A budget is not just something that those who are having financial hardships use; it is also a useful tool in debt prevention and management. There are millions upon millions of people today who live pay check to paycheck, not ever really knowing where there money is going or why they never seem to have any, unless of course they borrow it in the form of loans or credit cards. They do not control their money, it controls them.

There is another type of person out there, one who takes complete control of their money no matter how much or little they make. These are the people who tell there money what to do and as a result are financially sound with every decision they make now and in the future.

So what is their secret weapon in a world filled with debt? A simple budget that tracks income and expenses. A personal budget takes control of your money and tells it what to do. Once you have that control you can begin to manage your debt and prevent debt from occurring in the future.

If you currently have debt and it is overwhelming your ability to make sound financial decisions then building a personal budget is the first step to gaining back control of your money. The first thing you will do is simply writing down all your financials on a piece of paper. As you become more comfortable with the process you can use one of the many software programs available to track your money. But at the beginning it\’s easier if you keep it simple and just write it down on a piece of paper.

By writing down all you income in one column and all your expenses in another column you can quickly find out if you are spending more each month then you make. If this is the case you can then use your newly created budget to start identifying where your greatest expenditures are occurring and find areas where you can start cutting your spending habits. Many people are rather surprised where they are spending their money the first time they build a budget.

The other thing that a personal budget can do when it comes to debt management and prevention is change your attitude towards how you use your money. When your spending habits are staring you back in the face and it’s affecting your daily life and your future plans you will be surprised at how it changes how you look at money and its power to give you the life you always wanted.

Having a monthly budget is the best debt prevention and management tool that everyone should use. Having a working plan for your money ensures that what it does and where it goes remains in your control at all times. In fact the reason so many people have financial problems is a lack of control over their money and the fact that it does not work for them because it is spent before they know why.

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As the industry of debt settlement continues to grow, there are many programs you may consider to be in your best interest and affordable. Just the thought of being debt free brings tears to the family who has been distracted with interest payments for years. It is said that 78% of all income is paid out to debt of some type. The major percent of each payment going to interest. So lets look at your options in bringing resolve through debt settlement or debt debt management.

* With Consumer Credit Counseling your going to go through a counselor who will tell you what you already know. After you have paid your enrollment fee, and agreed to automatic bank drafts they will start your program. Your counselor will then contact your creditors and “attempt” to lower your interest. Keep in mind it is only lowered temporarily. Should you or the counselor be late in getting the payment to the creditor, that interest you had lowered will raise its ugly head again making things even worse than ever. Keeping the above in mind, they want you to think they are non-profit and manage your money well. A new article in California found Clients of the California-based National Consumer Council, Florida-based Debt Management Foundation Services Inc. and Massachusetts-based Better Budget Financial Services Inc. paid thousands of dollars to keep bill collectors at bay, but instead clients saw their debts, interest rates and late fees increase as the three companies did little to help. As a sheep in wolves clothing, CCCS, follows up with your creditor with a letter of council that tells them of your involvement in their program and asks them the work with them. Then, asks for what is well known as their fare-share contribution. They claim to be non profit, yet the money you could be paying toward your debt goes to them.

* Debt Consolidation is always a great way to bring resolve to your debt as long as you have a process in place before the consolidation to settle the debt. If there is no procedure in place to discount the amount owed, there is no “smart” reason to conduct a consolidation loan. Lowering the monthly payment is nice, but the end result may not be what you desired. A simple trade out of loans does not lower the amount owed or monthly payment, and in most cases your going to end up owing double what you started with. You will as 80% of borrowers do, bring accounts to a zero balance and owe another lender at a lower or longer rate/term. In most cases people that go through debt consolidation will continue to use the accounts that were paid off, resulting in double the debt. End result is if you have a well qualified debt settlement company that will charge a fee based on results handle all the negotiations before the debt consolidation you are sure to come out on top.

