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Image from WikipediaI don’t know anyone who doesn’t use credit cards nowadays, as convenient as as they are, no wonder so many of us found ourselves getting into a habit of overspending. Before you know it, you might be thousands of dollars in debt. If you don’t ever pay anything more than the minimum payments each month, it might take you ten years or more to pay off your debt. Ultimately, you’ll probably end up spending up to 300% of what you originally owed due to interest alone. Fortunately, there is something you can do now to eliminate credit card debt completely before it’s too late.

To eliminate credit card debt, first and foremost, you need to be realistic about the amount of money you have and will have. Let’s face it, shopping is like drug addiction, the more you shop and the more you want to shop! Credit cards give you the power to borrow your future income and spend it today. Many of you may mistakenly think you have the cash in the bank to cover the charges, some of you may believe your income is going to increase quickly, and the rest of you may even imagine you are going to win the lottery by tomorrow. Whatever is the case, in the world of personal finance, it’s good to be pessimistic than optimistic; think of the worst if you will.

Budgeting Your Way Out of Debt

Budgeting is the easiest way to eliminate credit card debt, unless you are planning to rob a bank or two. Not that they don’t deserve it, but it’s illegal, so I don’t recommend it. Here’s what you can do, get a pencil and a piece of paper to write down a list of all the expenses over a period of one month. Start from the top with the necessity items such as car insurance, mortgage payments, electricity bills, and so on. Basically, you want to write down everything that you literally can’t live without. Then you list things like cable television, clothing, and groceries that you pay for on a fairly regular basis. Finally, you also include the non-essential goods such as going to the movies, going out to eat, buying CD, and etc. It’s essential to have everything you spend your money on in an average month, so you should be honest with yourself and be complete.

Once you have all the items and figures together, you cross out the non-essential expenses from the bottom up. These are the expenses that need to be first eliminated. When you get to the cable TV, clothing, and groceries part of the deal, it’s the time to think what you should do to cut back some of the expenses in this category. Think about it. Do you really need so many movie channels on your TV? How many designer shirts are necessary? How often do you buy filet mignon and expensive seafoods for dinner? You should be able to cut at about 25% of expenses in this category. If you really want to be aggressive on your budget setting, you can find ways to reduce your necessity items as well. An exemple could be to take actions on saving energy. You get the idea.

By now, you should have 3 figures, one is the sum of all your expenses before cutting, second is your expenses after cutting, and third is the amount you could save per month after cutting. You job is to follow the second figure with your heart and soul. I call it bare-minimum budgeting! It’s tough at the beginning, but you will get used to it after first few months. And soon enough, you will elminating your credit debt completely, perhaps you will even save some money for a worry-free vacation that you’re finally able to pay cash for.

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Image from WikipediaBeing the parents of a college student is never easy. The cost of college education has increased dramatically over the years, thus, there is a big chance that the college fund that you set aside for your kid’s education may not be enough to get his/her through college. Fortunately, there are organizations like the Iowa Student Loan, a nonprofit organization that helps parents and students discover the necessary resources. Non-profit organizations like the Iowa Student Loan strictly follow government regulations when it comes to consumer protection, so you don’t need to worry about getting ripped off. Furthermore, the people behind Iowa Student Loan understand the needs of their clients, and they are here to help you explore other possibilities of raising funds in addition to borrowing money from banks. In other words, Iowa Student Loan does what it can to recommend the best financial alternative for college students.

Your Partnership With Iowa Student Loan

Iowa Student Loan doesn’t just help you get the necessary resources to fund your kid’s college education, it also helps you manage your funds. This is something you don’t expect to get from a bank. Before the organization gets you through the process of borrowing money, it teaches you to become a smarter consumer. Exactly how? First, the organization ensures that you understand the terms and conditions embodied in your promissory note and then teaches you how to be a responsible borrower. One of the things it does, for example, the organization assigns someone to help you to determine how much money you need to get your kid through college and then come up with a budget plan in details.

Second, Iowa Student Loan helps you to take control of your personal finance by educating you how to manage your financial responsibilities. To do this, the organization helps you and your kid come up with a financial plan that will allow you to settle all your financial obligations when the time comes to pay back the loan. Since your kid is the one who will pay off most if not all of his or her student loans by the time he/she graduated from college, you should also involve your kid in the financial planning process from the very beginning. Involving your kid in the financial planning process is a good way to teach your kid to be financially responsible and to live within his/her means. With the help of the Iowa Student Loan, life will be much easier for your kid who is utimately benefited from the higher education after all.

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