Category: Credit Counselling

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How to Prioritize Your Expenses

You may feel tempted to pay expenses to those who shout loudest; however, you need to prioritize. Rent, electricity, water and food. Without those things you do not have a functioning home, and you will find yourself in deep water for not keeping up with payments. Next, you have to consider the things that enable you to earn a salary, such as your car, travel costs or childcare; including child maintenance payments. All these expenses are absolute necessities, and you will find that out the first time you let your payments lapse. In short – unless an expense can put you out of your home, take food off your table or prevent you from earning money, it is not your first priority.

Now, that is not to say that your other expenses are unimportant. Keeping up all your payments, even if you are only able to pay the minimum, is of huge importance. Your credit cards, loans and other expenses may not be secured loans, however, neglecting them will only serve to perpetuate the cycle of debt. Once you have allocated funds to priority expenses, budget the rest of your cash flow to cover your other expenses. This will provide a template for how to best pool your financial resources. If you are having difficulty finding the cash flow to cover all your expenses, speak to your creditors. They would rather work with you to come to a payment arrangement, than not receive payment at all.

As tempting as it may be, never hide from your debts. Speak to all your creditors, explore the possibilities of reallocating funds and create a budget that is both realistic and workable. When you do prioritize your expenses, consider that money as gone. It is not available for juggling debts or tapping into it in the hope of securing future funds. If you have to seek additional disposable income, then do so; however, never stretch your budget beyond its means.

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Automate Your Payments – Takes Away The Temptation

Automating payments presents a number of advantages. You can earn discounts, budget your cash flow better and forecast your financial requirements. When you get used to set amounts debiting from your account, you will eventually remove them from the equation. This takes away the temptation to tap into those funds, allowing you to create a workable budget that won’t leave you deeper in debt.

Remembering scattered payment dates throughout the month can become confusing. Your aim is to allocate money then forget about it – until such a time as you need to re-examine your budget. Depending on how often you get paid, you should set all your automated payments to come out on the same date, each month. To better manage your finances, there are various online apps and resources that can help you. Applications such as Mint, You Need a Budget and Mvelopes, are ideal. However, if you are not tech savvy, then keeping a calendar of your automated payments, when they reduce and completion dates, will suffice.

Another important point to remember is that automated payments do not only apply to regular household bills. You can set up regular payments for insurance policies, retirement funds, college plans and investments. Although many of these payments are not essential to everyday life, by budgeting automated payments, you are preparing for the future. Before you know it, that money won’t even exist in your mind. In fact, you will probably find yourself looking for other sources of income before even thinking about touching your monthly automated payment funds.

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Getting Married? Have You Had the Debt Talk?

So you have decided to get married. No doubt you have planned everything with meticulous precision, right down to the smallest detail. However, there is an elephant in the room that no one wants to address. It’s time to have the debt talk – and how you approach the issue could make or break your marriage – before it has even begun. The good news is, with honesty, commitment and forward planning, there is no reason that debt should stand in the way of a lifetime of marital bliss.

They say a problem shared is a problem halved; but when it comes to debt, it’s not quite that simple. One partner may have significantly more debt than the other, for instance. However, that does not automatically mean that they are less frugal. Although a high debt amount should ring alarm bells, how that debt was accrued and the measures your future spouse is taking to address it, will paint a much more accurate picture of what you are getting into. This is why honesty is so important. When all the cards are laid on the table, you can assess where you are and how you want to move forward.

Marriage is all about commitment. You are not just committing to each other though, you are committing to each other’s debts as well. When having the debt talk, it is important to examine how each of you has addressed your own debts. Before you even think about marriage, both of you must prove a commitment to making regular payments towards debt, that won’t completely cripple your lifestyle. Approach the problem with the same precision that you would when planning your actual wedding. Make no mistake, debt is a big deal when considering marriage. Forward planning will prevent any nasty surprises; so make sure you are both prepared for the financial strains, before you say those vows.

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CIBC Study – Canadians Want to Lower their Debt Load

There was an encouraging note in recent financial news when CIBC released the results of a telephone survey taken earlier this year. Of the 2003 Canadians surveyed, 72% said that they had some form of personal debt – a mortgage, credit card debt or student loans. The encouraging news about those debt holders was the fact that 49% of the said that they had made a lump sum payment against that debt during the previous 12 months in order to help bring their debt load down.

With interest rates low, the temptation to borrow funds and go further into debt increases. However, it appears that the majority of Canadians are taking the wise track and developing strategies to lower their overall debt rather than add to it.

If you are among those who have made the choice to apply extra lump sum payments to your household debt during the last year, we applaud your efforts and the self-discipline that it takes to so so. The greatest means of reaching true financial freedom rests in the hand of each individual. As individuals and families take control of their finances and make the commitments and sacrifices necessary to reduce their household debt, they often find that their lifestyle improves and the decrease in finance related stress is one of the big bonuses that goes with it.

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Student Loans – Coping with Student Loan Debt

If there is one thing that a student doesn’t need it is the worry of a huge debt hanging over them after graduation. A lot of you are probably thinking, hey, I have a grace period. While it is true that you usually have a grace period of six months after you graduate, on federal and provincial student loans, you are not out of the woods yet. You still have to pay eventually, and your federal loan accrues interest during the grace period.

As difficult as it may seem, you need to get used to making payments on your student loan, right from the offset. Don’t let it stress you too much though; there are ways to ensure you don’t carry that debt for a lifetime. The first thing you need to do, before you can even begin to pay off your debt, is to find a source of disposable income.

Some of you will find yourself employed and in a position to make your student loan payments immediately. For those less fortunate, here are some ideas to help you out.

