Hi everyone,


I am new to this forum and I am hoping that maybe someone here might be able to give me some ideas as to how to get more financially organized and as to how I can develop and clear and concise plan for getting out of debt.

Welcome to The Finance Forums.

I'm hoping for the same. I posted a similar question already and cannot find the thread. I hope to get answers here as well.

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U.S. Financial News

Welcome to the forum. I am glad to see you want to try to organize your financial life and try to get debt free.

To begin, I would recommend getting everything (finance wise) together. Start with your free credit reports to see where you stand with debts and/or collections. Next, get your most recent bank statement(s), investments, IRAs, etc. You need to be able to account for every single dollar you have and, likewise, owe. Write everything out in two columns, one for assets, one for debts. Then you will know exactly where you stand.

A couple of years ago, I began tracking my finances daily, using a spreadsheet program I set up on my computer. You can buy software to do it, but with a little work tweaking a spreadsheet program, you can do the same things a $100 program can do for free. I have it set now so I just have to update it once a day and it takes all of two minutes. I can use the spreadsheets to track and figure out how much I spent yesterday, last week, last month, this week last year, etc.

Once you begin tracking everything, you can really see where your money goes and how to try and save to pay off debt. In essence, you need to become a minor league accountant to track your daily (or weekly) finances. It takes some discipline, time and work, but it really pays off when you start seeing the debt shrink and the money going in the right directions.

I hope you get where you want to be financially and if you want more suggestions or help, just let me know.

If you are focused on getting out of debt, Dave Ramsey and John Commutta have popular and similar approaches. Do some budgeting and figure out how much you can commit to each month to pay down debt. This should be MORE than your total minimum payments. If you can't meet or exceed the minimums, these programs can't help much, and you need professional debt management help. If you can do this, you stick to this commitment until all debts are paid off. With your monthly commitment, pay the minimums on all accounts except one, the "focus" account, which you pay the most on, up to your commitment amount. Its best if the focus acount is the highest interest account, though Ramsey recommends the lowest balance first to give you quick wins. Once the first one is paid off, you roll all the extra amounts into the next focus account. The key is you DO NOT lower your commitment amount as acocunts are paid off. Instead, later focus accounts are accelerated even more with increasingly higher extra payments.

You might check out www-DueMinder-com, which has on-line software (free) letting you track and simulate payments following the Dave Ramsey and John Commutta strategies.

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www.DueMinder.com - Free software to eliminate credit card debt in 2-3 years, mortgage in 5-7 years
blog.DueMinder.com - Sixty To Zero

In case you are still reading this thread, I suggest you read Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover. It will give you a step by step way to get out of debt and build wealth.

Reading a few books on personal finance will do you wonders. Here are some general things to do:

Write down all your expenses.
Figure out what you can get rid of.
Make a budget to follow.
If you are current, save a small emergency fund of 1k, in savings
Pay the minimums, then take all extra funds and pay towards smallest debt to largest or highest interest to lowest.
After debts are paid, build EF to 3 to 6 months expenses.
Then invest at least 10% of gross wages into stock mutual funds.
Establish a car-misc. fund.

Bottom line, budget, payoff debt, live on less than you earn.

I think the posts above are very helpful. In addition I would suggest to get your spending into control and that is all about your mindset.

Maybe this helps: Every time you want to spend money, ask yourself: Do I really need this or do I want this? My experience is that you need less.

The drawback is that we don't like to cut our expenses.
Motivate yourself by asking: what will it bring you when you are debt free? No more financial worreis etc; you know the answers.

My experience is that writing it down and reading daily definitively helps. Will power alone is often not enough.
I think you two can dig out when applying the advices of the posts.

Good luck

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www.foreveroutofdebt.com FREE Tips and Insights to Pay off Your Debts and Loans Now

Have you been paying your bills on time or have you experienced some type of financial hardship that has gotten you behind?

The Dave Ramsey/John Comutta systems may work if you have cash flow. If you are tight and things are getting tighter you need immediate relief. My Debt Relief program will reduce your debt by half and you will stop paying interest on Day #1. This is the only way out unless you file bankruptcy.

I would first recommend you find out how badly in debt you are, and were you want to be. spreadsheets,journals, or planners will become your best friend. The first step would be to find out exactly were you are balances, minimum payments, and a budget. you will find were you are carelessly spending your money if you document absolutely everything. Then you can "cut the fat" so they say. If you are doing well making your payments start hammering at the lowest one until it is paid off and then take what you were paying on that one and apply to the next one and so forth. If you are not making minimum payments and are getting further behind. I would recommed settlement for your unsecured debt to get out of it fast. it will effect your credit, but it will return after about a year. Its better than bankruptcy for the long haul. you can do this on your own or use a company. I myself used a company and would gladly let you know the details if you are interested just let me know if you have any questions i will gladly answer whatever i can!

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my blog about saving money during a recession, And my personal story about Provanta's debt settlement program and how it worked for my family