Welcome back to Finance Friday. It's another special edition of Money Girl where I answer your burning money

questions. Today's topic comes from Maria, who says, I enjoy the Money Girl podcast and always

learn something new from your shows. I have several debts that I want to eliminate

as quickly as possible. Can you explain what debt consolidation is? I'm skeptical if it really

helps you get out of debt faster. Also, are there any downsides I should know if consolidating

could help me? Maria, I really appreciate your kind words and great questions.

Many people are unfamiliar with legitimate debt consolidation strategies.

This podcast will review how it works, consolidation pros and cons, and who's a good candidate

for using it to eliminate their dead faster?

Welcome back, everyone. Thanks for joining me on episode 881. I'm Laura Adams, an award-winning author,

finance spokesperson, money speaker, founder of the money stack, a substack newsletter, and host of

this show, Money Girl, with over 43 million downloads.

If you're getting value from the content we love creating, subscribe, and consider submitting

a five-star rating or review.

I'll thank you in advance for that.

If you have a question about money for the show, I'd love to hear it.

You can always leave it on our voicemail by calling 302-364-0308. You can also send me an email and

sign up for the free MoneyStack newsletter when you visit laura d adams.com. So what exactly is

debt consolidation? Well, Maria, it is simply moving one or more debts to an account or into a single payment with more favorable terms, allowing you to eliminate the balance faster.

You can consolidate most unsecured debts, things like credit cards, personal loans, and auto loans, and some student

loans as well. The strategy involves shifting higher interest rate debts to a lower or even no

interest account, so you pay less interest. While it may seem a little counterintuitive to use new debt to get out of old debt,

...