Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

January Financial Reset

By 4 Comments

You’ve had your fun.  You spent the holidays with your loved ones, did some frugal gift giving (right?), and probably ate way more than you should have.  But, the new year is upon us, and it’s time to get back to business.  It’s time for a January financial reset.

With tax season right around the corner, there’s no better time to get all your financial books from the last year in order, take a good look at the balance sheet, and decide on the directions you’re going to take your finances in the coming year.  For some of you, that will mean finally getting a handle on your debt.  For others, it will mean finally paying off your debt.  And for more of you, it will mean finding the best ways to make your money work for you as you build your net worth and make strides towards financial independence.

For those in that last group of people, this post isn’t likely to help much, but you might want to take a peek at my Lending Club page for a great way to keep your money working for you.  The rest of you, stick around.

Reformulate your debt

January Financial ResetIf you’ve still got debt hanging around, a new year financial reset is a great time to investigate reformulating it. What the heck does that mean?  It means taking a good look at the debt that you’re carrying, and considering the options you may have to pay it off earlier.

  • Reduce the rates: The worst feature of credit card debt is the interest rate that they like to charge.  12%, 15%, 22%, or more.  The interest payments eat into any payment you make on the debt quickly, and make it that much harder to make any meaningful progress.  If’ you’ve got good credit, consider finding some good 0% balance transfer cards to transfer your existing balances to.  You should be able to find something with a 12 to 15 month 0% rate.  Be aware of the balance transfer fee when you do this, but otherwise it can be a good way to help you make some good progress on your credit card debt repayment.
  • Refinance: In some cases (mostly secured debt) you may want to look into a refinance of the loan.  If you can reduce the rate on a loan and extend the length of it, it can free up some of your debt repayment money to go towards loans with higher rates and speed up your debt snowball.

Recalculate your debt snowball

Now is also a really good time to update all the numbers on your debt snowball plan.  (or debt avalanche if you’re so inclined) Unless you’ve been keeping it updated throughout the year, the numbers are probably pretty out of date, and need to be freshened.  Take the time, while you’re doing this, to determine if you need to move one debt ahead of another, or if you can afford to increase the snowball payment to speed it up.

Seed your budget

Your budget can be the lifeline for your financial life.  It’s a blueprint for how you’re building your financial house.  Even a simple budget can help tremendously, and the beginning of the year is a great time to give your budget a full inspection (or just to start one) and make sure that it’s got all the categories you need, that it’s still balancing, and for planning out where you’re going to focus your efforts in the new year.

Examine your bills

We all get bills throughout the month.  In many cases, we throw them in a pile, then enter them into bill pay, (or, gasp, write checks) and then forget about them until they show up the next month.  While you’re going through your finances from the previous year, pay attention to the bills that you’re paying.  Are there bills that have increased?  How about ones that you meant to cancel the service but didn’t?  Or maybe there are some that you just haven’t called to try and get a better rate for?  Know what time it is?  You guessed it.  It’s time to cancel that service. It’s time to call and see why the rate increased, and if there’s a change you can make to get a better rate.  It’s time to compare your services with their competitors and see if there isn’t a better rate/service available out there.  You may think it’s a waste, but you could end up saving hundreds a month.  And that can quickly make your debt snowball grow!

Keep on your financial path

Here’s the most important thing you have to take away from this post.  You’ve got to keep on that path.  Once you’ve done the things above, you’ve taken some really solid steps on your path to being debt free, but they’ll only work if you keep working with them.  Keep that budget going, keep a close eye on your bills, keep your snowball updated, and know how much debt (and at what rate) you have left.  Whether your debt feels like a mountain, or just a molehill, knowing the what/when/where of it make the climb that much easier.

Will you take the time to do a January Financial Reset?

The Smell of Napalm

By 12 Comments

Napalm is a sticky, flammable substance that was invented in the 40’s, and used in several wars.  Because of it’s stickiness, it attaches itself to everything, then burns at somewhere over 800 degrees.  When it’s done, there’s no more jungle.  No more enemies walking around.  It’s vile enough, that it’s use on concentrations of civilians was declared a war crime by the UN in 1980.

