Debt Consolidation
This is a shorter article, but can hopefully be a very helpful one for those of you seeking out a way to consolidate all your debt. While debt consolidation is not something we would necessarily recommend, we understand that some people can benefit from it. As we have explained in previous posts, our favorite way to get out of debt is by doing the “debt snowball†method. I have personally explained how sometimes I am not the best disciplined when it comes to budgeting, which is why I leave myself some wiggle room. By consolidating your debt into one payment, this can make paying your debt off easier if you do not want to follow a budget. Let’s break it down.
Related: 7 Steps to Financial Freedom
Watch: Average Joe Finances Episode 2
Credit Cards…
If you have several credit cards and loans and can’t seem to get on top of them, a debt consolidation loan might be a good move for you. Many lenders are offering low APR loans to help consolidate debt. I know I kept getting letters in the mail from SoFi. I just kept throwing them out, but one day, decided to open one and see what they had going on.
They were offering me a loan up to $100k with a 6% interest rate. That’s pretty darn good if you ask me. I considered taking it and using it to buy more real estate, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to take on another loan as I was still paying off the most recent kitchen and bathroom remodel (ouch).
Though, it made me think. If I had a lot of debt and didn’t know where to start, this would be a great option. Think about it. Most credit cards are between 12-22% APR, right? By put all of that debt into the loan, you would save 6-18% of your interest. Of course, there is still some strong discipline required to use this option. If you take out a loan and consolidate all of your credit card debt, you need to have the discipline to NOT TO SWIPE THAT CARD!
What else do they offer?
While looking into SoFi’s loan options, I was able to see the other options they offer. You can open a brokerage account with them to get started investing just like Robinhood and Webull. The interface is pretty easy to use. The offer fractional investing so you can own a piece of Amazon with as little as $5. Pretty neat. If you want to check out investing with SoFi, you can join here.
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Bottom line, if you are going to take out a debt consolidation loan, consider all of your options first. Our first recommendation would be to snowball your debt as we talk about here. If you can’t do that, make sure you can secure a loan with a lower interest rate than your debt. This will help you pay it off quicker and save a little more in interest over time.
Check out what SoFi has to offer!
