.