Holiday Shopping Debt and How to Eliminate It
Posted: Thursday, January 08, 2009
by Jim Vrana
True Debt Advisor
Retailers have been hit hard this past shopping season. The holiday gift giving season produces up to 40% of annual sales for many stores. When retail stores don't realize enough sales during December, many face the real prospect of closing their doors in the January.
We see this occurring throughout the country. Retail stores from the local mom-n-pop shop to major national chains are going out of business, or at least closing some of their under-achieving stores.
Once again, the reality of those balances will begin to show up as the credit card monthly statements start to arrive in the mail. More people than ever are wondering how they are going to pay those 2008 debt balances, and still survive in 2009.
Unless a person can payoff their card balances within a few months, then the amount of spent on those 2008 gifts will continue to increase as interest on those purchases continues to accumulate. Too many people don't realize that the $500 they spent on holiday gifts could really cost them $600 to $700 once those purchases, plus interest, are paid for.
Unfortunately, most people never really know how much money they are actually spending. Purchases made now, are simply added to previous balances, plus old interest, plus future purchases, plus future interest. A family cannot possibly budget their expenses when they do not know how much their purchases are actually costing them. All they really see is an ever growing debt balance.
How does a family survive when their debt begins to grow out of control? The first order of business is to put away the credit cards. Make a commitment to live without them. If a family's monthly income is not enough to cover the monthly expenses, then some hard, difficult choices must be made on which expenses must be cut out their lives.
The second order of business is eliminating the debt burden left behind. There are many solutions and programs available to achieve this goal. Not every solution is a good fit for every person. Some may try and settle for a lower balance, some people may obtain a low interest consolidation loan.
Many people are now discovering that debt elimination programs are very real. For this to be the right program, you must make the commitment to live without credit cards. It can be done. The interest savings alone could seem like getting a pay raise.
This country has been led to believe that you must have a credit card to live. This is false. Many debit cards can be used just like credit cards. Many people travel around the world, and never use a credit card. Of course, the debit card may only be used if there is actually enough money in the bank to cover the purchases. Do not forget about using cash for your purchases. When you actually see the money disappearing from their wallet, you are less likely to make those un-needed purchases.
This just leads to a very simple concept: If you don't have the money, don't make the purchase. Living by this rule will eliminate foolish purchases, and save money that would be wasted on interest charges.
When you live in this manner, the $500 spent on next year's holiday gifts, will only cost you $500.
--------
Billed as The True Debt Advisor, Jim Vrana's mission is to educate and empower people to overcome their financial challenges. The time-tested legal procedures used to eliminate credit card debt have been used by thousands of people with tremendous success.
Contact:
Jim Vrana
True Debt Advisor
(800) 637-1785
http://www.TrueDebtAdvisor.com
This Article has been viewed 39 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.