Debt Articles

There are lots of options out there for those of us who are too far in debt.  There is credit counseling and debt consolidation.  There are lawyers offering to have your debt reduced for a fee, and in extreme cases, there is bankruptcy.  With all of these choices, one might imagine that it’s impossible for a person to get out of debt on his own.

The truth is that it is quite possible to get out of debt with no outside help.  Even those who don’t think there is room in their budget to pay down their debts are often surprised.  It takes willpower and determination, but you can usually get out of debt on your own.

How do I get out of debt on my own?

Are you too far in debt?  If so, in order to get out of debt on your own you will need to develop a plan and stick to it.  Here is a good plan to follow:

1.  Stop accruing new debt.  Put the credit cards away, and refrain from taking out new loans or refinancing old ones to borrow more money.

2.  Create a budget.  You need to know where your money is going each month, and in which areas you can cut back to free up more money to pay off your debts.  If you’re not sure where your money is going, write down all of your expenses for a month and then make your budget.

3.  Cut the unnecessary items out of your budget, and cut back anywhere else you can.  Set this money aside to pay down your debts.

4.  Determine which debt needs to be paid off first.  If you have secured debts other than a long-term mortgage, you may want to pay them off first.  Debts with high interest should also take priority, unless you have lower interest credit cards that charge exorbitant annual or monthly fees.

5.  Pay the minimum payment each month on all of your debts except the one that you have given top priority.  Put all of your extra funds toward that debt, and continue to do so until it is paid off.  If you get a bonus at work or unexpected money from some other source, consider putting it toward your debt as well.

6.  When you get one debt paid off, start putting your extra money toward the next one.  Repeat until all of your debts are paid in full.

Paying off debt on your own is often easier than you think.  By taking a realistic look at our finances, we can often find ways to come up with the money to pay debts off without the help of anyone else.  Doing so helps us maintain good credit, or rebuild our credit if it is imperfect.

Source: Debt

Bankruptcy is a financial practice that allows you to officially declare that you cannot repay your debts now and do not see how it will ever be possible in the future. Declaring Bankruptcy is a big step. For some people, there are other ways to get out of debt, like debt consolidation or negotiating with your lenders. However, if your best option for getting out of debt is bankruptcy, than you should take steps to make this financial situation work in the best possible way for you. A financial profession can help you do that. In any case, before you jump into anything, you need to fully decide if bankruptcy is right for you.

First, it is important to learn as much as you can about bankruptcy. For individuals, chapter 7 and chapter 13 are the two types of bankruptcy that can be filed. There are other options for businesses and entities. Learn the difference between the two so you can see how they work. If bankruptcy is right for you, you must be aware of your obligations and your lenders’ choices.

Once you have learned all you can about bankruptcy, take a moment to consider other options. For example, you can consolidate your debts into one large monthly payment. If you are considering bankruptcy because you just barely miss paying off your bills on time every month or if you feel overwhelmed by credit card debt, this may be a great option for you. You can also try doing nothing and living simply for a number of years, which works well if you have no family for which you are responsible. Another options is negotiating with your lenders. In the end, there are many different options other than bankruptcy, so make sure that your second step is to consider them all.

Next, check out the requirements for eligibility for declaring bankruptcy. If your debts are too high and your income too low, you probably will not qualify for chapter 13 bankruptcy. On the other hand, if your income is too high and your debts too low, you probably will not qualify for chapter 7 bankruptcy. In some cases, you may not qualify for either, and this is a sign that you did not think through your other choices.

Consider all of your property and debts if you do qualify. What will happen to your home? Your car? Your retirement plan? Every state has different specification when to comes to this, so make sure that you understand how your property will or will not be taken. Also, it is important to begin compiling lists of your assets and debts. Remember that some debts cannot be wiped out, like child support payments.

Once you have all your information compiled, you can begin the declaration process. It is best to work with a lawyer or financial professional to complete this task, and remember to always be completely honest. Declaring bankruptcy is not for everyone, but it can work for some people.