* With Fee based Debt Settlement you have many options, and in several ways can save you money. You should know that no debt settlement company can perform any real service to you till such time as you have money to settle. If it is a buffer or shield your looking for, your always in better hands with creditor experts that are IAPDA certified and have been in the collection and or credit industry. They will understand the creditor and your account better than your average debt settlement company. Further, the fees charged by fee based debt settlement company is going to cost you about 15% of your total debt load. So what ever you see in advertisement, you can add about 15 % to their quote, and in most cases is paid up front before the job is done or even started. Read the fine print and guarantee. If they are not willing to give you a written guarantee to perform and produce you should reconsider doing business with them, regardless of of their affiliations or ratings. You have heard the old saying, if it is not in writing it didn’t happen? Truth is, there is only one type of guarantee that will protect the consumer. You will never find this guarantee in fee based debt settlement. When it comes time to perform the actual service most of the money you have saved over the months or years has gone to the debt settlement company leaving little or no money for settlement. This method does not seem to have the consumers best interest in mid as the the debt settlement company gets paid before the creditor. This does not seem financial healthy to me. Looking into this method, I found one of the largest debt settlement companies has just had a class action law suit filed against it naming them for the practice of collecting fees but not providing a services. Along with this law suit, there are over 700 BBB complaints filed for actions truely not in the consumers best interest. While not all fee based debt settlement companies are poison like this one, their general service is the same.

* While a Service fee Based debt settlement program has clearly outlined the best option for debt settlement, as you know that you will either reach a guaranteed discounted rate or pay nothing for the debt settlement services, and pay nothing till the job is done. As the Service fee based debt settlement company generates results you pay the fee rather than paying the fees up front. While all the other services as fee based debt settlement are practiced you simply pay nothing for debt settlement unless the goal is reached and the job is done. This protects you the consumer from fighting for a refund when the service is not completed, and the creditor refused to settle. Only a qualified and IAPDA certified debt settlement company could or should consider this practice as the guarantee is weighed in the side of the consumer. Producing results, industry integrity, ethics and experience will maintain the needed client and creditor relationships.

For those that are considering Debt Settlement should consider these factors while deciding what program fits their needs.

First, how did you hear about the company?

Does the savings program have your best interest in mind?

Are they willing to share their year to date settlement averages with you?

Are they experienced in both the collection and creditor industry?

Are they certified with the IAPDA (International Association Of Professional Debt Arbitrators)?

Do you believe in the the team that will be helping you?

Only you, the consumer can decide to go through with debt settlement, and know that once you start, there is no looking back?

If you feel you have been cheated or placed in a program that is not healthy for your financial condition feel free to contact either your State Attorney General or an expert that is truely well qualified.

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Cannot make your monthly debt payment? Understand your different options so you can avoid late charges, increased interest rate and avoid lowering your credit score.

Not being able to pay to pay the minimum balance happens to people very often. It is likely that his could happen to you if you have an unexpected large expense for the month or an unforeseen circumstance arose that drained your funds temporarily. If this happens to you, the worst thing you can do is to not do anything. Failing to address the issue in the current month can lead to the following problems:

If you are here you most definitely are seeking an answer to your ever growing credit card and unsecured loan debts. I am here to tell you that I have been down that dark and lonely, ugly road. Let me start from the beginning. Now I don’t want to paint a long and drawn out picture of my whole life story, but, just give you enough info about myself so you can better relate with me. So just hang in there and don’t decide not to read this. I guarantee you this will be some of the most beneficial info you will read concerning your financial woes.

Growing up in a very poor family we never had some of the nicer things in life. I was number eleven out of twelve children. We went without most things that children take for granted today. Our poor mother worked so hard to provide for her children. Dad was an alcoholic and spent his money on booze and women. With twelve children there was no such thing as having nice clothing. Mom always kept them clean and mended though. The home we grew up in was small and had no running water. Living in the country most neighbors had outside wells. Of course we did not have one. So that meant if we needed water our neighbors would let us pump water from their well. We would pull our old red wagon with 2 large aluminum trash cans in them to our neighbors outdoors pump. Once there we would pump the trash cans full of water and then haul them home. Mom would heat the water up on the stove when we needed to take our baths. Our tub was a large round aluminum tub that Mom would fill with hot water for us to take our baths. I always joked that I was not potty trained until I was 9 years old because I was always too afraid to go out to the outhouse at night. The boogey man was waiting to get me!! Not until my older brother came out of the Navy and dug a well and put indoor plumbing in did we have running water in our house. I was 9 years old then. Wow was it so cool to be able to do your business in the house instead of the outhouse. No more freezing in the winter or burning in the summer. When I tell my chidren this stuff they can not relate. Of course I am happy that they can’t. As parents we always try to give our children a more nicer life. This is exactly what I intended to do for my family. I wanted a much nicer life for our children.

