Has juggling bill payments every month become an extreme sport? Between figuring out the exact minimum payment to make, avoiding the hassling phone calls from collection agencies and transferring balances from credit card to credit card, taking care of your personal finances can seem like a full-time job. It's easy to see how people struggle to stay afloat.
Nat Farbman/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
During debt counseling, a family will work with a counselor to hammer out a realistic budget so that their monthly expenses don't exceed their income.
The National Foundation for Debt Management (NFDM) is a non-profit (501(c)(3)) consumer education organization dedicated to educating people about personal finance, home ownership and money management. The foundation concentrates on three areas of financial wellness:
- Housing counseling
- Debt and credit management
- Preventive financial education, even for those as young as age five
The foundation is funded mainly by commissions from creditors working with the foundation's debt management service.
It's free to join the NFDM. To become a member, you can call (800) 353-9890 or go to their web site. Once you are a member, you have access to their seminars and services. Since the foundation's inception in 1999, over 50,000 people have used Right Track, NFDM's debt management program, to help get control over their debt.
A debt management service agency acts as a liaison between you and your creditors. The agency negotiates with your creditors to lower interest rates and fees. You typically pay the agency one payment a month, which the agency uses to pay your creditors on your behalf. Agencies typically make most of their money by getting a commission, usually a percentage of your monthly payment, from your creditors. Some may charge a small monthly fee for administering your account.
In this article, you will learn about NFDM's financial wellness programs, including their debt management programs, housing counseling and other consumer education services.
