Reducing Debt and Building Wealth
One of the most common financial conundrums people have is whether to pay off debt or save for retirement and other goals. With Christian credit counseling, you learn how you can pay off your credit card debt while also building wealth. Paying off debt is a top priority for people who want to have financial freedom and reduce stress. With the help of a certified and trained credit counselor, you learn about a debt management plan which lets you dig out of debt 80 percent faster than a lot of other methods. Simply put, a debt management plan is an agreement between you and your creditors that involves a fixed monthly payment to satisfy the credit card debt you accumulated to that point. With Christian credit counseling, you have trustworthy counselors who go to the negotiation table on your behalf to secure you lower interest rates as well as forgiveness for late payments. By receiving credit counseling, you also figure out how to prioritize.
Paying your creditors
Although some people say to “pay yourself first,” the best strategy for getting out of credit card debt is to pay your debt management plan monthly bill before allocating money for savings goals and paying for other necessities and bills. The idea of paying yourself first is that you will put money aside for savings before tackling debt or daily living expenses. In most cases, you can afford to put a percentage of your income into an emergency account. However, that percentage is ideally flexible until you complete your debt management plan. Once you are out of credit card debt, you will likely contribute significantly more to a retirement and other savings accounts. If your goal is to get out of debt, make paying off creditors your top priority.
Maxing out tax-deferred accounts
To get the most for your efforts, make every effort to maximize a tax-deferred or tax-free retirement account. If you receive matching funds from your employer for a 401(k) or other company-sponsored retirement account, take advantage of the free money. You can build wealth more rapidly by knowing how to get the most money back on your tax returns in the form of tax credits and tax deductions.
Setting up a budget
With Christian credit counseling, you can enjoy working with trained counselors who don’t judge you, but support you on your journey. It is exciting to finally have that spiritual revelation that God wants you to manage your money properly and will support you in building wealth to care for yourself and your family. As part of your budget, you will create a small nest egg for temporary hardships while simultaneously paying off credit card debt through a debt management plan. Even if you can’t fully fund all tax-deferred retirement plans while paying off debt, you can make it a future goal for your budget.
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