Having personal debt can take a big toll on you, emotionally as well as financially. If the debt is due to overspending or mismanagement of finances, you may feel embarrassed or guilty. If the debts are large, you may feel overwhelmed. These feelings can be paralysing and result in avoiding the issue altogether, which can cause a spiralling down of circumstance.
So, first things first, be kind to yourself. Many people have debt for many reasons, don’t torture yourself with “if only.” Building on Basics prides itself on being a compassionate company that provides constructive and effective support to those needing help with improving their finances. No judgements, just expert help.
So, what can we do? First, we will look at your income and essential outgoing costs. After this we do a stock take of your liabilities (debts owed, credit facilities etc). From there, we can identify the best way forward.
Building on Basics’ 4 step process
1: We review your credit facilities and advise if cheaper facilities are available to reduce your debt faster
It’s easy to accumulate credit cards and other credit facilities over time. Banks and other companies offer them up as “perks” and “offers”, leading many to accept credit that they may not need.
We will help you identify what credit facilities you actually need and advise if cheaper providers are available to reduce your debt faster.
We also review your credit report to ensure that any ‘blips’ that may have occurred in the past are sorted out and that any accounts you thought were closed are actually closed.
2: We review your money management systems
Managing your money doesn’t need to be complex or time consuming. We can look at how you currently budget and track your spending then provide tips on ways to manage your money. We tailor our advice to fit your money personality, so if you haven’t budgeted or tracked your money before, don’t worry, we will give you some simple solutions.
3: We produce a debt repayment plan
A debt repayment plan is key to ensuring you pay off your debt efficiently. You want to pay down your debt as fast as possible to save on interest, while keeping funds available for food and other essentials.
The debt repayment plan will focus on prioritising the highest cost debt and may include the recommendation to restructure or refinance your debt.
4: We restructure or refinance your lending to ensure ongoing affordability
Sometimes it pays to restructure or refinance your lending to ensure ongoing affordability. Taking any opportunities to get better terms or reduced interest can make a significant difference. Streamlining debt makes managing your finances much simpler, payments are easier to track and there’s less mental energy needed. Psychologically, you’re likely to feel a lot less stress managing one loan versus many smaller ones.
Building on Basics can manage the restructure/refinance process for you, from identifying if acting is in your best interest, through to finding the best provider and managing the application process.
Keep calm and call us
If you don’t feel in full control of your debt and want some help, please reach out. Call 029 973 7911 or email elise@bob.kiwi.nz to arrange a free half hour consultation, by the end of which you will have an action plan to help you get out of debt faster.