According to a CIBC poll, paying down/eliminating debt is the top financial goal for Canadians in 2017, but almost half aren’t expecting to cut back.
“I’m not really surprised by it,” Darrell Pauls, president of 4Pillars Debt Relief Specialists, said. “In fact, I had one guy come into my office who had been paying his debt for 20 years. He had a little over $100,000 in debt…credit card debt. In that 20 years he figured out that he had paid over $4,000 in interest and he still has the debt.”
Pauls’ tips for reducing/eliminating debt include paying the ones with the higher interest rates first, creating a realistic budget and living within your means.
“Everybody always picks the lattes everyday but do you really need to have that everyday? Do we really need to have Netflix? Everybody wants to have it but do we need to have the expensive cable package?” he said.
While Pauls stresses the need to keep a tight rein on finances, he says to reward yourself when you reach milestones. He says it won’t hurt to splurge and go out for dinner to celebrate eliminating a debt.
“Nothing too extravagant,” he said. “But reward yourself because you need to reward yourself to help motivate to get this debt paid off.”
This is the seventh consecutive year that paying off debt is atop the poll. Keeping up with bills/getting by came second. Saving for my/my children’s education is the lowest on the list.