By now, you’re probably wondering why a site about personal finance is discussing Napalm. Well.  Here’s the thing.  Debt is a funny thing.  Most of us have it.  Some of us have quite a bit.  And most of us would like to get rid of it.  In fact, most of us would just love to Napalm our debt.  One fell swoop.  Drop some sticky burning substance on it and have it gone in a few short minutes.  We’d like that so much that we buy lottery tickets, raffle tickets, and buy books and products that promise some get rich quick scheme.  People with debt are always looking for the debt Napalm.

We like to fantasize about what we would do if we won a couple million in the lottery and set our debt on flames.  Erasing it, with one fell swoop, while getting rich at the same time.  Much like Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, we love the “smell of [debt] napalm in the morning.”

Napalm: War on debt Crime

Instead, we’re given the “debt snowball“, or the “debt avalanche.”

The truth is that debt is so easily gained, we want to find a solution to it that is just as quick.  An afternoon with a credit card and a shopping mall can add thousands to the total. Thousands that could take us years to pay off.  We wish we could find the Napalm to incinerate our debt.

Some people think that bankruptcy is that Napalm.  But, as quickly as a bankruptcy can eradicate your debt, it doesn’t leave you without any scars.  For many years afterwards, you, and your credit score, will suffer the consequences of the bankruptcy.  Credit will be nearly impossible to attain.  Prospective landlords and employers are even running credit checks before renting or hiring people.

We need to stop looking for the Napalm.  We need to stop assuming that all is lost.  We need to take some responsibility, find ways to make more money, save more money, and pay down more debt.  We need to stop adding more debt.

If you want to get rid of your debt, it’s a slow burn, not a Napalm strike.  Even in the world of personal finance, Napalm is a war crime.

Original image credit: korea by the U.S. Army, on Flickr

Reducing Your Debt: Much Better than a Snowballs Chance

By 10 Comments

Credit card debt, mortgage loan, car payments, tuition…all of these add up to your debt and debt means stress in any economic environment. Like a lot of folks, you probably haven’t defaulted on your debt but it’s hard to keep up on and while there are a lot of plans to pay down cards by paying a little extra each month, it doesn’t move quickly. Paying the minimum payment on those debts doesn’t get you anywhere.  It’s time to stop sending the minimum payment to your debts… sort of.

Get the Debt Snowball Rolling

Snowball
credit: ff137 on flickr

I’ve written before about using a snowball plan for pay-down. You can read one of my favorites here: Debt Avalanche, Correct?  If you aren’t familiar with how the debt snowball works, here’s a run-down. Add up all the extra you pay on your debt and apply it to your smallest credit card. Keep paying that extra to the card and your payments are going to start making a big difference faster than you would believe. Once that card is paid off, apply that extra and the payment you regularly made and apply it to the next largest loan or card. Here comes the hard part; as you pay off credit cards, cut them up. You don’t have to cancel immediately, and possibly shouldn’t for credit score reasons, but once your debt to income ratio is more manageable you may want to consider it. The goal is to quit being eaten by small payments and start making big payments.

Stop Paying So Much Interest

Step number two is adding an extra payment per year to your mortgage loans. This shaves 10 years from your mortgage through the elimination of interest. There are two ways to do this. Your mortgage lender probably has some type of offer available that lets you pay every two weeks instead of a monthly mortgage. Because of the various five week months, this effectively creates a 13th payment for the year, but once you commit you might struggle to get back to a monthly payment.

To stay in control of the extra payment you could simply mail an extra payment at some point in the year with bonus money, but a more comfortable way is to take your payment, divide by 12 and add that amount to your monthly payment. It’s a much more painless proposition that still adds up to an extra payment and ultimately gets more money paying toward your principal. Caution: This is only appropriate if you plan to stay in your home or if you have an equity goal in mind. If you are trying to sell your home, this may not be the wisest option.

The same is true of car payments. If after the credit card and personal loan debt is paid, you may be tempted to pay off your car. If you do not plan to buy another and are hoping to be payment free, this will absolutely work as rapidly for a car payment as for credit cards, loans and your mortgage; however, if you are considering a trade-in, keep the extra money you would spend on your car payment and start putting it to work for you in an IRA!