Stress is one of the unavoidable symptoms of dealing with debt, you do not even realize that your credit situation has changed, but when you do, it is an almost cathartic feeling, and makes you feel the danger, frustration and stress that comes with problems you can’t easily resolve. Dealing with debt is by far one of the most stressful situations and you need to make sure that you can handle the situation all the way through, you need to feel the control. If you do not, things are likely to get worse, and you might need help. Do not give up, not many people managed to wrestle with debt all by themselves.
The decision you have to make is the following: who can you ask help from and how much can they help you sorting out your debt? Also please consider that Rome wasn’t built in a day, so please allow yourself time for the different phases of debt consolidation. You need to think it over more than once, and make an informed decision based on the information, facts, other people’s experiences, statistics.
The first phase of debt consolidation is facing the situation. You need to admit that you do have debt, and that you got into it mainly depended on you. You also have to admit that it was much easier to get into bad debt than it would be to get out of it. But as you are mainly responsible for getting into it, you will take responsibility for ridding yourself of debt.
After admitting that you do have debt, it is time to make an income and expenditure. You need to carefully list all your outgoings and income. You can ask a family member or close friend you trust, preferably, who have already struggled with debt to help you assess your situation as it might be hard for you to look at your finances as an outsider. Alternatively you can ask a reputable debt counseling service to help you with it, but remember: you need to take the first step.
After you are ready with an income and expenditure part, you need to start working consistently on how to get the two figures in balance. You need to be actively looking for options and solutions to increase your income, or reduce your monthly outgoings.
You want to increase your income and reduce your outgoings by getting rid of any unnecessary luxuries, any spare items, saving money on travel, food, holidays, time to get rid of that timeshare you are not using or finding a tenant. If you do not have any ideas please ask a close friend or family members, they might come up with brilliant ideas during a “brainstorming session”.
You can reduce your outgoings simply by consolidating your current credit. If you are not confident that you would make the right decisions, or would like to know what does each option mean for your finances, you can get free advice from a debt counseling company or debt consolidation expert. But make sure that you do something every single day that will take you closer to eliminating your debt without damaging your credit rating.