Source: debt

The credit crunch is not just about the willingness of banks to lend each other money.
It affects each and every one of us. Over the last fifteen years we have seen an ever increasing injection of money into the monetary systems of all the major banks in the western world and with low interest rates this has created an environment of a cheap money supply.

We have all been encouraged to borrow money whether it is for cheaper mortgages, zero rated credit cards, or bank loans, all with the intentions of keep us spending and therefore keeping the major economies running.

This has resulted in levels of personal debt never seen before in every major industrial country in the world.

In the next two years the people of these major countries will be fighting their biggest battles not on the streets of Bagdad or the hills of Afghanistan. The biggest battles will be on their home front, literally. Desperately fighting from trench to trench trying to stem off the ever increasing price rises of food and utility supplies and millions of people will carry the scars from skirmishes with bailiffs and debt recovery companies.

The major battle for the majority of average families in this worldwide economy will be, not just stopping going into debt, but managing their debt.

Debt is simply a fact of life for many people. While debt can be an incredible burden, it doesn’t have to be if you’re willing to work toward a debt-free life. There are several simple tips you can follow to ensure that you pull yourself out of debt – and stay out of debt.

First, face your problem head on. Some people tend to panic, and understandably so, when it comes to debt and as a result ignore the problem. Ignoring your debt isn’t going to make it go away nor is it going to help you: It’s only going to make problems worse.

Start by sitting down and making a list of all of your debt, including the name of the person or company to whom you owe money, the amount of money you owe, and your monthly payments. Knowing how much you owe and to whom you owe money will help you get a better handle of the situation. If you are heavily in debt, you must prioritize your debts to ensure that those with the most priority – your mortgage, for example – are paid first.

The next step to working toward a debt free life is to set a budget and stick to it. To set your budget, start by listing all of your monthly expenses, including your recurring bills and debt. Your monthly income should cover all of your monthly expenses. After, and only after, you’ve paid your essential bills should you use the money you have left to pay down your remaining debt.

While you’re in debt, you may have to cut back on some of the luxuries and only pay for the necessities. For example, rather than purchasing brand names at your local supermarket, opt for the store brand. Eat in rather than eating out. Read magazines at the library rather than purchasing them. You’ll save money that you can then use to help pay down your debt. (Some experts even recommend keeping a daily spending journal, so you can see where you’re wasting money.)

In addition, take a look at your current expenses, including your home and car insurance, to determine if you’re getting the best rate out there. Most experts recommend shopping around for new insurance at least once every year to ensure that you’re getting the best rates possible.

If you don’t have enough money to pay your monthly payments, contact each of your creditors and talk to them. You’ll likely be surprised at how willing most creditors are to work with customers; oftentimes, creditors will negotiate a smaller monthly payment.

Finally, a word of caution: If you’re in debt, you don’t want to go further into debt, so do not open any new credit cards, initiate any new loans, or take on new debt of any kind. In fact, cut up your credit cards, leaving only one for an emergency. Remember, your goal is to pull out of debt, and adding new debt will only hinder that process.

So as the storm clouds of recession gather on the horizon I can only suggest you bunker down make your plan of recovery and prepare to go into battle against the biggest enemy
you will ever have. The life and soul destroying Debt.

==============================================

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Source: money

Forget the Battle of the Bulge - are you losing the Battle of the Bills? If so, don’t surrender to your debt. Instead, be smart, gather your bills, and read on because
I’m going to tell you about 5 ways you can consolidate debt loans without using your home’s equity!

CREDIT CARD TRANSFER - I know this is Old Faithful in the financial services world, but if you can qualify for 0% financing for a year, not only does it save you money, but it may help you kick some unwanted debt out of your life.

Before transferring existing debt onto a new credit card, keep in mind that if you can’t pay off the balance before the introductory rate expires, it could cost you in the long run. If you’re certain that you can pay the account off during the introductory period it could be a wise move.

