When SPENDING MONEY Becomes a MONSTER that Devours You: How to FIGHT BACK.

2016, Oct 7, | Health, NUGGET, WEALTH |

NOTE: If you are not comfortable managing your money, and 99.9% of people are not knowledgeable or disciplined enough to do so, GET PROFESSIONAL HELP. Don’t wait. Each day that you mismanage your money causes more problems for you, your family, your children, your church/religion and society. You are doing the responsible, ethical, moral, sacred thing if you properly manage your spending. ALSO NOTE that what follows is for information purposes only and is not a recommendation.

Here’s a quick guide chock full of great tips…especially read the links in the End Note section.

Most people are steeped in financial debt.

99.9% of Americans and Canadians are buried by loans, mortgages, credit cards, student debt and so on. These debts are so large that they are consuming and DESTROYING the health, integrity, ethics, morality, and compassion of those caught in a debt spiral. They know it is a terrible place to be and they want out.

How do you get out from crushing debt?

Some will try to take on additional jobs. Great idea if you can find one. And, if you can handle the extra effort, lack of sleep, and stress. But that alone is NOT THE SOLUTION. You can take on 3 jobs and still not make a dent in your enslavement to debts. Increasing your income is a good temporary solution, but it too often fails to tame the beast…spending. You can’t outrun the monster of spending by chasing more income. Bringing in more money may be helpful in the short term, but spending is the monster that will grow, in the long term, to consume that extra income.

You have to slay the spending monster, not try to outrun it!

But lets take a moment to define “SPENDING”.

By spending, I mean buying spending on non-essential items. That is, stuff you don’t absolutely need.

The reality is that as your income increases, whether through raises of your compensation on the job, or by taking on a second or even a third job, your spending for non-essential items will also increase. SPENDING on non-essential items is your monster.

In many cases, it is not how much you earn, but how much you spend on non-essentials that is at the root of the debt problem that most people face.

WHY ROLLING ONE DEBT INTO ANOTHER is often a BAD IDEA.

One of the ways banks encourage people to expand their loans is to roll their credit card debt and other loans into one gigantic, longer-term loan. Banks win. You lose. Be cautious about trying to ease your pain with simple solutions such as rolling one debt into another to avoid having to change the root cause of your financial problems. To solve your debt problems you must change your root cause, in particular, your spending mindset. Besides, it is a BAD FINANCIAL PRINCIPLE to take a short-term debt, such as a credit card, and convert it into a long-term debt such as a mortgage. No smart financial person would change a short-term debt into a long-term debt. Yet, banks will encourage you to do so. Be careful.

So, what’s the solution to getting out of debt?

REDUCE your SPENDING on anything don’t absolutely need. Instead, direct that money to pay your costliest debts quicker…You’ll save on interest charges and you’ll boost your peace of mind sooner, too.

If you are buried by debt, look at everything on which you are spending money and STOP SPENDING on anything that is NOT ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL such as: food, shelter, transportation for work, medicine, and preventative health. Stop spending on even the smallest, tiniest, thing you don’t absolutely need. Apply even pennies, (if they still exist when you read this), towards your debts to help climb your way out of debt sooner.

For example:

If you take vitamin pills, but have not been ordered to do so by your doctor, STOP wasting your money. Besides being of little to no LONG-TERM health value, Vitamin and Mineral supplements can be harmful since they medications, pharmaceuticals, because they are concentrated dosages of molecules that tax your body in unnatural ways. If you eat well, you likely do not need supplements, unless your doctor discovered a specific deficiency that warrants medication.
Cut back on your animal-sources of PROTEIN. You have been brainwashed into thinking that you need about 80 grams of protein daily to maintain your health. To learn more, read my many Nuggets under Anti-Ageing. Reduce the amount of your protein and you likely will save a bundle while maintaining your long-term health.
Did you know you can cut your grocery bill almost in half by switching to a VEGAN diet and lifestyle? [Click here to learn more about saving a bundle on your grocery bill: https://boom-qa.com/put-your-money-where-your-pocket-is/]
STOP buying clothes, shoes, underwear or anything else, until all your debts are paid off. Don’t buy any more clothing articles, or buy anything else, until you almost literally have worn out or worn holes in what you already have. Only the rich can live by spending with so little self-control that they can afford to have a closet filled with shoes, dresses, suits, shirts, etc. Don’t be silly by filling your closest while being saddled with debt. Same wisdom goes for those who brag about buying collectables and collector items that are not turned around for resale to pay down debts. Closets filled with clothes and rooms of non-revenue-producing collector items are merely disguises for the sickness of hoarding. Instead, learn to wear your financial superiority on your sleeve, so to say. Wear out what you have, sell what you got to pay off your debts, and start learning how to save.
DITCH the second car and your recreational vehicles or toys. If you absolutely do not need it, then sell it. If you are in debt and have several cars, seriously consider GETTING RID OF ONE CAR and adjusting your travel schedules accordingly. If you have a tussle with your spouse about who ought to have first dibs on the family car, then one of you must bend so that one of the cars can be sold, but only if by doing so you can reduce your overall spending for transportation. By downsizing from two to one vehicle, in most cases, you cut almost in half any costs of gas, tires, repairs, insurance, and chances of an automobile accident which can be costly in many ways beyond money itself. With the advanced state of municipal transit systems, and light rapid rail or subway systems, there is almost no way to justify two vehicles in a family strapped by debts. If you have debts you are NOT WEALTHY. Don’t act as if you are.
Do NOT BORROW to “Build Equity”. If you have other debts, borrowing more money to build equity is absolute insanity. Don’t do it. Many people think that adding $20,000 to their mortgage, for example to upgrade their kitchen, will boost the value of their homes by $40,000. That sounds like a good deal, but is NOT. [If you are flipping homes, then maybe.] But if you plan to live in your home, borrowing to build equity merely ensures that you will be a slave to even more debt and for years longer. Besides, no matter what you do to your home, your home will sell for whatever the other homes around you sell at. You may never be able to extract that planned increase in equity. Don’t borrow to build equity if you are already shackled to debt.
Think of the future. Talk to your family about the future. Discuss various scenarios, including financial problems caused by the loss of a loved one, especially the main wage earner. Also talk about financial scenarios that are highly likely to happen such as mortgage rates approaching 20% again. What happens if your mortgage payments are renewed at 20% or worse rates, when your monthly payments jump from $900 to $2,000? Not possible? In the early 1980s mortgage rates approached 20% and the economy was in far better shape back then. Today, constant dollar devaluation makes it almost inevitable that interest rates will soon be going sky high, worse than in the 1980s.
Every member of the family ought to be engaged in understanding how dangerous a problem your debts are. Sit with them when paying your bills. Sit with them to draw up a budget to determine what NOT to spend money on. Post signs in the house to remind people of the game plan regarding what not to spend money on.

HOW TO GET OUT OF DEBT?

You absolutely MUST REDUCE YOUR SPENDING on non-essentials. When? Right now.
Every member of the family must be earning money, even with a temporary job, until your debts and loans are paid and you reach a very comfortable level that allows you to pay your long-term loan, such as a mortgage, without stressing out to do so. Sitting around the house or doing housework, is relegated to the good old days. Today, when the family is saddled with debt, that is no longer acceptable. Everyone has to pitch in work to pay off family debts.
Every member of the family must learn to contribute financial value in other ways as well as working as mentioned in the point above. How? By saving, substituting to less expensive alternatives on essentials, by doing without anything that is non-essential, etc. Wherever money can be saved to be used to pay on debts, everyone has to pitch in to do so. Nothing is too small to be considered as an opportunity on which to explore for saving costs.
Do NOT TAKE ON ANY MORE DEBT. Do not borrow any more money for any reason. Do not increase your equity in your home by borrowing money if you are already saddled with debt.
Do not gamble. Stop buying lottery tickets or gambling in any other way. You likely won’t win by wasting your money on tickets.
Stop buying wine beer or any other recreational drink. You don’t need to sip the “good life” until your debts are cleared. Save a bundle: drink water.
If you can sell your home and downsize to a smaller, less expensive home, then do so and use whatever equity remains after legal and tax fees to pay down your debts. Also, the smaller your home, the lower your operating costs for heat, lights, air-conditioning, taxes, insurance, etc.
Keep your home in good repair, but stop upgrading.
Itemize your debts and loans. Make a list. Pay off the costliest loans and debts FIRST. Put as much money as humanly possible to the most expensive debts as soon as you can. If you owe 28% on a credit card and 5% on some other debt, CONSIDER the merits of paying the credit card with the biggest interest rate first and as often as you can with as much as you can afford without jeopardizing your other debts. Pay the most attention to, and tame, your monsters with highest-interest rates.
If you can’t afford to pay money to your church, then don’t, until your debts are paid off. After your debts are paid off, I encourage you to make up for lost time by donating whatever amounts will assuage your guilt feelings, but only AFTER you are out of debt and the pressures are off the family and you can afford to do so.