| Now
that Xmas and the New Year are behind us and things are getting
back to normal, or more accurately have returned to normal,
with the children back to school and the adults back to the
grind of hard work, it is a good time to take stock of ones
financial situation.
The past
three years has lead to decreased working hours and consequently
reduced earnings.
Many people
who have suffered the curse of redundancy have found it impossible
to find another job while others more fortunate to be meaningfully
employed again have had to take a considerable drop in their
salary.
When you
have tried to cut your coat according to your cloth all year
long Xmas does make you really want to splash out.
People,
who put off their grocery shopping as long as they could before
Christmas due to adverse weather conditions, were met by empty
shelves, when on Christmas Eve they sauntered into Asda, Waitrose,
Morrisons, etc., as those prepared to face the snow and the
cold temperatures had snapped everything up as if the food
goodies were going out of fashion.
Children
nowadays are not content with a doll, football or a game of
snakes and ladders any more but demand and receive computers,
Nintendos, X Boxes and so on and all this costs a lot of money.
Having
spent so much at Xmas, people who were already struggling
to cope with their financial situation are in a worse state
than ever especially as they have maxed their credit cards.
Credit
cards come with very high rates of interest and when someone
has several cards they can become very difficult to manage
and even remembering on what date they have to be paid each
month can become a problem.
One credit
card can be handy, but several cost vast sums of money unnecessarily
and can lead to financial suicide. If the minimum 3% is paid
each month the affect on the outstanding balance is almost
nil.
Debt consolidation
to roll all these credit card debts into one monthly payment
is the salvation needed both to save money and make financial
management easier.
Taking
out a remortgage or a secured loan for the purpose of debt
consolidation is the best way for homeowners.
If a mortgage
deal is coming to an end remortgages are particularly attractive,
but it can often be worthwhile remortgaging even if a penalty
is imposed as the savings to be made are so good.
Sometimes
an early repayment charge can be up to 5% of the remaining
balance and if a homeowner has a large mortgage the penalty
will be substantial, e.g. on a mortgage balance of £300,000
the penalty would be £15,000.
Arranging
debt consolidation by either a remortgage or a secured loan
is really the best way for a homeowner to save money, and
often a great deal of money running into hundreds of pounds
monthly, while at the same time making money management so
much more simple.
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