Help with debts – know your total debt

How can you expect to get help with debts and win a fight and when you don't know what you are up against? If you don't know what you are up against then you are fighting blind. If you are fighting blind then you have little chance of winning.

'Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster'. Sun Tzu

I can understand that the natural tendency in this situation is just to stick your head in the ground and hope that it will all somehow go away. It won't go away unfortunately - if anything it will get worse. One of the key elements of defeating your debt is know exactly what you are up against.

How bad can it be?

In truth you need to know exactly how bad it is to in order to have any chance of tackling it. The last thing you need if you do try to tackle your debt is for some unforeseen expense appearing out of the woodwork. This will only lead to immense frustration that you are facing a never ending cycle of debt repayment with no clear end in sight.

You need goals to target. You need to be able to measure your progress against existing levels of debt.

The tricky part:

Its time for some cold hard truths in relation to your debts. You are going to have to dig deep and find the strength to face up to the full extend of your debt problem. Chances are that it is worse than you expected. You need to mentally prepare yourself for what might come as a shock but this is something that you need to do if you are ever to gain control of your financial situation.

So how to do it?

You are going to need to make a list of all your loans, credit cards and any outstanding bills that you have. If you have been hiding from these then you are going to need to face up. You need to find as much information related to them as possible.


Things you need to include

-Credit card balances and interest rates
-Outstanding loans and interest rates
-Car Loans
-Bank account overdrafts
-Tax bills
-Phone bills
-Electricity bills
-Student loans
-Mortgage and monthly payments
-Rent

You need to find the most recent statements for everything. You have to develop the latest and clearest picture possible so that you debt situation is laid bare.

Total debt =

Now get familiar with this number - this is the number that you have to aim for. It may seem insurmountable now but there is a number of ways to do it.

John Ryan is a personal finance blogger who offers people help with debts through his writings on his website http://www.untildebtdouspart.com