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HomeBlog Personal FinanceLife After Debt Or How To Keep Your Finances On Track
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Life After Debt Or How To Keep Your Finances On Track

September 5, 2013 by National Debt Relief

modalform_peopleYou’ve paid off your debt and you finally have you finances under control. Congratulations! You’ve done something that many other Americans have been unable to do. You faced your debts head on, found ways to pay them off and are now debt free. You’re worrying less about your finances and sleeping better at night. You’ve started rebuilding your credit and life is good.

The new challenge

But now you have a new challenge. You need to keep your finances under control and not get hijacked by debt again. Here is what you must do.

  • Set financial goals
  • Build a financial safety net
  • Learn to live with a budget
  • Manage your credit
  • Work on your money management IQ
  • Find financial advisors

Set financial goals

Now that you have your debts paid off and have money available don’t start spending it without creating some financial goals. You should have three categories of goals – short-term, medium-term and long-term. Your short-term goals should be those that you can accomplish within the next six months or at least less than a year. This could be putting a certain amount of money into an emergency fund, having enough money to join a health club or taking a nice vacation.

Goals that you believe you can accomplish within the next five years would be your medium-term goals. This could be things such as putting money down on a home, putting a certain amount of money into your retirement account or paying off an auto loan.

You need to have long-term goals or those that will take you more than five years to accomplish. This could include having enough money to retire, sending your kids to college, or buying a vacation home.

And finally, here’s a video with more information on how to set and keep financial goals.

 

Create a financial safety net

The second thing you need to do is go about creating a financial safety net. This means building up your savings so that you would have enough to cover your living expenses for at least six months if you were to became ill or lost your job. This would put you in a position where if you did have a financial emergency you could pay cash and not have to use credit, which could put you right back in the debt hole you just dug out of.

Learning to live with a budget

You probably used a budget to help you get out of debt. But you can’t just toss it away and start winging it. While your budget numbers will be different then when you were carrying that big load of debt, it should have the same purpose as before – to help you allocate your money smartly and to know when you need to reduce your spending. Plus, you can now use that budget to help you achieve your financial goals.

Managing your credit

Now that you have your debts paid off, the last thing you want to do is create any new ones. The best way to do this is to pay cash for everything you can. If you do use a credit card, make sure you can pay off your balance by the end of the month. If you need to get a new credit card, comparison shop and get one that offers the best terms. Finally, make sure you check your credit report every six months so that you can get any problems corrected.

Your money management IQ

Smart money managers are not born. They are created. You can get smarter about money and increase your money management IQ through many different resources. There is a wealth of information available online these days about money. Here are some resources you could use to start your education.

  • Bankrate.com (www.bankrate.com)
  • Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine
  • MSNMoney
  • CNN Money
  • USA Today Money
  • Yahoo! Finance

In addition, there are some very good books on money management.

  • Frugal Living For Dummies
  • Home Buying For Dummies
  • Investing For Dummies
  • Managing Your Money Online For Dummies
  • Personal Finance For Dummies

Get some financial advisors

Freundlicher EmpfangIf possible, you should put together a team of financial advisors to help you manage your money. You should probably have a certified public accountant (CPA) that can help you with your savings and investment strategies and reduce the amount of income tax you will owe each year. You might also find a financial planner. They usually provide a lot of the same services as a CPA but can go a step further and help you actually create a plan to achieve your financial goals. A good financial planner will also help you implement your financial planning strategies. He or she will identify the financial issues and problems you should address and then act as a sounding board when you are getting ready to buy a home or make some other major purchase.

It’s also important to have adequate insurance. This is an essential part of managing your finances and protecting you and your family from loss. An insurance agent or broker should also be part of your team. Her or she can advise you regarding your insurance needs, assist you in finding the best insurance and help you if you run into any problem with your insurance company.

How to find reliable advisers

The important thing isn’t just to find financial advisors it’s to find ones you can rely on. You should meet with several different CPAs, financial planners and so on to find out how they work, how they charge for their services and to see if the chemistry is right between the two of you. You might also ask your friends, family members, your banker or some other financial advisor for referrals.

Do you qualify for debt consolidation?

