Devora Witts asked: Even if you are resorting to other forms of debt relief like consolidation or debt settlement, it is important for you to learn money management skills so you will not need to resort again to debt relief services. Money management skills will help you administrate your income efficiently and keep your expenses at bay while helping you to successfully eliminate your debt.
Money Management is a concept that implies several practices regarding budgeting and income and expenses administration. There is no unique approach to money management but there are some common agreements as to what is essential in money management. This includes budgeting, debt to income ratio reduction, debt exposure reduction and efficient spending management.
Budgeting
Budgeting is essential for proper money management. It consists on preparing spreadsheets with income and expenses details and analyzing the use you are giving to the money. Budgeting is mere handling of data. The actual cuts on expenses or boost on the income are other parts of a money management system. However, budgeting is vital because it provides you with the information that the rest of the process will need.
Debt To Income Ratio Reduction
The debt to income ratio is the relation that binds your debt with your earnings. If your debt consumes a high portion of your earnings and you still have other expenses to handle, chances are that your debt will accumulate and prevent you from achieving debt freedom. Debt to income ratio reduction implies, either reducing your overall debt or boosting your available income in order to avoid debt being accumulated.
Debt Exposure Reduction
When too much debt is due in a short period of time, it makes it harder for the debtor to repay it. The rate at which debt is accumulated in a period of time is called debt exposure. A desirable debt exposure is the one that spreads debt along wider periods of time even if the interests are higher because repaying such debt is easier when there are income limitations.
In order to reduce debt exposure, you can either refinance or consolidate your debt. In any case, short term debt is replaced with a loan featuring a longer repayment schedule that generates lower and more affordable monthly payments so as to bring ease to the debtor’s income requirements and making more income available that can be used to further reduce more expensive debt.
Efficient Spending Management
Managing your spending efficiently is essential to keep a healthy financial life. What does efficient spending management imply? Simple, to optimize the use of your available income and reduce the amount of money spent on unnecessary expenses. This does not mean that you will necessarily have to cut on entertainment for example (or any other spending category for that matter) but you can spend less money on that category and obtain the same things by optimizing the way you finance purchases of goods and services. The idea is to reduce your spending but take a step down on your lifestyle only if necessary. That is exactly what Efficient Spending Management is all about.
Terri
