New Year's blues comes to many all too soon as the spending fest of the last few weeks begins to shake us right where it hurts. "Money isn't everything but it ranks right up there with oxygen." says Zig Ziglar. You bet, its something of a life saver, and when you haven't got it, well its choking. And wouldn't you know it, Christmas is over, the New Year getting under way and for a huge swathe of people, the spectre of debt hangs about them like vultures to the feast. Haunting it is. Its rocks our self esteem, our relationships, our peace of mind, our success.
Now, I's say there was good debt and there was bad. The kind that offers you no money on your return like the bright new car that starts to depreciate from the very first day you drive it out of the showroom. Now I've got a mortgage and I consider as my home is my most valuable material possession, that that's good debt. Most people do, though for a few its a liability not an asset.
In the main, I'd say, having a mortgage is good debt. Mind you, if I stopped to think what I owned the bank, I'd really scare myself. Maybe its the way I was brought up but I've always been in the habit of paying for everything directly when I could afford it and I've been a little horrified by the squillions of debt that some people seem to have got into, and dare I say, sometimes feel comfortable with.
Yet being in debt is such a huge burden for many people and can so easily spiral out of control leaving the people who are experiencing it in complete despair.
Bottom line is, we have to get a better handle on it before it cripples us for sure. We need to understand what's good and what's bad debt, change the way we look at debt, get some help where its clearly a huge burden and develop better habits about handling money.
Fine for you to talk, I hear you say. The thing is, when people get overwhelmed by debt and their stress levels shoot through the roof, its kind of hard to think straight and to problem solve.
Now, I'm not saying I've got a magic wand that will make it right for you this very minute. I'll leave that to the loan sharks. If I did, I wouldn't use it. After all, what does that teach? The very next day, you'd most likely be back out there making the same mistakes. Right? Its been tempting thought when I've listened to some of the heartbreak stories of some people who've been struggling with debt to wish to make it all right for them. Especially those who consider the debt came through no fault of their own.
Well, I've been doing some reading in Success University and I reckon its OK to pass on what Jim Rohn, one of the principle teachers in SU, has to say about dealing with debt so you can build your financial success. Jim teaches 5 key principles that are important in handling debt.
1. Get the right Mindset.
2. Get some understanding
3. Get some help
4. Get some control
5. Get a plan
Developing the right mindset is the only one I will deal with tonight and will write about the others during the week. With credit facilities available to us at the drop of a hat, how easy is it for people without adequate control to spend much more than they can really afford. Heck, the encouragement is all around. You don't have to go very far to find it. But if you don't have a mindset that reigns you in, you'll end up paying through the nose.
Borrowing money to make money or increase your investment is fine if you have proper knowledge and advise to make it work for you. Many of us would be pushing up daisy by now if we had the kinds of debts that some of the world's richest people have without batting an eyelid. Yet they sleep well. Probably!
Lordie, you've got to know what you are doing and have the mechanisms around you to support that. For the average Joe/Josephine, far better to step back from the brink and ask yourself "Where the heck did I get the idea that a little debt here and there was OK? That some faceless organism would just support me while I simply spend, spend, spend.?" If you're in debt but that was never a part of your mindset anyway, its just that circumstances prevailed, you've got to make getting out of this situation a priority. And for that you may need some help.
Yes I know the struggle for some people is about bread and butter, not fast cars and gadgets - although that's what it amounts to for some. Do you really need that? Can you afford to wait? We've come to expect things to happen for us and happen fast, and the idea of waiting till we can afford something seems alien.
Jim says "We need to see debt as the enemy of our financial lives." I'd say it goes further and erodes our vitality in very many areas of our lives, our confidence and self esteem, our capacity to take care of ourselves and our loved ones thought it might have seemed so in the beginning that that was what you were trying to do.
When we make it our resolve to get out of debt, and to stay out, we give ourselves permission to breathe easy and start living a life with more freedom from financial worry. So the first step is to challenge our own thinking about debt.
I'll talk some more about the other keys during the week.
Blessings for today.
1. I've finished doing my accounts today to bring them up to date and that's felt like a huge relief. I am blessed that I do not have the burden of debt hanging round my neck that would cripple me with worry.
2. I've had some time alone to just cut through a number of outstanding jobs. I am grateful for peace and quiet times. I am thinking of many people in the world for whom that is not an option.
3. I've heard today that my sister while being readmitted to hospital, has been talking more lucidly and laughing and I give thanks to the Divine for restoring her more nearly physically and mentally.
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