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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Pay it down!


I've read a few books about debt. This one is more moderate than some others I have seen, but seems realistic and shares some valuable ideas. The premise here is that by finding an extra ten dollars a day and applying that money to your debt you should be able to get out of debt and begin to save for the future. This assumes, of course, that you do not acquire any new debt. 
The first point that caught my eye deals with credit card debt. The author tells us that on average, each credit card transaction ends up costing us $82 additional dollars. Every transaction. If that doesn't make you want to cut up your cards, nothing will! 
The author suggests making a budget, finding that extra $10 a day, and then paying down credit card debt first, starting with the highest interest rate. This makes good financial sense, since the highest fees are paid to that card. Once the first card is paid, take the amount that you were making in payments and apply it to the next card. 
Another suggestion that I liked, was using electronic bill pay from your primary account and depositing money for additional expenses in a second account. If you never touch the main account, you won't go off budget. Once it is all set up it should pretty much handle its self. 
For any budget, getting organized and making the plan take a while, but once you get started seeing your efforts pay off they money saved and peace of mind will be its own reward.

http://www.jeanchatzky.com/

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