WHAT’S YOUR LIFE WORTH? - Do you have a whole life insurance policy with cash value that you’re not using right now? If you do, you can borrow against its value in order to pay off some bills. The good news is that the interest rate on this kind of loan is usually better than you can get on the open market and if you default it won’t hit your credit report. The bad news is that if you die before you repay the loan, your beneficiary will receive less money. Which is OK if you really don’t like your beneficiary anyway…?

NOT FOR PROFIT CONSUMER CREDIT COUNSELING AGENCIES- If your back’s against the wall, this option may be your best choice for debt relief, because they can usually negotiate better repayment terms than you can get on your own.

This option also has a possible drawback: depending on what they negotiate, you could wind up with some credit score damage by utilizing the services of a consumer credit counseling agency.

But then again, minor credit damage is probably preferable to the financial devastation that could come about if your financial house of cards comes tumbling down.

In addition, these services usually offer free or low-cost debt counseling services that can keep you from making the same mistakes that got you into this situation in the first place. You could chalk up the minor credit score damage as the cost of a priceless financial education.

WHO’S YOUR DADDY? - I normally frown upon borrowing money from family or friends, but if you have a relative that has offered to help you out, you might want to consider taking them up on it.

If you do, be smart about it. Don’t borrow more than you can afford to repay, have a written agreement - and stick to it. Don’t take advantage of the generosity of the family member or friend.

Treat this obligation issue like you would any other credit obligation. A hit on your credit report will stick around for seven to 10 years, but potential damage to a relationship can last longer. If you’re mindful of the dangers, your relationship will stay on firm footing.

RETIREMENT ACCOUNT - While it can be expensive to do so, if it’s only a limited amount of money and you eliminate the accounts you pay off with the proceeds, this could be a smart financial move, regardless of the fact that you’ll probably incur a tax penalty. Because this is your retirement, this option should be used as a last resort.

See? It is possible to consolidate debt loans without using your home as an ATM machine. Do you have any creative ideas for consolidating debt? What are they?

—————————————————-
Darrin Roseborsky is a Refinance Specialist with OMAC Mortgages, seminar speaker and president of the Roseborsky Group and HomeRefinanceCoach.com. Darrin can help you MAXIMIZE your equity PROPERLY and help you find options that make the MOST SENSE for your situation! Learn more about how it works at: <a href=”http://www.homerefinancecoach.com

A dark feeling rises from the pit of your stomach and a wave of heat courses over your face. Every time you think about the bills, your financial situation or the phone rings, this homegrown dread makes itself known. Your stomach churns, the heartburn begins, again.

You’re having problems thinking clearly, you’re tense, on edge and can’t make a clear decision. Forget thinking about the future, how about just getting through tomorrow.

All sorts of thoughts race through your mind. You wonder how you are going to make the car payment, pay for food and if you’d be better off dead than alive.

The creditors are calling, demanding and threatening you for money you just don’t have. You had some and sent it to them to keep them happy in the past but now the savings is all gone and there is no money left.

Rather than thinking clearly or investigating all of your options on how to deal with this, you really can’t think much further ahead than getting to work, getting home and making it through another day.

But work has become a painful task. With your tossing and turning, waking up in a panic about your situation, and not being able to really drift off to sleep till dawn, you’re not rested. Every little thing causes you to clench your jaw; the kids, the cat, the commute, and the co-worker.

Forget having a easy relationship with your spouse these days, now it seems like every thing is about tension and conflict. There is no rest, no sex, less love, more stress. It all feels like it is cascading down on you without hope and without solutions.

The weeks roll by, the car may be gone soon, foreclosure looks like it might be in the future. But how did you get here you ask yourself.

It all started innocently enough, a card here, a deserved vacation there and when cash got a little tight, you used the credit cards for necessities to make the short month stretch just a little bit farther. You’re not really sure how it happened but one day you woke up and the balances were just more than you could believe. A number so high that the thought of ever being able to pay more than the minimum payment seemed impossible.

