{"id":1671,"date":"2013-12-18T12:04:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T12:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2019-02-01T12:29:01","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T12:29:01","slug":"become-debt-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/become-debt-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Become Debt Free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dreaming about being debt free<\/strong> is as natural as dreaming about achieving any other personal or professional goal. We dream about finding solutions to our personal financial problems which will wipe out our debts quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There are seven practical steps we can take before we opt for one of the big four solutions of Bankruptcy<\/strong>, IVA<\/strong> (Individual Voluntary Arrangement), Debt Management<\/strong> or Debt Consolidation<\/strong> or one of the two less frequently used solutions of Debt Relief Orders<\/strong> or Administration Orders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. how much unsecured debt do I have? It is easy enough to obtain \nbalances on unsecured debts from current account statements, loan \nstatements, store card statements, credit card statements and utility \nstatements and by asking creditors for balances.<\/li>
  2. how much secured debt do I have? Again the information can be \nobtained from recent mortgage statements, secured loan statements & \nHP agreements and by asking the creditors.<\/li>
  3. what are the contractual monthly outgoings on each unsecured account as well as on the secured debts?<\/li>
  4. What is my net income from my employment (after tax, NI, pension and\n other deductions)? What is the income of my co-habiting spouse or \npartner? What is the income of any non-dependent children residing with \nme\/us?<\/li>
  5. What are my living expenses and those of my partner\/spouse and dependent children?<\/li>
  6. What are the approximate values of my\/our main assets e.g. house and cars?
    \nWith the above information it is possible to draw up a summary of \nAssets & Liabilities and of Income & Expenditure. It may be \nnecessary to obtain help to put these in a standard format but it can be\n done without incurring any great expense. <\/em><\/li>
  7. Am I insolvent? In other words can I meet my financial obligations \nas they fall due and do my liabilities exceed my assets? At this point \nit is advisable to get independent advice on whether you are insolvent \nor not and it should be possible to do so without incurring cost.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Final consideration before carrying out step seven: is there anything\n I can do to increase my income or reduce my living expenses? Here are \njust a few ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • Could I\/we take in a lodger or two and thereby increase our income?<\/li>
    • Are our tax credits correct \u2013 maybe they should be higher?<\/li>
    • Are my\/our non-dependent children contributing their fair share of the household expenses? Are they paying a reasonable rent?<\/li>
    • Do I need such a big expensive car? Do we as a couple need two cars? Can I\/we use public transport?<\/li>
    • Can we make lifestyle economies e.g. holidays, Sky, socializing?<\/li>
    • Is giving up smoking an option for me\/us?<\/li>
    • Can I\/we re-mortgage at a better rate?<\/li>
    • Can I\/we switch our mortgage from repayment to interest only?<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Dreaming about being debt free is as natural as dreaming about achieving any other personal or professional goal. We dream about finding solutions to our personal financial problems which will wipe out our debts quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-debt-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}