Working in a factory does not make a man rich. Even so, I was able to give my children more than my Mother (bless her soul) could give to us. I worked all the overtime I could. If I ever turned any overtime down I would feel too guilty for having done so. No, the idea was to work hard and save and good things would come to those that did. I always had a dream of owning a dream house that I could feel proud of owning and not be embarrassed to invite friends over as I was when I was a child. Never did I invite friends over as a child. Our house was always clean but everything was so old and used and worn. I never wanted any friend to come over. This is something that I never wanted my own children to feel. Embarrassment!! My wife although never growing up as poor as I understood how I felt and so we shared the same goal, to some day own a dream house.

As the years went by and the children got older the dream seemed to fade. Life was taking us in all directions. Never did there seem to be a lot of extra money. The homes that we had owned were small and always needed so much repair. It seemed as though all we earned was always going back into our homes to try and make them more to our liking. Our children were getting older and we seemed to always be cramped. Finally we had saved some money and what money we would make off the old house seemed to be able to get us into a nicer home. So we went shopping for our next and hopefully bigger house. I am sure I don’t have to tell you how exhausting shopping for another house can be. So many houses and so little time to ever get around to look at them. Our days and nights seemed filled with looking at realtor books , traveling from one house to another and at the same time having people travel through our house looking to buy. Not a real fun time. Too many homes came close to what we wanted but there would always be something we did not like. A brand new subdivision of homes were opening up near to us and we thought, hey, let’s take a look. Who were we kidding, we could never afford a brand spanking new home!! Oh man!!! Never should you look at some new homes. Our mouths dropped in awe as we walked around in a daze. Dream house is all I could think. But we can never afford this! Man this realtor at these new homes knew how to talk. Nothing was impossible if you really wanted it. What can I say. He totally sold us!

Yes we knew things would be tight at first but we would just buckle down and make this thing work. Having this new home was my dream come true. I promised my wife I would work 24/7 just to be able to live in this new home. Finally we get moved in to our dream home. Man I can not even begin to tell you nor can I even remember all the many and new expenses that arise when moving into a brand new house. First of all there’s no lawn, right? So if you’re going to all that expense of putting in a new lawn don’t you want to make sure that lawn stays pretty? Of course you do, so how do you do that? Well you have to have an inground sprinkler system installed. Hey you have really moved up and laying a hose across your lawn with a sprinkler attached is no longer going to get it in this nice neighborhood.

Wow what have I done? Next comes a nice wood fence because now a cyclone fence is not going to get it in this nice neighborhood. Besides that would be against association rules. Association?! Oh my!! I got neighbors telling me that city codes don’t get it here in this neighborhood. We must live by association rules. Now I must have a nice patio also coming off the back of my home. More money. I don’t know when I finally came out of my dream haze and into the nightmare reality of this dream house. Expenses just kept on coming and it took no time to go through all our money.

