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31 May

Debt: To consolidate or not to consolidate? That is the question

Mortgage Tips

Posted by: Cory Kline

If your family is stressing over debt please give me a call, I would love to help you with your options.

If you are a Canadian living in debt, you are not alone.

According to Statistics Canada, household debt grew faster than income last year, with Canadians owing $1.79 for every dollar of household disposable income to debt.
Canadian households use almost 15% of income for debt re-payment.
• 7.3% of this re-payment goes towards interest charges
• Interest charges are at their highest level in 9 years
• The cost of living is projected to increase in 2020

So how can one ever get out of debt? Debt consolidation.

What is debt consolidation?
Debt consolidation means paying off smaller loans with a larger loan at a lower interest rate. For example, a credit card bill debt with interest of 19.99% can be paid off by a 5-year Mortgage with an interest in the 3-4.00%* range. (*OAC, rates subject to change w/o notice). Many people are just making the minimum payment on high interest credit cards, which could take 30 years or more to pay off!

A lot of confusion surrounds debt consolidation; many of us just don’t know enough about it. Consider the two sides:

The pros
• The lower the interest rate, the sooner you get out of debt. A lower monthly interest allows you to pay more towards your actual loan, getting you debt-free faster.
• You only have to make one monthly debt payment. This is more manageable than keeping track of multiple debt payments with different interest rates.
• Your credit score remains untarnished because your higher interest loans, such as a credit card, are paid off.

The cons
• Consolidating your debt doesn’t give you the green light to continue spending.
Consolidating helps you get out of debt; continuing to spend as you did before puts you even further into debt.

Give me a call
~ Cory 705-794-1283
(Thank you Andrea Twizell for the statistics in this blog)
#DebtFree #LetsTalkMortgages #YourPlan #Advice #SavingYouMoney