I was just reading this little article in today’s (27 June 2006) issue of the Toronto Metro freebie newspaper. The article describes author Pat Foran’s new book about getting out of debt, “The Smart Canadian’s Guide To Building Wealth”:
Consolidating your debts is bad? Why?
The idea is to lump everything together and pay it over a longer term with lower monthly (or watever) payments but more total interest, right? If you are scraping the edge of affordability, this may be a necessary step. Maybe I’m just disagreeing with his level of emphasis on the subject, but I think that, in terms of financial unwiseness, consolidating debts is nowhere near the top of the list.