Do you wish your could get rid of that cloud of debt hanging over your head? If you’re one of the 30 million Americans who have what’s called “debt subject to collection,” you would probably love to see it go away. If you’re behind in your payments, you may already be getting harassing phone calls from debt collectors. And if you aren’t, you soon probably will.
You can’t just wish it away
Once you take on debt, whether it’s via a credit card or a personal line of credit, you can’t just wish it away. In fact, you have just two choices – you can pay off what you owe or you can declare bankruptcy. If your choice is to pay off your debts, here are five surefire ways to do this.
Snowball your credit card debt
If you owe on several different credit cards, you could do what’s called “snowball” them. The way this works is that you take the credit card that has the lowest balance and double up on your payments to it, while making minimum monthly payments on your other cards. Once you get that card paid off, you would then increase the amount you’re paying on the card with the next lowest balance, using the money that’s been freed up from paying off that first card, and so on until you’ve paid off all your cards.
Get a second job
Perhaps the fastest way to get out of debt is by getting a second job and using the money it generates to pay down your debt. If you have the typical “9 to 5” job, you might be able to get another job working evenings or weekends. Let’s suppose that you owed $15,000. If you were able to get a second job that was 20 hours a week at $12 an hour, you could be pay off $850 in debt a month and be completely debt free in less than 18 months.
Sell stuff on eBay or Craigslist
You’ve probably heard the old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and nowhere is this more true than on eBay and Craigslist. If you look around your house, you’ll probably find a lot of stuff you’re either not using or don’t need anymore. You could put it up for auction on eBay or sell it through Craigslist. You would make really good money if you have some collectibles – or items that people collect such as old signs, record albums or antique machines. You will eventually run out of things of your own to sell but can find more stuff by trolling garage and estate sales on weekends. I know of people who have purchased $20 worth of items this way and sold them on eBay for several hundred dollars. However, before you start shopping those garage sales, you need to spend some time on eBay to learn what things people want to buy and at what prices. Otherwise, you could end up with a bunch of stuff you can’t sell and that’s now just taking up space in your garage.
Tutor students
Are you a math wizard, a gifted writer, a physicist or biologist? If so, you could make good money tutoring students. Parents today are pulling out all stops at getting their children prepared for college and you could cash in on this. There is also a growing market for people who can tutor high school students on their SATs and ACT’s. If you have the requisite knowledge, you could hold classes on weekends. I saw one ad recently for 10 sessions of 30-plus hours of SAT tutoring for $745 and 18 hours of private tutoring at $1359. If you were to get just four students at $745 each, you’d earn almost $3,000. Wouldn’t that put a nice dent in your debt?
Buy and sell used cars
There is an ever-growing market for used cars these days – probably due to the state of our economy. If you know what cars are worth, you could shop Craigslist, find cars that are underpriced, buy them and sell them at a profit. I recently purchased a five-year old Hyundai Tucson, decided I didn’t like it and sold it in two days at a $300 profit.
Let us settle your debt
One of the quickest and easiest ways to get out of debt is to let our debt counselors settle your debts for you. We’ve helped thousands of American families become debt free in 24 to 48 months by negotiating settlements with their creditors. This generally saves them thousands of dollars and avoids the stain of having a bankruptcy. Be sure to call our toll-free number to learn more about debt settlement and how it could help you
