Bad Debt. Defined as any debt other than a home mortgage, education loans and some business debt. Bad debt should be avoided. If you have it, getting rid of it should be your number one priority. Then get rid of your other debt. The more money you can put away as opposed to sending to your creditors will make a dramatic difference in your financial progress.

These particular types of bad debt need to be avoided at all costs.

Auto title Loans Payday Loans Rent To Own Stores 125 Loans Credit Cards Pawn Brokers If you find yourself even considering using any of these call a friend and have them talk you out of it.

Other bad ideas include some of our habits. This is not moralizing here, just a hard look at how bad habits drain your financial resources. Smoking, alcohol consumption, buying coffee and a donut on way to work, lunches at work, and anything else which has become a habit can cost you a tremendous amount of money per month. Money you could be putting away. Make a fast calculation of what you spend each day on these habits. Then times it by number of working days in a month (usually around 22). This is money you waste each month. You need to put it in your pocket not someone else’s. And let’s face it, you will feel better too.

There are plenty of people willing to benefit from your stupid ideas and bad decisions. If you find you have already embraced some of these stupid ideas, change your choices. Don’t compound your mistake. If you make a stupid decision, you don’t need to stick with it. Learn from it and move on. Decide if you are going to have some burned fingers or a ruined life. Live and learn from burned fingers, let someone else ruin their life.

David Wilding http://www.debtattack.com Take Care Of Your Debt Before It Takes Care Of You

So you may think that you want to get that credit card insurance being pushed by credit card companies that will pay your bill if you become disabled or unemployed. Not so fast. The average payout on a credit insurance policy is 30-50%. The National Association of Insurance Commissions actually recommends a payout of at least 60%. Payouts for debt cancellation and debt suspension is in 1-3% range. That's definitely not worth premiums. Get enough regular life insurance and disability insurance to cover your debt as their premiums are much cheaper and have greater payouts.

Beware of a credit card company trick that I recently ran into. I mailed a payment a week early but yet was still charged a late fee. Impossible I say. I found out payment had to be in credit card company's processing center by a certain time on due date. Think of my credit card payment making it's way through mail, to a P.O. box, then getting picked up, sorted, sent to processing center, opened and recorded. And this has to be done by a certain date on due date. Ouch. I suggest mailing in your payment at least two weeks early.