Needing more money we got a home equity loan that maxed out our equity. Then came piling up the charges. I was working all the overtime I could. Almost 5 years down the road and the my overtime at the plant came almost to a complete stop. Now very desperate we sought out a debt settlement program. They promised they could get our interest rates down and therefore lower our monthly payments. Well that sounded good. The last thing we wanted was to start being late on paying our bills. That’s why we sought out this program, to make sure we would never get to that point. So what happens? They immediately got us 3 months behind with every creditor that they were to help us with. We were getting phone calls day and night from creditors wanting to know why we have not paid our bills. We were in shock! What did they mean they have not been paid. We were sending our money to this debt settlement program faithfully. They in turn were suppose to be sending the creditors our payments. When getting in touch with them to find out what was going on, what was their reply? Oh yes we did tell you that this would probably happen while negotiating with your creditors for lower rates. First, I never remember them telling us such a thing, second, they made it sound like it was all taken care of and these creditors would immediately lower our rates. I have since found out that I should have known better. Why in the world would a creditor even begin to negotiate a lower interest rate for a customer who has never been late on his payments. It took those 3 months of being late before the creditors would lower my rate. In the mean time the debt settlement program kept those 3 months payments to themselves and my credit score plummeted into the basement. Oh yes the debt settlement program said I would get back a portion of that money if I stayed in the program until it was completed. Do you know what percentage of people ever finish the program with these debt settlement programs? Around maybe 20%. So needless to say I never got any money back because I finally got out of the program after 2 years with them. My credit totally destroyed and still I was wading neck deep into debt. Yes I was drowning in debt and it looked as though I was going down for the count.

I found myself one night in front of my computer like many other nights surfing the web looking to see if there was an answer out there somewhere for me and my family. I can not even begin to express to you how horrible I felt. I felt I had led my whole family, one by one on a long walk down a short pier. Bankruptcy was not even a consideration thanks to our wonderful politicians who have stripped that protection away. Yes I was feeling very sorry for myself. Everything that had happened to us financially was no ones fault but my own. My dream had become for us a nightmare. But I believe the good Lord in all his goodness and kindness ,(even for fools such as I), heard my silent prayer that night. Why you ask? Because I stumbled onto something totally by accident when I was no longer even searching for a solution anymore.

It was as if this ad had read my mind. The ad read, Are You Drowning In Debt? Man, I can not begin to tell you what a jolt I got when I read that! That was exactly what I was saying to myself over and over again in my head. I read the article and it got my interest. So I sought out more info. I read the web site info but that was not enough so I called the number on the website. The man on the other end of the phone sounded sincere enough. He told me his story and how he used this very program to rid himself of credit card debt. This program works on immediately ending payments on all unsecured loans, even medical bills. Wow this sounded too good to be true. If it was true, not only could I stop making payments immediately on my credit card payments but also on all those signature loans I had. That amounted to well over $100,000.00 dollars of debt that could be immediately removed. This had to be some sort of scam. I told him I was going to spend some time checking him and his business out before I committed to anything. I spent the next 3 weeks trying so hard to find something bad about this guy or his business. I even bought Net Detective to see if I could find something on this guy. Finally after the 3 weeks of trying to find something wrong on him or his business I finally came to believe that this was a legal and ethical program just as he had stated.

Today I help him help other people who are in the same boat as I was. He is so swamped with inquiries that he needs help with follow up calls and emailing free reports to people that want to learn more about this fantastic program. You too can get this free report at no obligation. Just call or email us at the address below and we will email you a free report. The report is a little lengthy so set aside around 45 minutes to sit and read this report in it’s entirety. It reads well and never did it bore me. After reading the report feel free to call or email at the address below.

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Millions of Americans are finding themselves juggling several high interest bills every month, stressed out by the seemingly impossible task of actually paying off the original debt itself. many Americans feeling stressed out and hopeless. Luckily there is help available to everyone who is suffering from excessive debt, this help is called consolidation.

Turn All Your Bills into One Easy Monthly Payment

A debt consolidation loan allows you transform all of your high interest balances into one lower loan payment a month. Your credit cards or medical bills are examples of unsecured bills that are suitable for coverage under a debt consolidation loan program.

Even if you currently have a low credit score, you will still be able to secure a loan. Your current situation and loan terms will determine whether a secured or unsecured plan is right for you. You may have to sign over your house as collateral in the case of an extremely low credit rating. The best way to find out if consolidation is the right choice, is to request and compare a few free, no obligation quotes online.

Compare Several Lenders – Find the Best Debt Consolidation Loan

The best way to find out if consolidation is right for your unique needs is to request some free online quotes and compare the results. Not only will you be able to find out how much you will save each month, you will also see which lender will save you the most. Requesting online quotes is fast, free, and has no obligation, so be sure to request several. The more research you carry out, the more confident you will be when you sign away your debts with a consolidation loan.

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