| Of the 76 million baby boomers, almost 40% owe more than they own. That means many of the clients a CPA financial planner counsels have trouble paying their bills. The greatest need of clients who walk in the door looking for investment or estate planning advice is often
Credit Counseling Debt Consolidation. Yet this critical element of any financial plan often receive scant attention because the traditional approach planners take does not start with the assumption that a client need,
Credit Counseling Debt Consolidation. Investment return doesn't mean much, however--and there won't be anything left for heirs--if the client's solvency is at issue. Consumer debt is at an all-time high. According to the Federal Reserve, Americans owed $1.33 trillion, excluding mortgage debt, at the beginning of 1999.
With the average American now spending more than 10% of his or her discretionary income on monthly interest payments, excluding mortgages and car leases, CPAs can provide clients with a valuable service by helping them better manage their resources.
Credit Counseling Debt Consolidation is a broad term whose meaning varies depending on the debt status of the individual to whom it applies? For those overburdened with debt, debt management means paying down what they owe. For others, it means increasing debt, particularly low-interest debt that is tax deductible and favorably leveraged. Such debt is critical to any strategy for creating personal wealth. It also is essential for meeting short-term cash needs when the six-month emergency cash reserve commonly called for by financial planners is not available.
Most lenders and credit counselors recommend that families limit
Credit Counseling Debt Consolidation to 36% of gross income, mortgage payments to 28% of income and installment payments to 20%. All of these benchmarks, however, have increased in recent years largely because of better secondary markets for these types of loans. For some clients, the benchmarks may be too high because of their propensity to overspend. Other indicators of excessive client debt that CPAs and other financial planners may look for include- Purchasing many items on extended payment plans, having only a vague idea of how much they owe, being able to make only the minimum payments on credit cards and other revolving debt, reaching the maximum limits on credit cards, borrowing from one source to pay another debt, borrowing to pay for things that normally are purchased with cash, such as groceries, skipping some debt payments to make other payments. Like many other personal financial planners, CPAs often ignore
Credit Counseling Debt Consolidation when developing personal financial plans for their clients. Yet, given the number of individuals--even some high net worth clients--who have trouble paying their bills, it cannot be ignored. When clients are overloaded with debt, they usually fail to consider all of the available options. |
