For most people, getting a loan is the easy part of borrowing. As long as you qualify, it’s a simple matter of filling out an application and waiting to receive your check.

The hard part is paying it all back. It’s not always clear how your loan will affect your finances until you’re in the repayment portion of the process. By then, you’re in the thick of it, and you need all hands on deck to get through it.

If you’re in that moment now, check out the tips below. They’ll help you manage these payments like a boss.

Create a Budget

The first step to making consistent payments toward your debt is understanding your cash flow. You need to know how much money goes in and out of your hands each month before you can reasonably assume you have the cash you need to make your payments.

If you’re short on cash but long on expenses, sit down one day to find out what you can sacrifice. The more unnecessary spending you can cut from your budget, the more cash you’ll have to put towards debt.

Technically, you should have checked in with this spending plan before you borrowed money. Incorporating your budget into your search for installment loans helps you understand your financial capabilities better. You can use this info to see if you can afford a loan before you sign along the dotted line.

Don’t worry if you skipped over this step before you took out an installment loan, line of credit, or student loan. This isn’t a place of judgment; it’s an opportunity to learn. Just remember this lesson if you ever have to take out installment loans in the future.

Pay Often and Early

If your budget allows it, try to make extra payments. Making payments in addition to your scheduled bills may help cross out this debt from your name faster. It may also reduce the overall cost of your installment loan depending on your terms and conditions.

Just be careful to read the fine print before your pay anything at odds with your cash loan contract. Some installment loan direct lenders may charge you if you make early or extra payments.

Others, including MoneyKey, have no such penalties in place, meaning you can make as many payments against your debt as you want. Check out MoneyKey.com for more information about the ins and outs of these installment loans.

Remember to Save

If you’re eager to kill debt, you might focus all your financial energy on funneling payments into any of your outstanding accounts. While this promises to pay off your debt faster, it isn’t a balanced approach to your finances.

The best budgets will also put aside cash for savings. Ideally, you can squirrel away as much as 20 percent of your net income, but this may not be possible. That’s fine! Just do what you can. Even if it’s two percent of your net income, that two percent is more than zero!

Read Your Contract

Your loan contract outlines your rates, terms, and conditions. But it may be hard to conceptualize how these features roll into a payment or how these payments may affect your finances when the time comes.

Reading your contracts helps you understand the black and white of your responsibilities as a borrower. With these details in mind, you can create a budget that focuses on debt repayment without sacrificing savings.