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by Peter Legrove (Author)
Debt is a part of our life now, so give up "Keeping Up With The Jones" because that mentality is just going to keep you in debt. Debt has slowly crept into our lives and it has got to the point where it controls what we do. And sometimes we suddenly find that it controls us. Before debt was usually manageable but as expenses have increased and pay-checks haven't, debt can sometimes seem like a big heavy block holding us back. As taxes and secondary tax are taking more away and giving less back, problems are starting to arise. Also every new regulation introduced by our unelected and elected officials just so they can keep their jobs puts the price up. And that includes added expenses like fixing your car and doing home repairs, as well as everything you buy. Now we live in an over regulated society where our quality of life has decreased as our debt levels have increased. So the new regulations have increased our cost of living but done very little for our safety and happiness. At the moment the most expensive expenses are rent and gas for your car as well as electricity, internet and food. So at the end of the week you have nothing left so it is time to bring out the credit card and that is fatal. The bottomless pit just got deeper.Now this might sound really dumb but the easiest way to control debt is not to take on too much debt in the first place. And that is very difficult because the bank says you can get this much for a mortgage and our mentality is to try and get the largest mortgage you are allowed. 'Change Your Way Of Thinking.' Do Not Buy A House You Cannot Afford. There is a very big difference between what the bank says you can afford and what you can afford so don't listen to the bank. Buy the cheapest house you can find in a reasonable part of town and live there. It might not be as good as living in the best part of town and the schools will not be as good and the crime rate will be worse, but then again your debt levels will not be too high.At the moment if you already have a mortgage and are having problems with debt start selling off your excess stuff on your local auction site. Just to de-clutter and to give you an idea of the prices available when you want to buy more stuff again. And if the house prices in your country are very high think about selling. Now don't do what everybody else does and that is buy another house. I would go back to renting and leave what money you have left over after paying off your mortgage, in the bank until the house prices drop substantially. And they will, they always do and bank managers and real estate agents will say they don't. I had a real estate agent tell me that selling your house to go back renting was not a good idea as rents were very high and a lot of rental properties were going off the market. What she said was true but your endgame is to buy a house after the prices come down. That is why you need to de-clutter so you have less material things to carry around.When getting out of debt there are only a few things you have to do. The first one is DO NOT take on any new debt, so that means you have to live within your means. In other words you need to change your shopping habits. We do not have set items to buy, we only buy what is on special and what has been marked down. That means we only buy meat that has been reduced as it has been sitting in the chiller too long. I try and buy meat that has been reduced twice that way it is closer to half price.Now the other thing you need to do is Make More Money and there are chapters in this book that show you how to do just that, you just have to try out and find what is a good fit for you.