The transition from hopeful to hopeless went rather briskly. By the time you saw the reality of your situation it made you want to vomit, and angry. Now you’re angry at the world, your family, the kids, the pet, the job, the spouse and you feel like God has abandoned you. You feel fear, vulnerable and afraid. You just want someone to wrap you in a warm hug, rock you back and forth and say it is going to be all right. You just need to find a way to put these bad feelings away so you can get back to living again.

That’s what being in debt is like for many.

Debt is always undesirable and everyone does whatever they can to avoid getting stuck in it. But, thanks to credit cards and offers of delayed payment, controlling spending habits and preventing debt involves a considerable amount of hard work and discipline.

The first step is learning to live within our means, which is more than simply being able to pay all the bills with the money in your paycheck. Being financially secure requires having extra money every month that can be used in case of an emergency. It also involves saving money in a savings account.

Living paycheck to paycheck can be dangerous, especially if you have a family. Children get sick; cars break down. Taking money from the bills is not a wise decision, but if you are in a bind, you do what you have to do. The way to break this cycle is to spend less money each month.

Spending less money every month can only be done by instituting a financial plan for the family, starting with the budget. Although creating a budget may seem to take a lot of time the first time you sit down to do it, it will become easier each time you revise it.

Budgets are useless if the people who establish them do not stick to their limits. Make sure you are held responsible by another member of the family if you go beyond the confines set by the family budget for some reason.

Try to stay in line with your budget from the very beginning of the month. Remember that habits of any kind, including financial ones, are made or broken in just two short weeks. Making a lunch at home instead of eating out during the workday will help you as well. Shop with a grocery list so youre sure to have everything you need and prepare your food the night before work.

More than simply financial habits need to be changed in order to control spending. To prevent yourself from just going out for dinner, start thawing out frozen meat in the morning so that when you arrive in the evening its already ready. In order to make sure that lunches are packed and not forgotten, make them the night before instead of in the morning. Leaving notes around the house reminding you of your new goals can also be helpful.

Before purchasing any old thing that someone wants, consider if the item is really necessary and do a little hunting around the house to see whether or not you already have something similar. For example, instead of buying a new box of crayons every time your children need them for a project, save one box in a convenient location. Reusing things you already have, even with inexpensive items like crayons, will help you discipline yourself to curb excessive spending.

Dont allow a holiday bonus or a raise at work to get you off track. Instead of adding such unexpected income to the monthly budget, simply count it as savings. Considering extra money as an opportunity to save will help you a lot.

Spending habits don’t change overnight. It takes time to change a shopaholic into a frugal fan, but it can be done when you try.

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Source: Money

I wonder about you humans from time to time. Oh the things I see you do.

You want to know why we dart out in front of you on the road, it’s to get away from you crazy people.

You’d never see me or my squirrel friends doing something as ridiculous as these human kids do in this video.

But after I watched the video it reminded me of what happens to people who take out credit they know they can’t afford. Same end result

The poor Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) in the UK has been taking a beating in the last twelve months but new worries are afoot. Between the creditors hijacking this debt relief solution that falls under the control of the Insolvency Service, other creditors refusing to accept payments in an IVA and now this, we’ll have to have some pity on the IVA.

What Myvesta UK is seeing is a sudden wave of consumers that entered an IVA a year or more ago who can no longer afford their IVA payments. Many are stating they are afraid or reticent to talk to their IVA Supervisor about being unable to afford their IVA payments. People are scared about what it means when an IVA fails or what will happen to them when the IVA fails.

This sudden increase in consumers that are fearful that they can’t meet their IVA payments is a symptom of the greater pressure that is being applied to UK households through an increased cost of living. There is no doubt that fuel and food prices have been rising significantly while wages have not.

That increased budget pressure only means that without additional income, what was once affordable, no longer is. The facts are clear, hard and fast IVA payments that were established a couple of years ago may just simply no longer be affordable. So what options do you have if you can’t afford your IVA payment?

