Give Yourself The Gift Of The Debt Free New Year

There’s no better time to consider your financial future as 2016 comes to a close and the New Year approaches. Many may be asking themselves how they can start to make some steps towards becoming debt free. Let’s break it into a few action steps to work on during 2017 and start planning for a debt-free 2018.

1. Find out where you spend your money. It could be as simple as writing down all of your purchases in a notebook, or for the more tech savvy individuals putting together an Excel spreadsheet. There are also some fantastic free apps available on your smart phone or tablet. Having a few months of data will give you  a more realistic view of your average expenses as they will vary month to month.
2. Identify areas where expenses can be reduced. Make some calls to your phone and cable / internet providers, use mail, online flyers or free shopping apps to plan your grocery shops.  Perhaps there’s a way to reduce you costs a little here and there to free up some extra funds to help with debt repayment.
3. Determine your actual payment ability. We can’t forget about interest. It’s an important step to take a look at your monthly credit statements to confirm how much of your debt payments are going towards interest and how much is going towards reducing the debt.
4. Calculate how long it will take to repay your debt.  Check out the credit card repayment calculator available through the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.  
5. Seek the assistance of a professional. If it’s looking like living debt free is more than a year or two away it may be time to meet with a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (LIT). An LIT can provide a free, no-obligation appointment to assess your financial situation and discuss a variety of options which may be available to you. 

When it comes to finances you can never have too much information and MNP Ltd. is here to help.

Chelsea Taylor, CIRP is a Licensed Insolvency Trustee based out of our Kelowna office. To learn more about how MNP can help, contact our local office at 1.877.898.2580