Digging out and Saving up
April 1, 1997
What to do about debt.
If you're in debt, you're not alone. Americans owe a staggering $1.2
trillion on their credit cards. How do you get the upper hand with
credit card debt? Here are some tips for squeezing out an extra payment each
month. —Use your savings.
With savings accounts yielding only from 2.5 to
3 percent, and credit cards charging 18 percent, you're actually losing money
by not applying savings toward debt retirement. —Track your expenses.
Chip Krueger, president of Fortress Financial
in Wheaton, Illinois, suggests keeping a daily log of everything you spend,
no matter how insignificant, for at least a month. "You can save $1 a day
just by ordering water instead of a Coke at lunch. That's $30 a month." —Make nickel-and-dime savings.
Set a timer when making long-distance
calls, find a bank that offers free checking, join a food co-op, refinance
your mortgage to a lower interest rate, drop cable for a year. —Pay off smaller amounts first.
If you can't consolidate your debt,
pay off your smallest debt first. Then, when that's paid off, apply what
you were paying to your smallest debt to your next smallest one, and so on. —Seek counsel.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service (800-388-CCCS)
and other groups offer advice. What to do about college tuition.
"It's unrealistic to expect to pay for your children's education," says Gene
Frost, ceo of Hosts (Helping One Student To Succeed) Corporation, an educational
firm. "It can't be done-nor should it."
If you want to help pay for your child's education, set a goal for the amount
you plan to contribute. T. Rowe Price (800-638-5660) and Fidelity (800-544-8888)
offer free worksheets to help calculate the price of future education. ...
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