Advice on Consumer Debt Consolidation from a Guy Who Knows
Everyone wants to save money and lower their debt and they are trying all kinds of fancy ways of doing it. The reality is that all you need for consumer debt consolidation is some common sense and the ability to prevent your wife from going shopping. Probably the biggest prevention of consumer debt consolidation is shoes. My God women love shoes and my wife buys shoes no matter how deep in the hole we are and it drives me nuts!
She says that this pair was normally $75 but she got them for $35 so she is saving me $40. Do you see the logic breakdown here? She could have saved me $35 more if she would have just worn one of the 100 pairs of shoes she already owns. Ladies, consumer debt consolidation does not mean spending $200 shopping when you could have easily spent $500. You aren't saving us anything and it isn't consumer debt consolidation so cut it out!
Another obstacle to total consumer debt consolidation is eBay. My kid and my wife buy more junk from eBay than they do from any store within driving distance! What are we supposed to do with all of this stuff? They say that we can just put it up on eBay and re-sell it if we can't find a use for it. No we can't. You two are the only one dumb enough to buy this garbage in the first place. No one is going to want to buy it now! Look folks, thinking you can buy something from eBay and then sell it back if you don't want it is not good consumer debt consolidation. Good consumer debt consolidation is changing your wife and kid's password to eBay and never telling them what it is!
But Really
You can get some great consumer debt consolidation advice from your bank or credit union. They offer some really fantastic programs that can not only help you consolidate debt and pay some of your debt of but they will also lower your monthly payments with lower interest rates. I am all for that after I saw the stuff my wife bought on our Home Depot card! Man, what am I going to do with a marble counter top that doesn't fit any of my cabinets? And where in the world am I supposed to hook up this water spout on this kitchen island?
Try and avoid transferring balances from one credit card to another even though they may offer interest free transfers. In the end you are still adding to that balance and it never goes away. The best way to address consumer debt consolidation is to isolate the debt and eliminate it.
