Comments on: 10 Baby Steps to Financial Recovery

By: Pinyo

Pinyo — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:10:34 +0000

@lost and alone – I am sorry to hear that. But that’s how you begin the negotiation process. Creditors would rather collect a little bit as opposed to taking you to court or have you declare bankruptcy. You never know for sure that the answer is until you ask. And if you get someone nasty on the other end of the line, be ready to hang up and call again to get a different person. Good luck.

By: lost and alone

lost and alone — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:21:10 +0000

Once you are in over your head though, there doesn’t seem to be a way out. If you couldn’t pay the minimum payments to begin with, how can you negotiate with multiple companies so that you can EVER get your debt repaid? I, personally, have given up. If they take me to court, they take me. I can’t pay my health insurance and the credit cards too and my health insurance has gone up by OVER $100.00 EVERY YEAR for the past five years. I don’t see a way out.

By: Doctor S

Doctor S — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:03:10 +0000

#1 is the most important. Some people (Like myself) can just be too stubborn to admit that they even have the slightest problem. Finding your own personal drawbacks and weaknesses is the first step to finding solutions.

Credit cards are the devil, cutting them up is the answer, but extreme. I prefer to consolidating many cards into one and only carrying one that benefits you. Making the credit card work for you as long as you are handling your obligation in paying it off appropriately. If you can not handle that much, cut the plastic up ASAP!

By: Jerry

Jerry — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:55:56 +0000

We’ve kept our credit cards open but we don’t use them. We may close some of them but have kept them all. It’s been good for our credit so far. But, your good credit is your only insurance in this economy. Things are looking so grim that we need to do all we can to save and stay afloat until things get better. All this doom also leads me to watch less news. It helps me to keep a cheerier perspective.

By: SavvyMoney

SavvyMoney — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:54:34 +0000

Don’t you think the best way to kill the credit cards is to cut them all up, yet leave accounts open? That way you remove the temptation to use them, whilst benefiting from a current credit history.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:56:41 +0000

Pinyo I totally agree with your points, they are excellent. I definitely agree that step 1 is the hardest as many of us are more than happy to ignore the problem or even refuse that there is an issue in the first place. The sooner you recognize but also accept that there is a problem the sooner you begin to change your circumstances now matter how bad they are. I’ve also written a similar article on this area entitled “A Step by Step Guide to Get Out Of Debt”.

This is based upon my experiences of working with people with significant debt issues at all levels of society. Keep writing these great posts Pinyo.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:53:28 +0000

These are very true and I’d say #2 is a key step. Cutting them up is a great way to go because if nothing else it leaves an invaluable imprint on your mind of the change that is taking place.