Tackling Debt with Technology
I remember when my mother used to write out the budget for any given month back in the 90’s. She would sit at the kitchen table and carefully lay out each expense against the total income of the household. That way, she’d know what she would have left over to save or spend on other, less important things. We’ve come a long way from those pen and paper days, but budgeting has not become less important. As technology has advanced, so too has the ability to log and analyze debt. Now more than ever, people have more control over what they spend, save, and pay off. Here’s how you can use technology to tackle your debts.
Attacking Your Debt Head On
The most direct method of dealing with debt, the head on approach will put you face to face with your debt and force you to deal with it. As it stands there are many forms of online programs that allow you to do this. The idea behind this method is to log all of your debts online and then deposit money into an account that will help you pay off your debts based on your priorities. If you want you can focus on larger debts first to try and avoid interest rates, or you can focus on smaller debts to lessen the total amount of debts you have faster.
Attacking Your Debt Indirectly
Some people would rather handle their debt without being directly involved in the process. In essence, it’s like having your debts handled by your money. This method of debt relief would involve a program that would take your daily purchases, round each purchase up to the nearest dollar, and use that rounded up amount to apply to your choice of debt. Many banks implement this method in adding the rounded up amount to a savings account, allowing you to save automatically. This is especially useful for those who make many smaller purchases in addition to paying off debts over time.
Unconventional Methods of Debt Relief
There are other ways to rid yourself of debt by using certain programs and apps. For instance, there’s an app that allows you the ability to instantly pay for things by extracting funds from your bank as soon as you use your credit. This helps to erase the visage of “extra money” from your credit cards as the amount you spend is instantly deducted from your bank account, making you think twice about spending money. And if you do spend money in this fashion (and pay it off accordingly) you’ll never carry a balance into your next month on your credit card.
This article is based on a piece published by NBC News that you can find here.