Business
How to manage your personal debt?

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Personal debt, this one term has different meaning to different people. Some people see it as an enabler which helps them in getting what they want and some people see it as a burden on their shoulders which they seem to hate. In reality, it can be both.
What does Personal Debt entails in the current scenario?
Personal Debt nowadays means debt incurred by a person to buy something he fancies or needs and he can borrow it from lenders like banks, people and other institutions. People take the money from such lenders and usually pay an interest (depending on the principal and interest rate agreed upon) on debt incurred. It also includes credit card debt, automobile loans, and house loans. Recently many banks have started to offer personal loans, gold loans and loans for buying electronics items like TVs, laptops and even mobile phones.
How it can be good for you?
Personal debt can be an enabler. You can buy things you need and want and you can pay as per your need. A person can pay in easy EMIs and doesn’t need to spend from his personal savings, instead he can pay it out from his future cash flows. Thus in a way it is a good thing for people who are sure of a fixed income. One can also hypothecate some of his belongings like gold and house and fulfill the immediate needs of cash.
With Individual Voluntary Arrangement you can also manage your unsecured debt. An IVA acts like a legal agreement between you and the creditor which usually lasts for 5 years. During this period you pay only what you can afford to pay outside reasonable living costs. All interest charges freezes to 0% and creditors cannot demand for additional payment as long as monthly IVA payment is made. Once IVA has completed, all remaining debt will be legally written off.
But what are the downsides?
Now comes the tricky part. Personal debt can be an enabler but it can also be a rat trap for you. Personal Debt has many downsides and if incurred beyond a limit, it can destroy your finances and economic wellbeing and you can get bankrupt. It can be a great cause of worry if your personal debt is huge but why exactly? The truth is: most people’s sole asset (let’s assume that asset is something which gives you income) is their monthly
salary only. And they have lots of liabilities (let’s assume that liabilities take something out of your pocket). But how it affects them? Well haven’t you felt the money crunch? Lots of people complain that their salary lasts for one two weeks and they barely get by for the rest of the week. Many people who complain about having no savings are the people who have higher than average salaries and many of them belong to families where many people earn. Why is that? The simplest logic is their expenditure is much higher than their income. And this creates a problem. Most of the people nowadays have low survival ability i.e. if their salary stops coming in, they will go bankrupt very soon. Such people are living from salary to salary and have meager savings and high debts(mostly credit cards). This is really a dangerous condition.
High personal debt means high negative cashflow. Many payments are needed to be paid at the beginning of each month thus the amount you can save goes down. Also the money you have for your immediate needs goes down which causes more credit card debt. Also the interest rates are usually very high for credit card debts. Just imagine, if anyone buys a car worth 5 lakh with 2 lakh down payment and 3 lakh loan, the car might cost him around 7lakh with interest.
Don’t incur high personal debt!!!
How to manage your Personal Debt?
Hopefully by now you will be interested in managing your personal debt. There are some basic guidelines which might help you in managing your personal debt successfully.
1. Try to buy things with cash – If you don’t use your credit card much, you will find that you are buying things less than usual. Also it is hard to choose between a hand full of cash and an item (try it). Your expenditure will go down and you will find that you also save credit card dues and fees (even if it is a ‘free’ credit card, there is usually a limit beyond which, it is free of annual charges).
2. Use tools in the market – There are many tools, available online, using which you can bring your debt down slowly. These are developed by financial experts and you can check them out. I found one such debt calculator tool which I personally recommend. It is an excellent tool which can actually help and is easy to use. It is the debt calculator at www.IVA.com
An IVA theoretically is an Individual Voluntary Agreement which can help you in managing your unsecured debt. You can take advantage of the fixed rates of IVA and use them to slowly and securely pay your debt. This scheme can thus help you in getting debt free and also offers you protection from creditors which many other debt reducing plans like Debt Management Plans do not.
To avail the benefits of IVA you need to get your financial condition assessed by an Insolvency Practioner (IP). A fixed rate will be chosen and then you can slowly pay off your debt. Mostly IVAs can help you finish your debt in a short duration of just five years.
3. Save more – There is no alternative to saving more. If you have enough savings you can weather many disasters and it will increase your survival ability. Also you will feel much less anxiety if you know that you have enough financial resources to survive.
4. Get income generating assets – You should always try to get as much positive cashflow as possible. Invest in schemes, buy shares or real estate (which should get you some income every month) or operate some side business. It will also enable to retire earlier and live a tension free post retirement life.
I hope that this article has encouraged you to think and maybe have given you some ideas to how to manage your personal debt and finances effectively. Please do share your thoughts on the subject, I would be glad to reply to your comments.
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