Stepping into retirement can be pretty daunting. Doing it with existing unsecured debts can make it even more of a challenge. Debt consolidation is the process of combining all your unsecured debts into a single monthly payment. Generally this allows for much lower payments on a monthly basis than the sum total of the separate debts – making life a lot more manageable. The likelihood in these circumstances of reducing interest rates is very high, and there are many firms out there who will walk you through the process making it simple and painless. If you have more than $1,000 in debt, then this is something you should do right away.