Dealing with Debt: Things to Know

Let’s face it. Debt can be very overwhelming especially to those who have made some big mistakes in the past. This is why creating a budget and sticking to that budget is so important. It helps you tackle the problem sooner and faster, allowing you to pay it off faster. One of the single biggest things that you can do to help tackle your indebtedness is made extra money. Just remember, income is king. You can only cut your bottom line so much but you can increase your top line as much as you want. In this article, I am going to be going over some of the ways that one can earn extra money to pay off some of these bills.

1. Freelance work

On sites like Upwork and Fiverr, you can become a freelancer and charge money for your services. If you are a grown adult, there is a high chance that you have some valuable skills that you can provide to the marketplace in exchange for some extra currency. If you can’t, gain a valuable skill or don’t freelance. Freelancing is how I started earning some extra money on the side. As you get better, you can increase the cost of your work.

Read also: Top 5 Money Management Tips for Freelancers – Here’s What Every Beginner Should Know!

2. Another job

Getting another job is also a great option for people who don’t want to work for themselves. Two great options I would recommend would be becoming a waiter/waitress or becoming a pizza delivery driver. Both people make great money in tips while having a fun job. These jobs you can do part-time and they are very flexible.

3. Side business

Some great side businesses include lawn mowing, dog walking, house sitting, dog sitting, babysitting, book reselling, etc. The list really does go on and on. A very popular business is blogging. Using WordPress tools you can build your very own website and begin a wordpress blog. This way you can write about something you love and eventually get some extra cash for it, relieving some of the pressure on you.

At the end of the day, you have to take control of your own indebtedness and take full responsibility for it. If you don’t, the interest will keep racking up. The most powerful thing that you can put in place to fix your debt would be a monthly budget. You can easily do one on either a spreadsheet or a piece of notebook paper. What this budget does is it allows you to pay close attention to your finances, tracking every dollar that is spent. A great app that I would recommend is the Intuit Mint app. This app is linked to my bank account and shows all of my transactions while tracing my budget. Every month, sit down with your significant other and find out how you are going to tackle these bills. Start by listing out your take-home pay and then put all of your expenses underneath that. At the end of the month, you should have very minimal money left over. If you have an emergency fund set in place already, I would start to tackle these bills immediately. Stop all investing and extra spending until you have this mess cleaned up. Aside from cutting spending, you should be doing everything in your power to bring some extra money in. Perform some of the actions that I listed above to get started. I would stay away from things that have an upfront cost like flipping homes, reselling cars, etc. Exchanging your time and services for money is your best bet at acquiring currency.

All in all, making a budget and sticking to it should limit the overwhelming feeling. Why? Because you have made a plan and are disciplined to stick to it. Sooner or later, you are going to have all of your bills paid and are going to feel great.