A recent article by a personal finance expert discussed basic tips on keeping credit card debt under control in the new year. It was interesting to note that the article mentioned that often, sitting down and looking at your credit card bills to determine the total amount you owe can be a scary and frightening thing to do. Yes, it can. The article went on to say that as a first step we must get past that fear to manage our debt. That was all. Just...go ahead and get past it. You can do that right? No?

They sure made it sound easy. Unfortunately, sometimes the most difficult part of getting a handle on our debt is just that, fear.

Justified or not, fear has a job to do and it does it well. Fear stops us from proceeding. It causes us to consider all the things that could potentially go wrong. Fear can incapacitate us to the point where moving forward and developing a plan to manage our credit and debt becomes so overwhelming it is difficult to know where to begin. Yet, by doing its job so well, fear ideally keeps us safe from danger - or at least what we think might be dangerous.

Of course, fear’s little sisters Procrastination and Guilt can also greatly influence how we approach our financial management efforts. Because we are afraid of what we will find if we delve too deeply into the state of our credit affairs, it becomes easy to put off until tomorrow, and the next day and the next. Certainly, we feel bad about it but this fear, procrastination, and guilt cycle quickly becomes very difficult to break.

Sometimes it may not be obvious, but a lot of us seem to believe “If I don’t know I have a problem, then I’m OK”.- Like too much debt or much more money going out each month compared to what is coming in. Sorry to say, this isn’t so. For example, simply being unaware of a medical condition you have, doesn’t make you healthy, and by remaining unaware you could run the risk of increasingly severe complications. Your debt is the same.

So how do you start? Baby steps.

You really don’t have to become a credit and debt genius over night. There are some un-scary and simple things you can do to get on the right track.

• First, make your payments every month. Either send them yourself or if you are in a debt management program (DMP) send your payment to Credit Advisors Foundation every month. This is vital and actually a pretty big baby step.
• Next, keep your spending in line with your budget. Really focus on living beneath your means. This truly is the best way to keep credit and debt in harmony with your life.
• Set goals on when you would like to see all your credit card debt paid off. Make a deadline. Determine how much you will need to pay each month to accomplish that goal. (Remember, this will probably need to be more than the minimum payments).
• Finally, open all correspondence from your creditors and Credit Advisors Foundation. Use your statements to update the creditor balances in your DMP online at www.creditadvisors.org at our Member’s Site. The more aware you stay, the more responsive you can be if an issue arises and the less likely you will be to stray from your plan to get out of debt.

If you become nervous or fearful at any point, if procrastination or guilt rears their ugly head, call us. Don’t forget, Credit Advisors Foundation is your debt management partner. The certified credit counselors in client care are available to answer your questions and help alleviate your fears so you can be successful at managing your credit and debt.