Let your IVA Fail and Make a Second and More Flexible Attempt With Protection From Your Creditors If you simply can’t afford your IVA monthly payment and their is no expectation that you will be able to afford it, then you may have no choice other than to let your IVA fail. If you do this it is unlikely that your creditors will petition for your bankruptcy and instead you could seek protection from your creditors using the legal protection provided under the Myvesta Debt Management Plan.

Under this approach you will be represented by a solicitor and your creditors will be directed to comply with the OFT Debt Collection Guidance and to not contact you, but contact the solicitor instead. This approach can provide a great emotional relief to you.

Continue Your IVA By Just Getting By Each Month Just making it month-to-month with nothing left over is not a reasonable path to remain on at this time. It is pretty clear that the UK economy may be in for a rough ride, costs are escalating and wages are not rising as fast. If you continue in an IVA with a monthly payment that was established a year or so ago and you are having problems affording it then you need to evaluate if you can reasonably expect to make it through the entire 5 years of payments. If you can’t, you may be throwing good money after bad right now. If that’s the case then the sooner you seek advice and decide what alterations you need to make, you won’t be making monthly IVA payments that may not get you out of debt.

Unless you have spare room in your monthly budget, you are expecting an increase in income or you plan to work a second job, it would be wise to anonymously chat with a Myvesta UK advisor online to get an evaluation of your current situation and options.

Go Bankrupt This is the option we are hearing more IVA debtors asking about. They say they are now struggling with the IVA payments no longer being affordable and mentally they have had enough of the stress and pressure that financial problems bring. If you let your IVA fail you can always elect to go bankrupt but if you have some equity in your home then you may be forced to sell your home or give up control of your assets in a bankruptcy. Some people are saying they don’t care, they just can’t deal with their debt anymore and they are willing to walk away from their homes to do it. Certainly a drastic approach but it just shows you how feed up some people are.

While bankruptcy is a legal remedy to debt problems, it is not a course of action to be taken lightly. At the very least, if you have decided that you are just going to go bankrupt, get professional help and advice to do it properly. It is much more affordable to go bankrupt properly than having to go back and try to fix it latter. The biggest mistake people make when they go bankrupt on their own is not filing the proper paperwork to give them proper living expenses allowed by the court in bankruptcy.

But consider this first, before jumping to bankruptcy, take some time to just take a deep breath before making a knee-jerk decision about what you want to do. Here is one option, let your unaffordable IVA fail and enter the Myvesta Debt Management Plan, get legal protection from your creditors and then carefully revaluate your options without fear or pressure. Make a good educate decision about what you want to do so that instead of treading water for past financial sins you can launch into a real plan to get out of debt.

Summary No matter what you decided to do the bottom line should be to consider making some adjustments if you are in an IVA and the monthly payment is no longer affordable for some reason. Don’t panic and certainly don’t feel you have to suffer with this burden alone. The folks at Myvesta are here to help.

Original Article

Debt collections and the debt collector seem like things we should avoid at all cost, but that’s not true. Sometimes going into collections and being in collections is the smartest thing you can do.

If your choice is between spending all your money and living paycheck to paycheck or preserving some of your money and paying what you can afford, then paying what you can really afford is the smarter way to go.

When your credit card account is in collections it means that you are behind on your bill and have failed to make promised payments. We are rained to think that collections is bad and should be avoided at all costs, but why?

Creditors and collectors don’t care if you put yourself in a disadvantaged position in your life. All they want is one thing, your next payment. But holding onto your money may be the best move for you and your family in troubled times.

Let’s look at a typical situation and why going into debt collections would be a smart thing to do.

Jayne and Jon have had a reduction in income but the bills keep coming. They’ve used the credit cards a bit more than they should have for food and gas but they promised themselves that things were getting better, they aren’t. This month there are just more demands for payments than money available to pay. Jayne and Jon have some cash in savings they could dip in to pay the minimums.

