Debt and Your Health
Debt truly can make you sick - literally! My goal with this article is to help you prevent it from happening to you. I hope I can help make a positive impact on your physical and emotional well being, as well as your finances. Besides, life is too short to risk your health worrying about debt. And no matter how bad the debt seems to be, remember the old proverb from the Bible: "...This Too Shall Pass."
There are actually plenty of options available for those of you who, like I once was, are stressing out each day just trying to make ends meet, feeling as if it things will never get any better. Deciding to take action and be proactive about dealing with your debt, in and of itself, will yield positive results for you of some kind. But, on the flip side: The only thing for certain that will happen if you do not take any action at all, is that nothing will improve - if anything, it will get worse.
So, lets talk about some options you have available. Debt consolidation is one. Generally though, you will need to qualify for a consolidation loan, which can be tricky if your credit scores are low from getting behind on payments. In any case, if you choose to go this route, be sure to find a reputable company to work with.
Another option would be signing up for a debt repayment program. This involves working with a 3rd party to negotiate monthly payments to your creditors, reduce the percentage rates on your debt, and actually manage the process of distributing payments to your creditors. This works well if you have gotten too far in debt, but do not have a majority, or any, accounts in collections.
If you do have collection accounts, then you are dealing with a whole other set of guidelines and circumstances. That is, your debt has been "charged off" and sold to the highest bidder for pennies on the dollar. The collection agencies will then come after you for the full amount of the debt the purchased (again, for dirt cheap) in hopes of sucking the full amount of the original debt out of you.
The issue here is that, whether you pay all of that original balance, or negotiate a much lower pay off balance (which is highly advisable and completely possible...) your credit essentially be affected the same. In other words, the damage is done, so the position to take here is to shoot for the lowest payoff balances you can get, and get them paid and behind you as soon as possible. There are many very effective ways of cleaning up your credit once you do.
So there are a few options for dealing with debt, collections, and hopefully, improving your overall health as a result. Stress in general really has been shown to have serious health implications. Stressing over money is probably one of the most severe, and common, forms of stress there is. So do yourself a favor, and start dealing with your debt today.
There are actually plenty of options available for those of you who, like I once was, are stressing out each day just trying to make ends meet, feeling as if it things will never get any better. Deciding to take action and be proactive about dealing with your debt, in and of itself, will yield positive results for you of some kind. But, on the flip side: The only thing for certain that will happen if you do not take any action at all, is that nothing will improve - if anything, it will get worse.
So, lets talk about some options you have available. Debt consolidation is one. Generally though, you will need to qualify for a consolidation loan, which can be tricky if your credit scores are low from getting behind on payments. In any case, if you choose to go this route, be sure to find a reputable company to work with.
Another option would be signing up for a debt repayment program. This involves working with a 3rd party to negotiate monthly payments to your creditors, reduce the percentage rates on your debt, and actually manage the process of distributing payments to your creditors. This works well if you have gotten too far in debt, but do not have a majority, or any, accounts in collections.
If you do have collection accounts, then you are dealing with a whole other set of guidelines and circumstances. That is, your debt has been "charged off" and sold to the highest bidder for pennies on the dollar. The collection agencies will then come after you for the full amount of the debt the purchased (again, for dirt cheap) in hopes of sucking the full amount of the original debt out of you.
The issue here is that, whether you pay all of that original balance, or negotiate a much lower pay off balance (which is highly advisable and completely possible...) your credit essentially be affected the same. In other words, the damage is done, so the position to take here is to shoot for the lowest payoff balances you can get, and get them paid and behind you as soon as possible. There are many very effective ways of cleaning up your credit once you do.
So there are a few options for dealing with debt, collections, and hopefully, improving your overall health as a result. Stress in general really has been shown to have serious health implications. Stressing over money is probably one of the most severe, and common, forms of stress there is. So do yourself a favor, and start dealing with your debt today.
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