Debt Consolidation Dangers
Saturday, July 4th, 2009When used correctly that consolidation can be a wonderful thing. It allows you to take high interest loans and replace them with low-interest loans. This means more of your money will be going toward principal and less of it toward interest. Sounds like a good thing all around right? It is if you continue to make the same payments you made under the higher interest loans.
What gets people into trouble is when they use that consolidation as a way to increase their spending. Your goal should be to lower the amount you are spending focusing more of that money on the principle and less on the interest. If you take payments that totaled $1000 per month, and replace them with a single loan that costs $500 per month it puts you in a better financial situation. However if you use that extra $500 per month to increase your standard of living or spend money on items that may have maintenance costs, you can work yourself into a worse situation than what you started with.
The wise thing to do with the extra $500 per month is to put some into an emergency savings account and the rest toward paying off your debt. The emergency savings account will help keep you from needing to go into debt again for unexpected expenses. The extra money being paid toward the principal of your loan we’ll help you get out of debt more quickly.
Debt consolidation loans are great for people who are willing to change their behaviors that lead to the data in the first place. Debt consolidation loans are very dangerous when they allow people to continue a pattern of behavior that needs to be changed.
In the US it is easy not to take that seriously. Bankruptcy gives people an easy way out if they are unable to pay their bills. For all their problems debtors prisons did one thing right. They made people take their debt obligations seriously. I’m not against bankruptcy laws. But I am against people doing things without considering the consequences.