If their situation was unique, then maybe tapping the savings account for a one time infusion of cash might be a smart thing to do. But with no immediate solution to their reduction in income, sucking money out of savings just makes the savings lower and does not solve the problem. Soon there will be no money left in savings and the situation will not have changed. The only thing achieved is that the debt collector got a few more payments out of you and now you are flat broke.

Being behind on credit card bills will land you in collections and will hurt your credit report and lower your credit score but it won’t get you evicted or your car repossessed. And when you go into collections, what happens:

The Normal 6 Month Collection Cycle
- Polite Late Notices
- More Demanding Late Notices
- Friendly Collections Calls
- Threat of Negative Marks on Your Credit
- Less Friendly Collection Calls
- Threat of Being Sued
- Maybe Being Sued
- More Aggressive Collection Calls
- Your Account is Sold to Another Creditor
- Cycle Begins Again

The reality is that collections is most effective when you are running in fear from the collector. But it just does not have to be like that.

Rather than give over your emotional power to the debt collector, use the following approach.

1. Don’t Avoid the Collector - Always be gracious and friendly. There is no need to react to the emotional tricks and pressures they will apply to you. Welcome the call, make a friend and be polite. Ask the debt collector how their day is going and wish them well. Avoiding the collection calls only drives the collector to try to find you by calling family or neighbors. Don’t let that happen.
2. Be Completely Honest About Your Situation - If you can’t afford to make a payment on your credit card bill this month, don’t. If you promise to make a payment and then fail to meet that promise the debt collector will use that against you. It is much better to stand your ground and deliver what you can honestly be able to rather than make a promise you can’t keep.
3. Be Mentally Prepared - As long as you are mentally prepared for the worst, you don’t have to be afraid of it. The worst that can happen when your account is seriously past due is that it will be reported to the credit bureaus, will appear on your credit report, you may incur a fee or penalty and your interest rate will be raised. Much, much latter in the collection process you may be asked to appear in court and explain your situation.

As long as you are aware of these basic facts the debt collector can’t emotionally manipulate into doing something that isn’t smart for you to do. The dumbest move would be for you to keep sending payments you can’t really afford just to protect your credit report or credit score. You can’t feed your family your credit report.

Food, shelter, clothing and transportation to work should always come before making a payment on an unsecured debt like a credit card.

Get Out of Debt Squirrel Says: Don’t be a chump, learn when to not pay your bills.

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Cold sweats, gurgling stomach, headaches, short attention span, fighting with those you love, panicked, anxious and stressed. All of these are emotions or symptoms that people experience when they are facing a financial crisis. I know I did when I lived through my financial meltdown.

While my troubles happened in 1990, they still feel as real as if they happened last week, I was distracted during the day and slept very poorly at night. I watched infomercials to fall asleep and could never fall completely asleep until about dawn, when I had to get up. I was a wreck.

As I watch the financial news in the U.S. and elsewhere go from bad to worse I just know there are millions of people living with some of these very same debt symptoms each day. The strain of trying to keep up appearances of success and stability in an otherwise dynamically changing negative economic environment is difficult.

And ironically the simplest solutions to these financial worries and stress are most often the best and most effective. Here is a list of things to do or avoid in these trying times upon us.

• Don’t Over-Save Because You Are Afraid - In the desire to get out of debt many people make a knee-jerk reaction and try to get out of debt all at once. This leads to putting yourself in a dicey situation each month as all available funds are sent to reduce the debt. The goal is admirable, the execution is flawed. Rather than let go of every available dollar for debt reduction, try this time proven approach.
  

  Instead of sending all the extra cash to your creditors, accumulate it in a savings account. This works best if the savings account is not directly tied to your bank account online. The online link makes it just too easy for many to get their hands on the cash easily and quickly. Try an online high interest paying account like those offered by ING Online.

  Your funds are easy to get to via bank transfer but they will be just off limit enough not to be tempted to tap into them for an impulse purchase, and that’s important.

  When you have enough saved for a casual emergency, like a auto repair, appliance replacement or unexpected expense, then you can send lump sums from your savings account towards paying down your debt. Be smart about it.

