5 Ways to Manage Your Debt

When you get married, the huge costs of planning a wedding and starting a new life with someone can cause you to go into debt quite easily. Many couples take out loans, such as online personal loans, and borrow money from their parents to pay for wedding expenses and living costs until they get on their feet. Paying these debts back can be so hard and for many couples, the source of many arguments and fights is this financial strain. The best way to live your married life in peace is to clear your debt, so here are 15 pointers that will help you become debt free in just a year:

1. Budget, Budget, Budget! :- If you don’t have a budget set in place to see what you have to pay and how much money you have, you will ultimately forget to pay certain people and spend more than you make which will land you in trouble. Make a budget and stick to it.
2. Work Out a Payment Plan :- With your debtors whether they are parents or a bank, work out how you can pay them back so that you can still live properly. Negotiate lower interest rates and try to pay a bit more than you say you will pay per month to get on their good side. Set aside a percentage of your monthly income to go towards debts.
3. Pay off the Smallest Debts First :- This sounds a bit backwards, but if you try to pay off the bigger debts first you are simply causing the smaller debts to build up interest and they will slowly become unmanageable. Rather pay off the smaller debts you have within a month or two and then with these out of the way you can pay more to the bigger debts you have.
4. Never Close Your Credit Cards :- To keep your credit record high enough, don’t close your credit cards. Rather put them away and don’t use them. Once they are paid off just keep them aside without using them until you have cleared the rest of your debts.
5. Consolidate Your Debt :- Debt consolidation can only help if you have accounts and loans which are in arrears and you are paying a lot in terms of interest. The point of consolidating this debt is to lower the amount you pay by making several interest costs into one smaller one. It can also greatly reduce the installment you have to pay each month while also getting rid of debt collectors phoning you all the time. For money you have borrowed from family, never use debt consolidation because you don’t have interest to pay them anyway (hopefully). If you do, rather work out another agreement if you are not managing.