From Delia: Helping Debtors Become Savers

From time to time, Delia Fernandez will author a guest post on our blog. [Disclosure:  There is no express or implied relationship or financial ties between Delia's practice and Tredway, Lumsdaine & Doyle, LLP.]

With the cost of living going up and home values going down, it’s not surprising that sometimes debt creeps up on people. We may start using credit cards and home equity loans for convenience, but when we can’t seem to pay them off at the end of every month, it’s time to develop a plan of action.

I’ve just discovered that a wonderful software tool I’ve used in the past is now available on the web. It’s called PowerPay 5.0 (www.powerpay.org), and was developed by Utah State University Extension to give people an easy way to analyze their debt and give them the quickest and most cost effective way to pay it off to save time and money. It will display the time it shaved off your payments, and how much money it saved you on interest payments. It will even print out a calendar of payments for you.

I just entered an example of someone with a car loan and credit cards totaling $54,732, and it shaved 1 year and 9 months off the time it would take to pay off the debt and $2,321 off the total amount the person had to pay.

The site also helps you analyze your housing and living expenses, figure out if you’ll qualify for a loan, help you compare different types of mortgages and the impact of paying extra on a debt.

On top of everything, there’s a great Education Center full of helpful articles on budgeting, credit, debt management, living within your means, organizing your personal finances, investments and more.

Do check out this site, even if you don’t have debt. I think it’s a wonderful resource to have on hand for that friend or family member who wants more information on personal finance.

Delia Fernandez, MBA, CFP®
Fernandez Financial Advisory, LLC
delia@fernandezllc.com
562-594-4454