Published: April 18, 2008 05:32 pm            

Focus Institute provides debt relief solutions

The “I’ll just put it on the credit card” philosophy is something that gets a lot of us in trouble. Having a credit card is almost like purchasing something for free. That is until the $500 credit card bill arrives in the mail in the middle of the month. Suddenly, the debt is mounting up, and that 42-inch flatscreen TV we purchased from Wal-Mart doesn’t seem quite worth it.

Debt of any kind is no laughing matter. In addition to financial burden, it also can lead to a number of those annoying creditor calls, and make us pay attention to any debt management commercial that comes across the television screen.

There are ways of getting out of debt without dealing with creditors or calling 1-800 numbers from television screens, and the Focus Institute in Enid believes it can help residents do just that.

“Our whole point is to get people out of debt,” Clark Staiger, founder of Focus Institute, said.

Staiger said the problem for credit card debt begins with people not thinking that the purchase they make with a credit card will have to be paid back.

“It just seems so easy, and, in fact, it is too easy,” Staiger said. “It is much more difficult to pay off than it is to put the charge on in the first place, and many, many folks are just focused on the purchase and on the immediate gratification. We all have it, but that doesn’t mean it is healthy.”

The program Staiger is referring to is the institute’s Financial Freedom program. With this plan, the institute will allow people to have all of their bills paid on time each month, money is placed in an escrow to cover all periodic expenses, such as medical and home and auto repairs, and it works with each client to get them completely out of debt.

The Financial Freedom program comes directly from the client’s paycheck. When a client first comes to the institute, they are required to right out a list of all their prospective expenses, including bills, groceries, entertainment, medical, gasoline and pet expenses. The program budgets for each and establishes a “catastrophe fund” for emergency issues.

Staiger said he once had a couple who was leaving to go on vacation when their car broke down. They decided to take a family member’s car for their vacation and were going to figure out how to pay for the repairs to their car when they got back. With the money they already had in their “catastrophe fund,” they were able to pay for all of the repairs to the car.

“We set aside money for vehicle tags and car insurance that is paid every six months,” Kandie Brown from Focus Institute said. “Those are things you know are going to happen, and we set money aside each month, so you know that money is there when those things are due.”

The easiest way Staiger sees for people to pay off their debts is through a snowball plan. The snowball plan essentially will take the extra money used to pay off one debt will be used to pay extra on the next debt once the previous debt is paid off. Staiger said the benefit for this is often surprising to his clients.

“People are always amazed how quickly debts are paid off doing this,” he said. “It always pays off faster than they expect for it to.”

Once debts are paid off and the “catastrophe fund” is in place, the money saved with the program can go to additional things like college or retirement funds, investments or to pay off mortgages.

The program can alleviate much more than just the financial burden, Staiger said. For this reason, the institute does not just focus on financial problems. The treat drug and alcohol abuse, provide counseling for families and children and marital assistance.

“Financial problems are the single largest cause of divorce, and it is the root cause or, at least, is contributing factor to all the issues we see here,” he said.

Credit cards are not the only place people can run into financial debt. Kenny Davis from Focus Institute said he often sees more issues with people renting appliances and furniture and cash loans.

“One thing that is really probably worse than credit cards is the payday loans and your rent-a-center places,” Davis said. “You actually end up paying more interest on those than you do on your credit card.”

Staiger said any furniture or appliance rent-to-own store is something that will raise red flags for them. He said people should be cautious of any of these places. He once had a client who was charged $2,000 for a television at a rent-to-own store. The television he purchased sold new at several other appliance stores for around $350.

Staiger started the Focus Institute between 1990 and 1991 as a training business for other companies. He had graduated college with a degree in counseling and began to see there really was a greater need for employee counseling and business management for companies.

From there, the institute moved on to providing personal and financial counseling for private citizens. Staiger did has some reservations when he first started financial counseling, though. He wanted to make sure people understood they still had the freedom to get their money anytime they needed it.

“When I started the business, I thought it might make people financially dependent on us,” he said. “The money is still theirs, but if they are saving for car or home repairs, as they have those needs, they either come and get the money or just call us and tell us who we needs to be paid and we send a check.”

The program is available to anyone in any economic class. Brown said they have people who use it that are not even in debt but just want to make sure their rent or utilities is paid on time.

Staiger believes the program can help anyone who is willing to work it, and people who use it will find it will provide them more than financial relief.

“It offers peace and freedom from worry,” he said. “We budget for everything. Our program is beneficial to anyone. There is nothing to lose for people who try it.”