Debt Consolidation and Reduction
A Debt Management Solution to Save You Money in Retirement
Debt consolidation is the process of combining all of your outstanding debts
into a single account. While bill consolidation is convenient, the best benefit
of debt consolidation is that it can save you money by lowering the interest you
pay and in some cases making the interest payment tax deductible, which should
dramatically improve your retirement financial plan.
In fact, you should not really retire when carrying high-interest debt --
particularly credit card debt. Most people in retirement are living on a fixed
income -- meaning that you will not have more money tomorrow to pay off the debt
than you do today. (You will simply be paying more interest -- wasting money
every month you carry the debt.)
The average household with members between the ages of 55 and 64, who should be
planning retirement, and who carry credit card debt, spend 31 percent of their
income on servicing the debt. In retirement, most people will find that to be a
very heavy burden.
Debt consolidation can save you money by lowering monthly payments, reducing the
amount of interest you pay and/or shortening the amount of time you have money
borrowed. All of this will save you money, strengthen your finances, and improve
your retirement planning.