How To Get Caught Up On Your Bills With These Simple Methods

A Collection of Articles To Help You Get Caught Up On Your Bills

When you’re behind on your bills, life is stressful! For many, it becomes their main focus in life. It can affect your work, family life, and when it comes to relationships, it can make you say and do things you’ll regret.

You can’t do much to get caught up with your bills without a change taking place.

Something needs to change, and you’re better off looking for a long-term fix. You don’t need a temporary solution. You need a permanent one to keep you from ever falling behind again.

In this post, you’ll find a collection of articles to improve your current situation and come up with a solution for a stronger financial future. The articles are written by various authors, giving you a wide perspective of dealing with bills and debt. The articles are organized in sections for your convenience. Before you get to the resources, I would like to share my advice for getting caught up on your bills.

Schedule Your Payments

Have you ever considered you may be behind on your bills because of the schedule for your payments?

For example:

Your mortgage payment is withdrawn on the 28th of every month.
Your insurance is withdrawn on the 30th.
Your car payment is due on the 1st of every month.

With the above payment schedule, you have a surge of withdrawals near the end of each month. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, then this is going to be a problem every month. By changing the dates of the withdrawals, you can eliminate the monthly surge.

Using the example above, leave the car payment as is, change the mortgage payment to the 10th, and the insurance payment to the 20th. You still have the same amount of money going out, but it’s spread out, making it easier to cover the payments.

Make a List of All Your Bills:

It’s scary and may make you cringe to figure out your monthly bills because deep down inside, you know your monthly bills are more than you’re monthly income…BUT It has to be done, without your list, your walking with a blindfold on, and the only guide you have is the wall you keep bumping into.

It’s time to list your bills. Write the average amount of each utility bill, mortgage, insurance, TV, Internet, phone, etc. Be sure to list your bills by the due date, so you can see if there are payments that are too close together.

Example of your monthly expenses:

Bill	Amount	Payment Due Each Month On The
Car Payment	$ 479.24	1st
Cell Phone	$ 53.29	7th
Mortgage	$1,150.29	15th

Observations and Considerations:

1. Are there any payment dates that you could rearrange for better cash flow?

2. Are there any bills you can eliminate?

3. Are there any bills you can reduce?

Make a List of Assets:

These are things you own. It could be anything that has a monetary value. List the asset and the market value, which is what the asset is worth if you sold it today.

Add a column for ownership value, for example, if you sell your house for $319,000 and you owe $270,000, you would have $42,000, and that’s your Ownership Value.

An example of your asset could look like:

Asset	Market Value	Money Owed	Ownership Value
Home	$ 319,000	$ 270,000	$ 42,000
Car	$ 22,500	$ 5,500	$ 17,000
Tools	$ 4,200	$ 0	$ 4,200

Asset List – Observations and Considerations:

Are there any assets you could sell that can get you caught up on your bills?

Looking at the above list:

The car is worth $22,500, and if you sold it today after paying off what you owe, you would have $17,000 left. You could buy a car for $12,000. You now have $5,500 that you could use for bills.

You have one less monthly payment, which you paid every month in the amount of $479.24. This one change could get you back on track because you have paid off debt in the amount of $5,500 and you have reduced your monthly bills by $479.24

You could also refinance your home and that would give an option to pay off debts and restructure your finances.

Make a List of Your Spending:

Now it’s time to list your daily and weekly spending.

Your list can look like:

Item	Daily Amount	Weekly Amount	Monthly Amount	Yearly Amount
Coffee	$1.85	$9.25	$37.00	$444.00
Lunch	$11.00	$55.00	$220.00	$2640.00
Gas	$10.00	$50.00	$200.00	$2400.00

Spending List – Observations and Considerations:

This list is where things get interesting. If you filled in all the items on your list, then you could have some areas that are eye-openers. For example, in the list above, you can see lunch is costing $220 a month totaling $2640 a year. This list will allow you to make changes where you can shift money from small spending to your bill payments.

Make a List of All Your Income:

It’s time to list all money that comes in. List all of your net income and any other money that comes in other than your job. This exercise gives you a chance to think about any opportunities to make more money, whether it’s a raise at work, or doing something on the side that can generate revenue.

Outlook:

With all your list complete, you have an overall snapshot of your finances. With everything listed, you can make changes and start to improve your finances. You can cut back on spending or look to improve your income or both if possible.

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