Turning Debt into Wealth – One of Life’s Great Challenges
Turning debt into wealth, that has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? Now what you are probably wondering is can you really turn your debt into wealth and if so how do you do it. Both are common yet respectable questions to ask and the answer to the first part is yes, you can turn around your financial situation. As for the second answer, well, the answer is a little longer.
The first thing you need to get started, is to forget all of the over hyped affiliate garbage that you have read on the internet. Programs that claim to offer a package that will turn around your debt in 48 hours for only $119, are the kind of slime that I am talking about. In fact if you found this article through a search on Google, you probably had to wade through a bunch of them before you got here. So just ignore the sales jargon that they all preach, forget the fake testimonials plastered across their sales pages and get started with a clean slate.
Now that we have filtered out the bad stuff we can get on to the truth. Turning debt into wealth is actually pretty straight forward. There is not any secret formulas or magic tricks, its simply the process of managing finances. The first thing you need to do is pay off your debt, and I know your thinking duh, but I can’t do that, when in reality you actually can do just that.
Paying off debt requires planning, budgeting, self control and of course having a little money doesn’t hurt either. Below are some tips to help manage your debt and then we can cover some ways to make enough money to help pay it off.
Planning, Budgeting and Managing Your Personal Debt
Figure out your bills – In order to pay off all of your debt, you need to know what debts you have, many families don’t. Take a weekend, or longer if needed, to make a chart of everyone you owe and the amounts owed. You may need to pull your credit report to do this, you can get a free one at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Figure out your budget – It is very important for you to know how much money you have available. The easiest way to do this is sit down and calculate all of the income for your household and then subtract all of your monthly expenses from that amount. Make sure that you include your rent or mortgage, grocery bills, car payment, utilities and anything else that you pay out on a regular basis. To make this process a little easier, or at least automated, you might try a tool like Microsoft Money, which does allow you to download a free trial to see if it something that works well for you.
Consolidate your debt – Consolidating debt consists of paying off all of your debts with one credit card or loan with low interest. Not only does consolidation make it easier for you to manage your debts, since there is now only one payment, it also saves you money by lumping everything into one low interest payment. This is by far one of the best ways to pay off debt.
Where to turn for more debt help – Please, when you are looking online for advice and information about your debt, use reputable sources. There is a lot of misleading information out there and bad information can put you at risk. So here is a list of sources I would recommend:
- DaveRamsey.com has tons of great information on debt, money and life. It is by far one of the premier places to visit, and I frequent the site often.
- Msn MoneyCentral is of course a highly trusted source offering information on financial planning, investing, banking, taxes and so much more. You can stay up to date on the latest news in the financial world and learn while your there.
- CNN Money is another great source of information. They have a Ask an Expert feature for answers to your question, along with loan, debt and financial information.
Oh, if only you had the money
Well you can. Once you begin to follow some of the advice above and visit the other resources I have shared with you, you are already well on your way to reaching your goal. But it’s no secret that money is a necessary evil, we need it to pay bills, buy food, shelter and just live. Not to mention having a little fun every now and then, which is important to keep your mind and spirit healthy. So what can you do? Aside from taking away from your family and working two full time jobs, there are options, none of which are pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing plans or broken affiliate programs that promise the world and give nothing. At one point in my life, I actually tried these things, they cost me a lot of money and I received nothing in return. No, I take that back, I did receive something very important, the determination to do it on my own without over hyped programs and high program fees. I guess that in itself was worth what I spent, but I want to keep you from learning the same things at that cost.
In my opinion the best and fastest way to make money is on the Internet. You don’t have to be technically inclined, you don’t have to know how to design websites or anything else. Normal everyday people are taking to the Internet to make money all of the time and they are doing it successfully. There are numerous ways to make money online and were not talking millions of dollars or as some advertise $45, 000.00 in 1 month. To achieve results like that it takes a lot of time, experience and dedication. That’s not to say that you can’t make that much, but chances are that you won’t make it in the beginning. However, you can make extra money to pay off your debt, put in your savings account or take a vacation, all while you are learning the online game of business. Once you get your feet wet, you will start to understand what works and what doesn’t, when it comes to making money. Below are some ideas that many people are currently using to make a good living online or at the very least catching up on past debts.
Some ways to make money online that really do work
Buying established websites – Plain and simple, websites make money! If you didn’t know that then now you are up to date. Some webmasters get bogged down with to many projects while others have built websites with the intention of selling them so you can always find a good one. The more money a website makes the more it will cost, the usual pricing figure is equal to about 10 months of the sites income. You can buy websites on eBay.com, webmaster forums and even Craigslist.org so you will have to do a little shopping around to find the right one. The best thing about buying established websites is that the creator has done all of the hard work, which was getting it to a point where it makes money, now you just have to maintain it.
Selling on eBay – I will be the first to admit that this is not my cup of tea, however, many people make a very nice, full time living on eBay. Some sellers buy stuff on sale at their local store while others shop at thrift and antique stores and garage sales to find products that will make a profit. So you don’t have to purchase directly from wholesalers and large manufacturers to make money.
Freelance Work – This is of course my favorite method of making money online, since I am a writer and presentational speaker it meshes well with me. It also happens to be very lucrative and easy enough for a lot of you to get started doing. If this is something you are genuinely interested in I would suggest that you setup a personal blog, start making some contacts around the web, maybe guest write for other blogs(contact me if you like) and check out the freelance communities for extra work.
These are only a few options and there are a ton of them out there, which I will probably share in a later post, but others may include blogging, virtual assistant, sales, marketing and so on.
Hopefully this post has inspired you to get out there and hit the road for turning debt into wealth. It really isn’t a very difficult process, but requires strength and perseverance. Manage your money well, save when possible, pay off your debts and you are on your way, I wish you the best of luck in life.
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