Warning signs you need to pay down debt

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1. Don’t panic but do have resolve

Facing up to your debt and considering options to deal with your debt can be very stressful and your situation may seem helpless.  It is important that you not panic and make poor financial decisions.  It is also very important that you not ignore the problem and be like an ostrich with your head in the sand.  Debt problems will grow bigger on their own if left unattended so the sooner you face up to your debts and have a strategy to deal with them, the easier and less painful it will be.  

It takes a long time to get into deep debt and it will often take a long time to get out of debt, so you need the resolve to see it through.

Don’t go it alone.  We know it can be embarrassing but it is very important to make smart decisions so you should talk it over with someone you trust that will be supportive and not critical.  It is also a good idea to get professional help.  You are not dumb or incompetent to ask for expert advice.  It is actually a very smart move that will help ensure success to achieve your goal.

2. Stop the bleeding

Make sure you pay your bills on time to avoid late fees and penalties and make all minimum payments on your credit so that your credit score does not get worse and the creditors don’t increase your interest rate.

3. Stop digging

If you are in a debt hole you need to stop digging.  Stop incurring any new debt, pay with cash, debit or cheque.

4. Take stock of your debt

Make a list of amounts owed, interest rate and payment amount.

5. Make a spending record

Take the time to list out all your monthly spending amounts.  Be as detailed and accurate as possible.  Separate the spending into 2 categories: fixed and unavoidable spending like rent or variable discretionary spending like entertainment.

6. Mind the gap

The gap is the difference between your monthly net income and your monthly spending.  Hopefully it is a large positive amount.  This is what you can plan to direct towards debt repayment and hopefully increase the gap by reducing your discretionary spending. If it is a negative amount then you know you need to make some serious changes. 

7. Sell your stuff

You probably have acquired things that have value but you are no longer using. It is surprisingly easy these days to turn your unwanted stuff into cash on sites like EBAY or a garage sale. Every little bit helps and it does feel great to declutter. 

8. Get a side hustle

For some it may be easier to find extra income than it is to cut their spending.  These days there are so many opportunities to earn some extra cash in your free time, often from the comfort of your home. Consider what activities you like and have an interest in, and then think how you can turn these activities into a paying gig. I was surprised to learn how much money you can make with very little investment in activities like house sitting, dog walking, uber driving etc.  

9. Consider a consolidation loan

A consolidation loan is new borrowing where you consolidate most or all of your debts into one large debt.  This debt could be amortized over a longer term and may have a much lower interest rate than say your credit cards, so that your one payment on the consolidation loan would be less than the combined payments on all your individual debts.

So, for example, if you had three credit cards that totalled $20,000, your monthly payments on these cards would be at least $600 per month at a rate of 19.9%.  If you consolidated them into a 5-year loan at say 5%, your monthly payment would only be $377 per month and your interest costs savings would be significant.  Instead of revolving debt like credit cards, a consolidation loan is a term loan and will be totally paid off after 5 years.

The big problem with consolidation loans is that they are increasingly difficult to get approved for.  The banks are not fond of these loans as they are higher risk and less profit for them due to the lower interest rate.  You will have a better chance of being approved for a consolidation loan if you have a low debt to income ration (less than 35%) and equity in a home that you can offer as security.

The other problem with consolidation loans is behavioural in that they encourage increased borrowing.  Once you have a consolidation loan, your other debts are paid off and you are free to charge them up again with a potential result of even deeper debt.

If used responsibly, consolidation loans can be a great tool to lower your interest expense and improve your cash flow by reducing your payment amount.

10. Repayment strategies

When you have multiple debts to pay and only so much money each month for debt repayment, how do you decide who to pay?

The first key point is to make sure you pay at least the minimum monthly payment.  You do not want your credit score to be lowered and give the banks an excuse to charge you late fees and higher interest rates.

After you make your minimum monthly payments, what should you pay next?

Snowball Method – rack up quick wins

We prefer the snowball method of debt repayment.  With this method, all funds leftover after you have made the minimum monthly payments get paid to the debt with the smallest balance.  This will achieve the fastest way to get one of your debts paid off in full and it provides great motivation to see your progress and keep you committed to making debt repayments.  As each debt gets paid off, you keep attacking the one with the lowest balance.

Avalanche Method

The avalanche method is a good way to save you the most money in reduced interest charges.  With this method, after paying the minimum monthly payment on all your debts, you direct all funds left over to the debt with the highest interest rate.  In this way, the highest interest rate debt gets paid off first.  This method will save the most interest costs but may not give you the same motivational boost as the snowball method.

Whichever debt repayment strategy you choose, the important thing is to stick with it and chip away at your debt each month until you hit your goal.  It will take a while so don’t get discouraged.

11. Train your Brain – change your mindset

In helping thousands of people go from deep debt to living debt free, the one key change we see them make is that they change their mindset.  It’s clear that the money mindset that got you into debt, won’t get you out of it.

Many people suffer from false money beliefs – they have established recurring and self-defeating ideas about money and debt.  They think it’s okay to have all their pay cheque go to debt repayment.  They believe they will be stuck paying back debt for the rest of their life.  They think they have debt because they don’t make enough money or they believe the reasons for debt are solely due to events that happen to them, not because of the choices they have made.

Paying off debt is actually simple math.  Your finances either balance or they don’t.  To repay debt you need to spend less than you bring in.  The math will give you instant answers and direction as to what needs to be done.

The bigger challenge is that when you change your lifestyle to fit your budget, it often brings about strong emotions.  You may feel fear, loss, embarrassment, and guilt from the resulting bargain you make in your lifestyle.  Change is hard because, in today’s society, people are often defined by their spending and possessions.  Social media tends to magnify the comparisons to others and creates feelings of entitlement.  When you do come to accept the changes you need to make to your spending, you may feel sad and  feel like you are being left behind by your cohort and it can erode your feelings of self esteem and self worth.

To fight through these emotions, it is important that you recognize that you are not your debt.  Debt problems can happen to anyone and are not an indication of one’s character or success in life.  Don’t let debt affect the important things in life like your health and relationships with loved ones.

12. Legal options

Sometimes the debt problems are so severe you cannot solve them on your own.  If you have a lot of debt and no realistic plan to be able to pay off the debt on your own, over a reasonable time frame, then it is definitely time to contact a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (Trustee) and learn about your legal options.

A Trustee is a debt specialist, licensed by the Federal Government, that can advise you on all the possible options to solve your debt problems and give you access to legal ways to reset your debt and give you a fresh start.  The Federal Government has created these legal remedies to give debtor’s a second chance and a way out from an impossible financial situation so they can move forward with their life.  Debt does not have to be a life sentence.  

The two legal ways to reset your debt are:

1. Consumer Proposal – This is where your debts are consolidated and reset to a lower total amount that you can afford and the interest rate on these debts is reset to zero.  The debtor is put on a payment plan that is workable for their budget and makes one affordable payment for a set period of time to a maximum of 5 years.  Once the agreed upon amount is paid by the debtor, the remaining balance of the debts gets reset to zero.
    
2. Bankruptcy – Filing bankruptcy is a process where the debtor works with the Trustee to complete several duties over a period of usually 9 months.  Any assets the debtor owns that are not exempted by law will be sold and monies received will be paid to the bankruptcy estate for the creditors.   At the end of the process if the debtor has completed their duties then the debtor is discharged from bankruptcy and all unsecured debt of the debtor is reset to zero.