Financial Health - Help Starts Here

Looking at your money the same old way doesn't work. It is time to bring finances into High Definition, to see it the way God sees it. Why? Because God wants to bless you, and others through you. Because you need to settle whether you serve your money or God. And because God wants to teach you contentment. Unfortunately many of us have lost the ability to be blessed through our money & material possessions. Debt is one of the problems. Below is a Debt Repayment Plan to get you back in a healthy relationship with your money. There are also spreadsheets to help you get a handle on your finances. And there are people ready to help. See more about that below.

Debt Repayment Plan*

Here's how this five-step plan works:

1 You must stop incurring new debts. If you keep spending on credit you will never be free of debt. Cancel all but one basic no-fee credit card. If you don't stop incurring new debt, no plan will ever work for you. You will go to your grave in perma-debt, a sobering thought you need to keep in mind.

2 Add up all of your current required monthly minimum payments on credit cards, store charge cards, installment loans and personal loans. From now on, commit to paying that total amount each month toward your debts until the last one is paid off.

3 List your debts in order of the number of months left to pay them off. Put the one with the shortest term to pay off at the top of your list. If you don't know how to figure out how long you have to go call each lender and ask them how many months it would take to pay off your debt using your current required payment assuming you don't borrow additional funds. You should also request a lower interest rate from each of your credit cards.

4 Ignore declining minimum monthly payments from now on. Don't listen to creditors who say you can pay less each month; stick with the amount equal to your current monthly minimum.

Remember, creditors want you to pay less every month so you will keep paying forever.

5 When the shortest debt is paid off add its payment to the next shortest. Do the same as each debt is paid until that total amount you committed to pay each month is being applied to your last debt.

This plan doesn't require any increased financial commitment--you would have paid all of your debts this month at the current monthly minimum anyway. What's different is that you maintain that level of payments until you are done while committing to not taking on any new debt.

*It is good to start this process by talking to a financial professional who isn't interested in selling you anything. There are subtle variations of this plan that you may benefit from following. You can connect with help through Jacob's Well by calling 612.822.0300 or emailing info@jacobs-well.net. There are also budgeting and debt repayment worksheets below that you can access. Remember that it doesn't do any good to have a plan to manage your debt if you don't get your monthy budget in control at the same time because you will continue to incur more debt.

Thanks to The Journey Church, NYC, for developing these resources that we have adapted