Trimming Your Budget - continued - National Guard Family Program

Introduction to Personal Finance
An Overview for State Family Program Directors, Wing Family Program Coordinators, and Families.

Introduction

Evaluating Your Situation

Budgeting & Debt Management

Goals & Plans

Insurance & Disability Planning

BUDGETING AND DEBT MANAGEMENT

2.	Introduction
	2.1	Why Do We Acquire Debt?
	2.2	Debt Can Become a Habit
	2.3	The Reality of Borrowing
	2.4	The Credit Trap
		2.4.1	Fees
		2.4.2	Rates
		2.4.3	Types of interest
	2.5	Eliminate and Avoid Debt
	2.6	Trimming Your Budget
	2.7	Learning Check

2.6 Trimming Your Budget – continued

Some Money Saving Tips

Reduce Housing Costs – Refinancing can sometimes save you money and reduce your interest rate.

The Veterans Administration web site has information regarding home loans eligibility.

Consolidate Debt with a Home Equity Loan – Refinancing isn’t the only way you can use your home for additional investment funds. If you have high credit card balances, you may want to consider using a home equity loan to pay them off.

CAUTION: If the root causes of credit card debt are not addressed, you could repeat the bad spending habits and accumulate more credit card debt on top of the home equity loan.

Review Insurance Costs – Insurance costs can be a major expense. Take a look at your policies and consider these cost-cutting measures:

Raising the deductible on your homeowner’s or automobile insurance from $250 to $500 could cut your premiums by more than 10%.

Consolidating your home and auto policies with the same insurance company may knock another 5% to 15% off your premiums without sacrificing coverage.