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Why Is Budgeting Important?

Budgeting can seem SO confining yet it is an essential part of a healthy financial future.

If you were running a business and did not use a budget, the business would quickly fail as fall under, eating away at your profit and driving you into debt.

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Smart Ways to Pay Down Debt

Are you in debt? This recent study found that 77% of Americans currently have some form of debt. Therefore, finding smart ways to pay down debt is essential for many people.

Growing up, debt was a way of life for our family. Although my parents worked hard, we had bills and were conscientious about money. If I wanted something, I was taught I must save up for it. So around age twelve, I started babysitting at $2.00 per hour. Keep in mind this was back in the ’80s and babysitters make much more today!

It was nice to have my own money, but as I got older and went off to college, I was offered a free T-shirt to sign up for a credit card on spring break. It wasn’t always fun having to save up for things so this sounded like a great idea! As you may know, college students love free stuff, so I quickly filled out the form and my credit card arrived promptly.

Soon I started using it and it felt great to be able to buy what I wanted. Until the next month when the bill came in and I realized I owed money to the credit card company and I was now in debt.

Now that I am older, I pay my credit card bill off every month to score points, but back then, I was making minimum wage working at a daycare and didn’t have the cash flow to pay off my debt every month.

I quickly learned that being in debt is stressful and came up with some tips and tricks to get out of debt the smart way (and you can use these tips to get out of debt too)

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