1. Lower Living Expenses: Remember that time you flew the nest and set out on your own? Well, this may break your heart, but moving back to your parents for a while could help you save the extra cash needed towards paying your loan payments.
2. Revision of Terms: You can ask for a revision of terms; which means you can extend the loan period in order to reduce the monthly payments. Just make sure you keep up with these new lower payments, and as soon as possible, begin paying extra towards the principle.
3. Waiver Period: If you find yourself out of a job, don’t despair. You may be entitled to an interest relief period. During this period the government will pay your interest and you won’t have to make any loan repayments.

Don’t let student debt creep up on you, budget your payments today.

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Control Spending Habits

Controlling your spending doesn’t always mean reducing it; however, more often than not it is the end result. Tracking your spending is the best way to manage your finances, and there are a number of ways to do it. Credit cards and other forms of electronic payment come with the benefit of easy tracking. All your transactions are available on your monthly statement or online. However, a typical credit card purchase, on average, will cost 112% more than if you had used cash.


So is cash better than credit? Well, in a lot of instances it is. Credit cards give you the convenience of on the spot purchases that you can worry about later. With cash, you can only spend what you have. The problem with cash is though, how do you track it? There are plenty of programs out there that are great for tracking your finances; Quicken and MS Money are two that come to mind right away. But do you really have the time or inclination to keep every receipt and meticulously enter them into a tracker?


The good news is you don’t have to track every purchase; you just need to control how much you spend each month. To do this you first need to identify the areas where your spending is not controlled. Usually suspects include groceries, clothing, personal spending and general luxuries. Once you have identified these areas it is time to take control. Withdraw the amount of cash that you think you will need for these purchases and put it in an envelope. Make sure to record the date and amount on the envelope too.


Don’t panic if you find that you run out of money, this exercise is about control, and it takes a few months to show positive results. You will notice that you are becoming conscious of every purchase that you make. Every price tag will represent a percentage of what you have committed to spend, and you will think twice about impulse purchases. Ultimately, you will be surprised by how easy it is to control and reduce your spending when you are parting with real hard cash.

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Budgeting – Review Your Spending

Budgeting – Review Your Spending Before You Create Your Budget

If you want to reduce your debt, then you need to have a budget. I know, you have tried this a million times and it is a waste of time. You see, the problem with a budget is that it only works if you know what you are budgeting for. If you sit down and pull numbers out of your head, what you are doing is the equivalent of wishing away your debt. First and foremost, a budget needs to be realistic; which means you will have to do the ground work.


The key to success is in reviewing your spending, before you create your budget. To do this you are going to have to be honest with yourself. The easy part is your recurring payments, such as mortgage, insurance, taxes and credit cards; so start with those. Next you will need to look at your outgoings for less predictable or fluctuating costs. Consider your groceries, clothing, travel expenses, entertainment and any other impulse purchases. Track what you spend on each area for a month to give a realistic view of what you are currently spending.


Now, once you have calculated your outgoings, there is a chance that you will be over budget. Don’t let this dishearten you. You have effectively listed the component parts of an overall formula; you now need to make those components work for you. This is where you budget really begins.


Look at your outgoings; especially those that are not essential or are adjustable, and consider how you can reduce them. Allocate higher amounts from your budget to payments which have high interest rates. If, after you have tweaked the numbers as much as you can, you are still in the red, it is time to speak to your lenders. You may be able to make further monthly reductions by changes to your payment plans.

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Saving Commitment – Change Your Habit, Pay Yourself First

Whether you are saving for one big purchase or simply as a means of combating debt, you deserve a reward for your efforts. If you have ever played games on social media sites, where you effectively click buttons for six hours, you will appreciate this article. The developers of those games use psychology to keep you hooked. They are based on an effort and reward system, which keeps the player motivated to continue in order to receive their reward.


Saving is just like those games, except for most of us, it is often a long time before we see a reward. So why not have a little fun with your saving, by setting yourself challenges? It is difficult to appreciate the results of your hard work when the goal is in the distant future. By setting incremental goals, with a reward at the end, you will feel that your efforts are worth it and you will also notice an increase in your motivation.


So, let’s say that you set a target of $5,000 dollars and you reach it within your estimated time frame. Now you can reward yourself. Here’s a tip: create two dates; one is your reward date and the other is your ultimate deadline. If you reach your target by the reward date, you can treat yourself to a night out or a similar luxury. Obviously the reward should reflect the target amount, so if you are aiming to save $100 dollars, don’t splash out on a foreign holiday as your reward or anything else that will eat up a large chunk of the money saved.


This simple idea will make saving fun, rewarding and worth the effort. Get as creative with it as you like, as long as the end results are the same.

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Pay Down Credit Card Debt

It may surprise you to find, that in an article about reducing credit card debt, we are not going to tell you to stop using your credit cards. Responsible spending, using credit, will actually help you keep a healthy credit score. This will make all the difference in the future if you need to take out a large loan for a new home or car. However, you do need to keep your credit card debt down, and to do that you have to keep up with your payments.

Whatever you pay, you need to be realistic about it, so create a budget to track your outgoings. Try to avoid paying the minimum on your credit cards at all costs. It may seem like you are chipping away at your debt, but really, all you are doing is paying interest. The next step is to compare the interest rates on all your credit cards. You want to allocate the highest payment to the cards with the highest rates. You may not have it within your budget to pay more than the minimum on all your cards; however, you can pay off the larger ones while maintaining minimum payments on the others.

A low-rate balance transfer is another option for reducing your debt. You can consolidate all your credit card debt into one easy to manage, lower rate payment. Be careful when choosing this option, and make sure to check the rates and how long they last.