Finding the best way to pay off debt seems to be a topic that many people are interested in, but it is very hard to achieve and requires a lot of discipline. I used to have a lot of debt, but I have finally figured out a way to start digging myself out of it. I do some online work and most of the money I make is now being used to chip away at the bills and get some money into savings. I figured out that most of my bills can be paid online and have created online accounts for most of them. Until waiting until the bill is due, I now make small payments throughout the month and usually end up paying more than what is due each month to bring down the balance faster. I also worked on paying off a couple of the small balance bills first so that I could feel proud at the accomplishment. After that was done, I looked at the bills I still have to get paid off and have begun paying on the bills with the highest interest rates so that I can save myself a little money in the long run. Student loans are the biggest debt I have and I hope to have them paid off in the next couple of years instead of 10 years from now.
To fully pay a big debt, it needs morecof discipline than a method. Even if you have a program for your debt but you keep on maintaining your expensive lifestyle then you will remain in the red. Cutting costs includes refraining from buying non important items. And it is good if you find a means of earning extra so you can have more money to pay up your existing debt.
Paying debt in full is impossible if you are only earning a meager income with a big family to support. I started earning of a regular salary in 1991 and at the same time I started borrowing money payable for 90 days, then upon paying it, have it renewed. I have being doing for 25 years. Not I am totally out of debt when I retired from the government service last October 2016. Upon receiving my retirement pay, I pay all my debts: from private person, from the government. Now, I have to spend wisely my monthly retirement. I don't want to be indebted again from private or any agency for that matter.
I used to have problems in paying our monthly bills due to mismanagement of funds as I was the one who manages it. That's why as much as possible, me and my hubby avoid having debts and liabilities that needs to be paid every single month. Eventually, I learned how to budget and manage our funds little by little by cutting certain percentage on our weekly and monthly income so that we won't be overlooking our monthly bills.
I try not to be in a debt in the first place. Once you're in, it becomes hard to come out. You need to compromise with many of the basic requisites to repay. However, sometimes we need to take a loan for buying a home or car. It takes wise budgeting to repay those loans.
I'm wondering what the advantage might be of debt consolidation as opposed to just paying off a little at a time with no outside help. Of course, another thing which wasn't mentioned in this thread is credit. Having debt will often ruin your credit. Therefore, you might have a difficult or impossible time renting or buying homes and cars. On top of that, you would have a similar situation with getting business loans.
To successfully pay off debt sometimes requires intelligent calculations. Apart from my recurrent bills I hardly find myself in other debts. To settle my monthly bills I opened a separate account for that every month once I get paid some amount I have earmarked is transferred to the account. In this way it's easier to sort out the money to settle my monthly bills.
One of the lessons I learned about debt management is making sure that I have emergency funds or standby funds that I can use for life's surprises. Without this, it would be easy to lapse into the cycle of borrowing and renewing loans. It doesn't even have to be a big amount but it has to be a regular thing. If you have several high-interest credit cards debts running at the same time, you might want to clear them all by consolidating your debts into a lower interest loan and focusing your efforts on paying this single loan. Oh no, you might not even need a debt consolidation company to do this for you. You can call an existing creditor, or in most cases, they will offer such terms to entice their credit card holders to transfer their balances. I've done a two-way balance transfer in the past where I transferred one bank's balance to another and vice-versa to avail of the very low interest offers on both ends (.5% per month) collateral-free. I'm a few months off from paying off both loans. If you can find ways to increase your income, that would certainly help a lot towards accelerating the debt payment period. It does require sacrifices mostly in terms of time and some luxuries.
Paying off debt needs more discipline than a method. In my own experience I open a bank account to pay off my bills easily.
