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Five Top Tips For Rethinkig Debt
1. Count The Cost
Total the amount of money you currently pay each month to repay debt. Realise that this is money you are paying for something that is already in the past.
It is not just another monthly expense. It is money you could be putting to better use for your present and your future. Multiply it by 12 to get a yearly figure. Know that this is money you earned this year but which you already spent last year and before.
Think about that.
2. Count The Real Cost
What are you giving up to have debt? If you had that repayment money in your hand, what could it buy for you this month? What could you have if you didn’t have to make this payment to the credit companies, perhaps a holiday or extended time off work, or a course you’d like to do?
Make a list of the things that you would like to have in your life which you cannot afford because of your current debt repayments but which the total of your current debt repayments could pay for.
3. Borrowing Today Is Stealing From Tomorrow
The monthly amount you pay towards debt today could be money you invest for your future.
For example, let’s say your monthly debt repayments are £200. If you did not have debt and you had £200 to invest monthly and it earned 10% annually, over 30 years you would have just under half a million pounds.
So if at 20 years old you got yourself a good investment account, (instead of say, getting yourself a store card), at 50 you could retire comfortably. After all, you are putting aside the £200 a month anyway so why not put it aside somewhere it will grow instead of throwing it into hole that seems never to get filled.
4. Imagine
With money taken care of, imagine how 30 years could pass differently for you. You might well still be working and doing all the things you are currently doing but instead of doing them with a struggle, you would be doing them with the security of knowing that your future is taken care of.
You would know when and how you could retire, AND you would get to live your life without fear and shame and stress of debt.
5. Make Poverty History
I know that you are the kind of person who would like to do give generously for the starving millions in our world.
But it’s not easy to keep on giving when it’s tough to make ends meet at home. Look again at the total of your monthly debt repayments. Take just £20 of that total. If you did not have to pay that £20 to debt, you could pledge it to change the world. You would never notice it but just £20 a month could support another whole life in a poorer part of the world.
One person saving the life of one person, Making Poverty History one person at a time.