National Debt Relief
National Debt Relief

National Debt Relief is one of the largest and best-rated debt settlement companies in the country. In addition to providing excellent, 5-star services to our clients, we also focus on educating consumers across America on how to best manage their money. Our posts cover topics around personal finance, saving tips, and much more. We’ve served thousands of clients, settled over $1 billion in consumer debt, and our services have been featured on sites like NerdWallet, Mashable, HuffPost, and Glamour.

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"National Debt Relief is like a headhunter. Until you sign up..."

Moderate National Debt Relief Caller: Charlotte Transcribed WE 1/24/2021 Charlotte: Before I begin, I have to let you know that our call may be recorded. Can you tell me, how did you first hear about our National Debt Relief? JOAN: Oh, I don't know. I don't remember. I don't know how I heard about it. Charlotte: What made you decide to work with them? JOAN: Well, obviously, I needed to consolidate my debt. Charlotte: Tell me about the service program that they provided you with. JOAN: Well, I'm not done. But for me, it’s costly. What I did not like about it was that they add on. They say it's going to be X amount of dollars. But then what they do is they say, “Oh, well, we found another creditor that you need to…” So that'll be at a different part of the month and I don't like staggered bills. If I'm gonna pay a bill, whether it's to the phone company, the insurance company, whatever it might be, I want to pay that bill once a month. That's the only drawback. Charlotte: So let me get this. Normally, they are collecting the bills upfront. And then they work to get them paid off at a different rate. So everything wasn't collected all at once, if that's what I'm hearing correctly. JOAN: No, no, no. Every month, money is taken out of your account. And they pay X amount of dollars. Like let's say you owe $5,000 with Citibank, $500 in Credit One, whatever. They work out a deal with them and then they say, “Well, you have to pay $350 a month.” And they'll pay $20 a month towards -- they give you like around about how long it's going to take. Two years, two and a half years. And then they work it out that way. Charlotte: Now, what did you think about your negotiator? JOAN: I don't know. I just called up. It's a completely different department. So when you call up to sign up, it's very different. I don't remember that. It's just that they collected all the information. It was easy for me. I didn't have to go through and find whatever bills I wanted to put in the debt relief. They did that. Charlotte: So say you have questions or concerns. How did you get your questions or concerns addressed? JOAN: I would just ask and they answered it. They're very helpful like that. They'll answer any questions you have. And if they don’t know, they will find out. Charlotte: So was there not a particular person that you spoke with? JOAN: No, you don’t have one person that you deal with that just handles your account. Once you do – they’re like headhunters. Until you sign up, you're going to have that one person and even other people calling. Once your name is out there, they're going to keep calling you. So, once you sign up, then it's whoever answers the phone. It’s customer service. Charlotte: How comfortable did you feel working with National Debt Relief through this process? JOAN: I felt very comfortable, very safe. I was not worried about anything. Charlotte: Is there anything about this process that you would have liked to seen handled differently? JOAN: Yes. The way the payments come out. I'd rather have them one instead of … Charlotte: Everywhere. JOAN: Right. Well, not everywhere. For the most part, the bulk of them were. But then if there's one here, one there, they don't just extend it to another payment. And then the payments change, like the payment amount. You could pay $20 for six months, and then all of a sudden, it's $80 for the next three months, so you really don't know. Charlotte: So if you have to rate this experience on a scale of one to five, five is you’d recommend to friends, one you're pretty dissatisfied… JOAN: No. I would definitely recommend it to a friend. Charlotte: How would you say working with National Debt Relief has impact your life? JOAN: Well, it did help until I hit a speed bump. I'm in the middle of a divorce and my husband closed our checking account, of course. But so far, as a matter of fact, that's why I thought you were calling. I have to postpone the next month, so hopefully, they'll be able to postpone it, because I've been postponing it for a few months. Charlotte: Would it be okay if I posted your comments as a review on our public website for National Debt Relief? Because you did give us some really good feedback. JOAN: Yes, but not using my name. Charlotte: Okay, I will make it anonymous for you. I will also send over a link so that you can have it as a record for yourself at jdola20@yahoo.com. JOAN: Yes, but do not put that public. Charlotte: Oh, no, no, no. That doesn't go public. Definitely. How would you say working with National Debt Relief has impact your life. JOAN: Well, really, it would have helped if I could have stayed on the program. Charlotte: We’re recorded.

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