SubscribeHow to Properly Pay Down Your Credit Cards
(This is a guest article by Elise Degrass*)
Even in an economic downturn, the widespread available of credit to consumers is staggering: nearly anyone can apply for, and receive, a credit card today. With the growing ease of use (you no longer have to even sign for many transactions) and the vast number of businesses which accept credit transactions, fiscal responsibility with credit cards can be as difficult as ever. Keeping disciplined in your spending, as well as your payments, will help you to stay out of debt in the long run.
As a first step, consider working through a complete review of all of your existing credit card debt. If you have multiple cards, a spreadsheet may be an effective way to keep track of all of the data, from minimum payment amounts to due dates and interest rates. Also, it's important to note any variability in interest payments,
especially if an introductory rate becomes much higher after a certain point. Once you have collected data on your debt burden, you can begin taking steps to pay down your credit cards.
Prioritize your payments on cards which have the highest interest rates, and make a plan to shift your spending to cards with lower rates. Figure out your monthly expenses and determine which you can pay off with cash to reduce further interest rate payments. Additionally, you may want to consider looking at your overall expenses to prioritize repayment of debts over unnecessary purchases, especially for vacations and other upscale expenses.
As part of a larger budgeting process, ensure that you can meet all of the minimum payments while planning to consolidate your debt into just a few cards in the long-run; having fewer cards will simplify the budgeting process, as well as making it easier to keep track of your purchases. Working with a debt counselor to devise a long run plan, as well as working with credit card companies to negotiate lower rates, will help you on the path to a debt-free future.
*About the author: This article was contributed by Elise Degrass. Elise is a new writer who currently is blogging about cell phones.
*Image Credit: Photograph by Andres Rueda [via Flickr Creative Commons]
As all women know, one size does not fit all. The same is true regarding financial advice. Every situation is unique and requires personal advice and not surprisingly the advice for women differs slightly from advice for men. Although women have made huge strides in the last century, regrettably we are sometimes considered fickle emotional creatures unable to handle the complex issues such as finance. In reality woman are more than capable of handling these issues both at home and in a corporate setting, nevertheless the fact remains a large percentage of women do not have control of over their own financial situations. The following tips can help get you back on track and in control of your finances as well as your future.
Who says paperwork isn’t fun? What could be more fun than producing conclusive evidence that proves that YOU are 100% right? It’s all the more satisfying when being right means you’re saving money.
I chatted with an old friend today after a long time. And while we were talking about our jobs and how our companies fared, he told me that they had recently got a new CEO. And as a matter of conversation, he mentioned that the new CEO was going to be paid something along the lines of 30+ Million dollars in stocks (restricted units, not options!), in addition to 1.2 Million dollars in annual salary and 2.4 Million dollars in annual bonus, to take the job. The numbers were just mind boggling. And this new CEO guy is just 45 years old!!! As most conversations with old friends go, we were all over the place, and before we knew it we were debating about whether we would even want to be in the shoes of this guy.
