Feeling Down About Your Debt? It May Not be Easy, but There is Hope

I had a bit of down day today in regards to my credit card debt. This year has been great so far because I have began to get a grip on my over six figures of debt. Balances are coming down instead of going up and have around $20,000 of my debt paid off so far, but I still have a couple of accounts I need to get under control and the fact that these are still haunting me is why I feel like Debbie Downer.

I have been in this mess before and I got myself out and ended up with high FICO score of 811 when I was done. This time I am following Dave Ramsey's Seven Baby Steps to get my financial life in order. I know there are tons of people like me, who owe $100,000 or more on their credit cards, which sucks. But I also know it is possible to pay off that kind of debt without declaring bankruptcy.

It is not easy to get out of debt. You may have to go to extremes and live on half your income. If you can do that you can pay those credit cards off in a few years.

Even cutting back though might not be enough. You might just have find ways to make more money. Not by gambling or day trading or robbing bank either. You might just have to work your way out of the hole. The last time I had to take a second job cleaning toilets at the YMCA at night. Last year I worked full time as a security guard just to get by. That eventually caught up with me as I was only getting 3 hours of sleep a night, but it can be done.

If you're like I was once and were behind on a lot payments you will be offered settlements to pay the debt for pennies on the dollar. I did however, choose to take the debt reduction or balance liquidation programs my creditors offered me. But if debt reduction programs with your creditors aren't available a settlement may be the way to go. Since you are broke the creditors will be happy to get what they can and probably smell bankruptcy on you over the phone.

I probably could have taken those settlements, but I felt that I made those charges so I need to pay them back. I don't believe in the easy way out and I have taken responsibility for what I have done. The credit card companies didn't hold a gun to my head to make those charges. It's not fair that someone else needs to suffer for my mistake. Just remember if you go on a debt reduction plan you still have to pay the credit card balance. If you don't, you will be right back where you started. If you take a settlement it will show on your credit report for the next seven years.

I feel better now just knowing that I can get out of this mess and you can too. You might just have to work your behind off and sacrifice for a while. Unfortunately, it's fun going into debt; but it sucks getting out.

[This post is written and copyrighted by Financial Elite (http://financialelite.blogspot.com/ ).]

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