Ladydebt

Are you somebody who struggles each month to pay all of the bills? Are you in debt? Are you looking for ways in which to reduce your level of debt? In this article I write about ways in which we can control and reduce our debts which I hope will prove beneficial to people who read it.

A few years ago, I found that I was not earning enough money each month to pay for all of the direct debits, standing orders and loans that were being taken out of my bank account. This caused me many a sleepless night due to the increased stress and pressure that seemed to be placed on me. I had realised this too late and was already in quite a large amount of debt, stupid I know.

I have to say that in truth it was all my own fault. The company where I was working had been offering overtime for the last two years. I took them up on the chance to earn extra money but I soon took it for granted and saw it as part of my monthly wages. There was it seemed no reason as to why the company would stop this opportunity to work overtime. But stop it they did and my monthly earnings returned to what they had been. I didn’t think this would be a problem however as I had coped alright before. When checking my bank statement a few months later, I realised however that it was a problem.

It was time for a reality check. I needed to sit down and work out all of the things that I spent money on each month. What could I go without etc? I had signed up to a number of new contracts since my earnings had increased via the overtime, such as cable television. I basically had a choice, I could try to earn some more money via working part time somewhere or I had to sacrifice some of the things that I was spending the money on.

I decided to do both. The cable went as did many other things from the house, which I describe as luxuries. These things are great to have but only if you can afford them. My car which was my pride and joy also had to go. It was a great car but the insurance was sky high, for the time being a basic car would do. At the end of the day the aim is simply to get from A to B, therefore how good the car looks is not that important.

I also started to earn a second income by working part time for a market research company. I needed to think positive about the situation I was in and a friend of mine helped me to do this. He stated that however poor you may think that you are, you are still richer than most people in this world.

What I have now decided to do, is to save money when I am doing well, such as when I have any overtime. This way, when the overtime is taken away, I will have a nice tidy sum in the bank to enjoy. I do not ever want to be in debt again.

Debt is a Product in America
The #1 sickness in America concerning finances right now is debt. Debt is a product in our culture and it is vigorously aimed at you and me everyday, everywhere. As a society, we borrow more money than the last two generations times two and your online credit report reflects these habits! Some companies like Sears make more profit from their credit department than from all the physical products they sell.

But It’s the Norm Isn’t It?
We are programmed from childhood to make automatic decisions regarding our personal spending habits thus negatively affecting our online credit report. A few ‘real world’ examples are listed below:
∙ leasing a car instead of paying for it in cash (unheard of right?)
∙ 90 days same as cash (NOT… really the same in more than 75% of the cases)
∙ rent-to-own (translation = paying 2, 3, 4 times the actual value of the product)
∙ 30 year vs. 15 year mortgages (an accepted lengthy and very costly way of purchasing a house)
What to do? Well, I hate to give the obvious answer here but how about saving money! Try saving money in a money market account for a couple years and then paying for a slightly used car in cash or with a 50 to 75% down payment. Wow, imagine having that extra money every month that most people dump into their lease or high rate loan. Try saving money for 3-6 months interest and risk free for that thing that you needed and you might find that you can get it cheaper with hundreds OR even that you want to use your hard-earned money for something more practical. Your credit report will thank you as well.