• Quick Budgets Don’t Reduce Fear - The impulse to reduce debt often results in a quick look at the monthly budget. And since most people don’t track their cash with some type of budgeting software or Quicken software to actually know where their money really goes, they take a guess.

  Those guesses result in income being overestimated and expenses being underestimated. If you are going to make good decisions about what changes you will make to reduce your expenses, do it with valid data. Track your cash for at least 30 days, keeping track of every penny you spend, and then from that and some budgeting software you might have used along the way, then make cuts you can actually live with.

• Don’t Cut Out All The Fun - Often the first thing to go in a financial panic are things that you label as being fun. Being in deep debt is painful enough but cutting out all dinners out or movies with the family can just exacerbate the pain. Rather than execute a hyperspeed jump from too much fun to no fun, find a healthier balance.

  For example, rather than eating out three times a week, turn it down to once a week. Not only will it make it more special but it still gives you something to look forward to. It is perfectly OK to have fun when getting out of debt. If you don’t you just won’t be able to sustain an extended plan of action to eradicate your debt. Don’t feel guilty having fun, just have a reasonable amount of it.

• Slaughter the Sacred Cows - It is only normal to set some expenses as sacred cows that can’t be touched. Typically these are things like private school tuition, car payments, mortgage payments etc. As you can see these are not small expenses and that is both good and bad.

  It is bad because these expenses are often set aside as not being able to be touched. The most common comments I hear are things like “I can’t take my kids out of private school”, “We can’t sell our house”, “We need that car”, etc. These are not reasons, they are excuses.

  At a time of a financial crisis there is no getting away from the fact that some things are just no longer affordable. Wishing it wasn’t so does not make the situation different. The guilt of displacing your family and losing things you’ve come to expect is a heavy emotion but the sooner you face the reality of your situation and you are prepared to make changes, the sooner you can find a path towards financial recovery.

  The sacred cows are usually large monthly expenses that when changed, can have a significant and positive impact on your monthly expenses. The tough part is not making the change, but facing the change.

• Dealing With Failure - The feeling of being a failure is just the icing on the cake when you are down. Failure brings shame and embarrassment for many, it can destroy your self-worth and self-esteem, it can lead to depression in these dark days. Deal with it.

  i realize this is easy for me to write now, but remember I lived through all of this once myself. Feelings of failure are not a reality of your situation but an emotion or emotional state that you allow yourself to feel. It is how you perceive yourself, not how other people perceive you. You are only a failure if you allow yourself to be. If you found yourself in financial trouble and you did what you could to remedy the situation, rather than look at the ground, hold your head up. By dealing with it you took action instead of letting it roll over you.

  Failing financially does not give you hepatitis or terminal cancer. It just gives you money troubles, which can be overcome but maybe not how your life once was or how you’d like for it to be.

• Don’t Be a Jerk - Everyone that has lived through money troubles and problem debt that has emerged on the other side has learned one universal law of nature. Don’t be an ass about it. What I mean is that there is no reason to yell at anyone or blame anyone. There is no need to punish the kids or your spouse. The people at work did not lead to your troubles so save the bad attitude for someone else.

  Being in debt sucks. It does, it just does. But meeting the situation with acceptance, and a smile on your face will go a lot farther towards helping you to emerge in good cheer, than anything else. There is no need to lie, scold, chastise, yell, criticize, blame, etc. Just find three things each day to be grateful for and celebrate those things rather than focus on what is broken. I remember just being happy that today was trash day and that I didn’t hit the traffic lights on the way to work. Hey, small daily victories is a good foundation from which to build on.

• Don’t Kill Yourself or Anyone Else Over Debt - Stories of debt suicide are sad but true. The article about the father than came home and killed the family because he could not face them with the news of financial failure is not bravery, it is cowardice. Murder and suicide do occur when faced with debt problems because people feel they would be better off dead and that the family could use the insurance money to deal with the debt. That’s not what anyone wants. They want you!

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