How to Create a Debt Reduction Plan in Microsoft Money Plus

Microsoft Money Plus is a popular personal finance software program available to consumers. The program allows consumers to keep track of all of their financial accounts in one place. Once a consumer has set up all of his credit and debt accounts, he can then choose to implement a debt reduction plan. Microsoft Money Plus will walk users through a debt reduction plan which will allow consumers to see how much debt they have, how best to optimize the debt repayment, a repayment schedule and a debt payoff date. Read on to learn how to create a debt reduction plan in Microsoft Money Plus.

Instructions

1

Launch Microsoft Money Plus. From the drop-down menus at the top, click on Planning. Select the Debt Reduction Planner.

2

Verify that all of your debt accounts are listed in the Accounts in Debt Plan section. If a debt is not included, but is shown at the bottom of the screen, click on the debt name and then click the Move Up button. This will move that account into the debt reduction plan. Alternately, if a debt is included in the plan that you would like removed, click on that debt and then click on the Move Down button. You may be prompted to enter additional information about debts included in the plan. If you are prompted to do so, enter the required information. Once you have all of your debts included in the plan, click on the Next button.

3

Define Your Payment Plan allows you to tell Microsoft Money Plus how you want to implement your debt reduction plan. If you click on the option that allows you to base your plan on what you want to pay each month, you will need to list an amount in the monthly allocation for debt section. You are also prompted to enter a one-time extra payment if you have additional funds available to jump-start your debt reduction plan.

4

Select the Date I want to be out of debt option if your monthly allocation can vary and you have an end-date in mind to be out of debt. Input the date that you would like to be debt-free and then enter any amount into the one-time extra payment field.

5

Read the Results section at the bottom of the page as well as the Status section in the menu bar to see where you currently stand. Click on Next to continue.

6

View the graph that depicts your debt payoff plan. By using the drop-down menu at the top, you can alternately select to view your payment schedule by month or by account. After you browse all of the options, click on Next.

7

Select any of the bills that you would like to enter as a recurring payment. Once you have set this up, click on Finish to complete your debt reduction plan.