Financial Debt Reduction
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Some are in denial, but financial debt reduction is on the minds of many Americans. Most all of Uncles Sam's people know every well that being out of debt is better than being in debt, but we just haven't lived that way for a very long time. Sometimes, during hard economic periods, like a bolt of lightning comes the eerie feeling through a few bleak headlines that it just might be about time to start dumping some of this weight off our shoulders. The problem is where to begin and how to really make it happen. The first step is really found in the sixth grade class of Miss "Johnny, Please Stand and Read That Note Out Loud to Everyone in Class." Johnny is really not interested in being any kind of a learner, so he crams for any test the night before and is happy with that C plus. Mary, on the other hand, loves to learn and even checks out the books from the library that are listed in the footnotes and her grades are, well, you know.
Too many of us are Johnnies who don't really want to give up their lifestyles but know we have to do something about the looming problem, and only a few are Marys who truly recognize that American lifestyles have been way more extravagant than they should have been. Johnny will give up some spending ways because he has to, but Mary will give up her spending ways because she knows that a whole different mindset is required for the situation. True and lasting financial debt reduction cannot be fully accomplished unless some hard facts are faced. Seventy percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck with no viable savings in hand. The most telling of all cash obligation figures is the almost trillion dollars Americans have in credit card borrowing, charge cards and signature loans. All of this unsecured cash obligation is slowly taking the life out of Americans' ability to meet the usual household bills each month. So some people are ready to craft a financial debt reduction plan to reduce their cash obligations, kicking and grumbling all the way while others are facing reality with a look towards a more simplified life, realizing that having more possessions is not the measure of a person's success in life.
Financial debt reduction plans begins with what can be done about each kind of debt. If a person is in a house that cannot be truly afforded, what is the answer? Next question. If a person has a car that cannot be truly afforded, what is the answer? If a person has a student loan or loans, have they been consolidated? And if they are federal loans they can be placed on as much as a twenty five year repayment consolidation plan, but not all loans are eligible. If they are private loans, look for a source that will consolidate them into a lower interest loan over a long period of time.
Unsecured debt takes guts to get rid of and often it's just the Marys who are willing to undertake such a task because this really is a philosophical solution. Its starts with selling as much stuff around the house as can be tolerated. Listen, lawn furniture works great for a few years in the living room, and who needs a fifty four inch television anyway? Jewelry, boats, collections, hobby stuff, golf clubs (ouch!) and anything else not really needed for a simple life needs to be sold and put on the financial debt reduction plan of attack. Real American financial debt reduction is warfare on the glitz and glam of Madison Avenue and on the philosophy that somehow the one dies with more toys wins. It means watching the Travel Channel to experience Bermuda and not going there every winter. Oops, maybe the cable has to go also!
Nobody said that getting rid of debt was going to be easy and no one said that breaking decades of addiction to going wherever we wanted to go and buying whatever we wanted with the plastic in the wallet was going to happen without real soul searching and its accompanying pain. The Johnnies will look to drastic measures like bankruptcy to just jettison all obligations and some will be able to do so, but those who seek such a radical solution will have to have an income no higher than the median income of the state in which they reside. And bankruptcy is the kiss of death for anyone needing good credit for the ten years following its filing. People burdened down with unsecured debt are able to contact their creditors and negotiate lowered interest rates, thereby freeing up more monthly money, not to spend, but to put on the debt. Following a plan of putting more and more freed up money on unsecured obligations will eventually bring about financial debt reduction freedom.
What has been with America's addiction to credit and living beyond our means? Does a person really want to be buried in their Hummer or in that bass boat or with those four hundred dollar shoes? Freedom from the tyranny of stuff is the avenue to financial debt reduction. The Bible makes it so clear that the right philosophy about stuff begins with what is really important: "For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out." (I Timothy 6:7) The new translation of that scripture? You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul.
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