Despite all the claims of how debt boosts the economy, and despite the success some have enjoyed using borrowed guac, by far the majority of debt kills, crushes and destroys those it digests. Debt is like the arms of an octopus wrapping around your legs while you try to swim, slowly pulling you under the surface. Indebtedness does this to individuals, businesses, families, whole countries even.
Schwabians the world over explain that we will own nothing and further insult our intelligence by suggesting that being utterly destitute will make us happy. Please demonstrate how this works, Davos. Care to be living examples? No?
Maybe let’s try a different approach, if only just to peeve them all off.
In my own experience debt has been a source if particular anxiety and stress. And I don’t think I need to expound on the reasons for that except to say that in my case I take borrowing to mean that I will to the utmost of my ability make repayment as per our mutual agreement. Because to me to break contract is the moral equivalent of theft and while I’m indebted, I sweat over this.
In fact, these days I make virtually no promises whatsoever and I find that one simple strategy to be very effective at minimizing stress and maximizing my enjoyment of life, even though it drives those around me nuts because it interferes with their own promises and plans.
But for me this strategy carries over even into my financial life. With enormous difficulty I have freed myself from all of my debts and my estimate is I am at least 20 percent happier owing nothing to anybody than I was while I was while being a practising debt-serf.
If being debt-free is something you’d like to try, start by getting mad dog mean and attacking your debt like the enemy of your soul that it is. As my old daddy used to expound, bankers are not your friends. I’m afraid a lot of people are about to discover what this really means.
So what drastic steps can you take to free yourself from your slavery starting now?
You could sell stuff. Maybe you need to sell everything and start over completely. But most of us could pay off our debts by letting go of some property or other, be that some land in another region or an extra bicycle on the balcony. What’s required is an aggressive mindset to getting rid of the life-eroding grip that debt has on your life. This is especially true of cc debt which is insanely expensive in a low interest rate period such as today’s.
Granted that cc companies suffer failures of customers to repay some of that unsecured debt they issue. But anything over 20 percent sounds a bit like it might border on the usurious side.
Using the rule of 72, at 24 percent, money doubles every 3 years and doubles again and again every 3 years after that. I believe Americans owe well over a trillion dollars in cc debt today. What do you suppose this amount might be in ten more years at these rates, perhaps 8 trillion? And that is without future borrowing, just allowing the interest to grow! How much of that toxic sludge do you want on your own plastic?
Debt is a huge problem and it really needs a war-like response for like any enemy, if it is not dealt with, it will at a minimum kill your freedom to live a lifestyle of your own choosing and at a maximum, kill your marriage, your family and pull the last breath from your dying lungs and this is not hyperbole.
So what to do about it?
Some tactics I have found useful in my own ultimately successful struggle are avoiding advertising by chucking flyers immediately, not watching tee vee, and driving past those new vehicle sales lots like I’m running from a fire. Is my vehicle getting me where I need to go? Then fine.
I have six working vehicles at present and the newest one is 23 years old. When anything gets too rotten to run, it heads to the boneyard. You wouldn’t believe how many decades old vehicles there are out there which are available for a few thousand in cash and still run perfectly. Mostly this is because people are embarrassed to be seen in an out of style ride. Some rides are better bets than others. I have had my best results with toyota trucks, particularly the older ones, and the dodge diesel I run. I have put 400000 kms on my dodge with minimal repairs, most of which i do myself.
There really is something to finding a quality product and sticking to it because breakdowns, especially in a world of supply issues coupled with the current mass incompetence and unwillingness to repair anything in our repair shops is a surefire way to increase instead of reduce your debt load.
And what about housing? I’ve often said that if I would have been smart when I realized I was in trouble I would have sold everything I owned, taken back my old job in that machine shop in whitehorse and lived in a cardboard box for a year until I had it all paid off. I could have been free in a year. Instead, by trying to keep what everything I owned, I spent decades getting free. Go and do thou likewise if you prefer but gnawing on some lead and toughing out a hard year or two seems preferable to decades of struggle.
When you look around you and you notice the differences in the way people live and what they appear to own, realize that most of this wealth is really owned by the shareholders of the banks and merely being lent temporarily to folks who desire to look successful to their neighbors. I really like the advice that “what others think of you is none of your business.” And somewhere else it’s written that ” fear of man will prove to be a snare”.
We really are under attack by selfish interests who have clearly told us they want us to own nothing while they feast sumptuously from the labors of the disadvantaged. Will we go on helping them?
OWE nothing. ..
Be HAPPY.
Skulltripper 