Debt negotiation is a process of negotiating with your creditors to bring down your total amount of debt. A good debt negotiation company can help bring down your total debts by as much as 50 to 70 percent. A word of caution, though. Debt negotiation may sound great, but it can adversely affect your credit report.

The Pros And Cons Of Debt Negotiation

A debt negotiation company discusses your financial status with your creditors, and offers to pay off all your debts in one go. The catch is that they offer to pay, say, $4,000 cash now against the total debts of, say, $12,000. The very fact that you have appointed a debt negotiator on your behalf is a sign that you are a bad risk, and most creditors will settle for cash now, as against the balance over the next 10 years or so.

The flip side to debt negotiation is that it affects your credit rating in a negative way. The commission to your debt negotiator is usually between 14 and 25 percent of the total settlement.

What Debt Consolidation Experts Do

Debt consolidation experts negotiate on your behalf to arrange to reduce the rates of interest, and to reduce or eliminate the late fees and other charges and penalties. They help consolidate all your outstanding debts into a single debt, and arrange a monthly payment schedule consisting of reduced amount, by as much as 20 to 40 percent.

They usually charge a monthly service fee of around 10 percent, and your payments are referred to credit bureaus. They advise you to close all your credit card accounts, and may allow you to keep one active for emergency uses.

It is for you to decide which course of action you wish to take.

It is easy to spend over your budget at Christmas time. Whether you are spending money on presents or luxurious foods to consume, this is the time of year that we usually indulge ourselves. A little overspending is harmless, as long as it is managed well, but many people spend what they cannot afford, leading them into financial difficulty. Others cause themselves extra stress by leaving present buying to the last minute. This generally always leads to bad decision making and is the main reason for overspending choice of gift becomes more limited as we approach Christmas.

Here are some of my handy tips that will help you avoid both stress and overspending. I hope you enjoy them and please share your tips with me by commenting!

1. I usually work out what I have to spend on gifts in November. I factor everything into my budget; what I will be spending on socialising, on the day itself and then work out what I have left (after the usual every day living costs). Knowing this figure is half of the battle because once you know this, you instantly become more aware of the cost of an individual present compared to the overall budget.
2. Write a list of everyone that I have to buy gifts for, noting down any present ideas as I go.
3. I divide the budget by how many people I have on my list and then allocate different amounts to the different people on the list depending on how important they are to me.
4. I also write a deadline date down on my list for doing all online shopping and finishing off in the shops. I do this because I had an undelivered item a few years ago.
5. I go online and look for discount vouchers and special deals that I can use to get more for my money. When I have done this I start immediately shopping online, making sure to tick off anyone on my list that I manage to find a gift for.
6. I get my diary out and plan a few shopping trips. Before I go on these trips I always plan where I need to go so that I can make the most of my trip and once I am at my shopping destination I ‘check in’ to any shops that I am interested in using my smart phone and Facebook – this is an excellent way of getting special deals that are not available on the rest of the internet.
7. If I have a few people on the list that would like to receive cosmetics or bathing products, I often try and look for 3 for 2 offers in places like Boots or the Bodyshop.
8. I mark down what I have spent everytime I buy a present so that I can keep an eye on the rolling total.

Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the quickest, easiest and cheapest ways to get started in an online business. Affiliate marketing requires very little technical expertise to get started. You can realistically get started without having a website. This model also requires the smallest investment.

Physical Product Sales

Selling physical products online is considerably more involved. It can be profitable, but requires a large up front investment and a significant amount of time to run. I am including selling on auction sites in this category.

Services

You can market virtually any service online, but services that don’t have to be delivered locally are best suited to this model. If you are a web designer, graphic designer, writer, photo editor, software developer or something of that nature you can sell your services online either through your own website or through a freelance site such as oDesk.com or Elance.com.

Selling services can be a fairly quick and inexpensive way to generate income online. The downside is that you are trading time for money and your income is restricted to the number of hours you work.

Digital Products

If you have expertise in some area you can create your own product to market online. It could be an information product, photographic art, software or any other product that can be delivered online. The investment and set up time can vary greatly using this model.

Subscriptions

The subscription based model generally involves charging a fee in exchange for access to information, a web based application or entertainment. The setup time for this model can be extensive, but the residual income can be significant.

Advertising

This model can be employed with a relatively low start up cost, but you have to be patient to see results. It takes time to generate a regular flow of traffic large enough to see any real income from advertising revenue.

This kind of business can be set up easily using ad server platforms like Google AdSense, Kontera or Chikita Mini Malls. These are known as contextual ad servers and will place ads on your website that are related to the content of the site. It is very easy to set up, but requires a very large amount of traffic to generate any significant revenue.

The alternative is to sell ad space directly or through an advertising broker. You can rent out the space on your website for a monthly fee or on a pay per click or pay per impression basis. This method takes longer to set up and requires more ongoing maintenance, but can be more profitable.

Network Marketing, MLM and Direct Sales

These business models, while different, are related enough and run in such a similar fashion that I just combined them into one model. The starts up costs vary widely as does the profitability of this model. Usually the main goal of each of these models is the same: lead generation and communication. Most of the good companies provide the websites and product fulfillment freeing up the business owner to focus on marketing.

To learn more about home based businesses and, especially, online business, visit my website. The link is located below.