The Motley Fool's Personal Finance GCSE!
We begin a series that'll help you to know finance like the back of your credit card. The first part is guidance on getting out of debt, the Foolish way!
The Motley Fool does three things. Firstly, we help you to get out of debt. When you're out of debt we help you to save money. And, when you've saved a decent stash, we show you how to make more money.
Much of what we have to say is the same guidance you'll receive elsewhere, although hopefully you find it to be more friendly and in English which is plainer. (If not always grammatically correct!)
However, we also have some unique views about finance, which we call Foolish views. We champion some techniques that we feel are often undervalued, whilst pouring scorn on some products that we believe are overhyped. By doing this we have, in fact, helped a lot of people to save or make millions of pounds.
The Motley Fool's GCSE -- or degree!
So I'd quite like to collate the basics into a short Motley Fool course: what I think of as the equivalent of a GCSE. Actually, in terms of how much it will improve your money situation for the rest of your life, I expect that it's worth tens of thousands of pounds to you: practically what a degree is worth, or even more if you consider that this course won't leave you with £15,000 of debt!
Like a degree, you'll do a lot of your own reading. To that end, this series will point you to the simplest pages on our website in each of the three key topic areas: dealing with debt, saving money and making money. The course will cover the basics, whilst pointing out the bits that reflect a distinctly Foolish viewpoint. This will massively boost beginners' finances by itself, whilst also giving you a solid base from which you can do further research to hone your financial knowledge and skills.
From the beginning then: this week, let's look at an overview of how to get out of debt as quickly and cheaply as possible.
How To Get Out Of Debt
Rather than jumping straight into our How To Get Out Of Debt guide, which is excellent but rather lengthy, I'll point you to an article that summarises each of the solutions a debtor has available to him: Five Top Ways To Clear Your Debt. (Yes, it's one of my articles, but that has nothing to do with it!)
Next, for the purposes of this course I'd read just three pages of the How To Get Out Of Debt guide:
In the first of these pages, Assessing Your Debt Problem, you can learn the first step of dealing with debt, which is drawing up a Statement of Affairs. In Snowball Your Debts, you learn about a very Foolish trick to pay off your debts as quickly as possible. Everyone should consider 'snowballing' before consolidation loans or bankruptcy, for example, as it can hugely reduce the interest you pay. The Dangers Of Debt Consolidation warns about consolidating debts and then going on to rack up more. The Motley Fool has traditionally (and correctly!) been very wary about using loans for consolidation purposes.
I suggest that a sensible pace of learning would be to read and understand all this in two weeks. I have a lot of time for class nerds, so if you gobble up the information faster than that, you could flick through the whole guide: How To Get Out Of Debt. And you get an additional merit point.
Can't face reading about debts?
I'm concerned for my pupils' wellbeing. Those of you who are worried about your debts might struggle to read this debt guidance, as you'll prefer not to think about it at all!
A very Foolish tool for you is provided by our Dealing with Debt community, which is my favourite resource on the whole Web. The friendly debt experts, debtors and former debtors on that discussion board will motivate you and support you, and debate your situation until they've come up with a plan to tackle your debt. Many spend hours each week helping others, for free!
Most debtors 'lurk' on the board by reading messages for a while, gaining strength from the feel of mutual support before they ask their own questions (which you can do anonymously).
Class dismissed! Good luck with your homework.
> Read the whole How To Get Out Of Debt guide.