Assess your Debt Situation

What the above means is to get an overview and understanding of your debt. You should ask yourself: –

• How much debt do I owe?
• How did I get into Debt?
• How can I prevent things from getting worse?

With the above now answered (hopefully) you have assessed your debt situation. Knowing how much you owe and the origins of your debt will help you understand how you got there and will better place you for getting help if that’s what you decide to do. The last part, preventing your situation getting worse means taking action to start sorting out your debts. You could do this by getting debt advice from a company who specialise in that area.

Make a Budget

Now you have assessed your debt situation the next thing you should do is to write up a budget. The easiest way of doing this is to get a pen, a calculator and a sheet of paper. A budget typically consists of the following: –

• A list of your income.
• A list of your expenses.
• Can be weekly monthly etc.

Add up all of your monthly expenses and take the amount off your total income. What you have left is your surplus income and you normally use that spare cash to pay off your debts. If you don’t have anything left then that’s a sign that you need to get some help, the same applies if you are only left with a very small amount.

The purpose of making this quick budget is so you can see how much you are spending and how much you are spending on your debt. In terms of your normal spending, you may be able to make some cuts to free up more money towards your debt. It might be that you see that you are in financial trouble and need to seek help. Essentially you are building up a picture of your finances so you know where you stand.

There are different types of debt. Priority Debt and none priority debt. Your priority debts must be paid. They include things such as your Mortgage, Rent Arrears and court fines for example. Non priority debts include things such as unsecured personal loans, payday loans and credit cards.

Getting Help to get out of Debt

Now you know how much debt you owe and how much you spend it is time to get some expert Debt Advice. You can visit the Debt Advice Page on this site. You can also find help on this page too if that’s more your thing. Either way, get help with your debts soon so you can start taking back control of your finances. The longer you leave things, the worse they may get.

You might feel anxious speaking to somebody about your debt. Please don’t be. They are only there to help you and certainly won’t judge you no matter how bad your debt may seem to you.