DEBT MANAGEMENT
One Reason Why
So Many
Americans Are in
Debt
A recent
study said that 21 percent of Americans see
winning a major lottery as an important wealth
building strategy and even part of their retirement
plan.
Almost as
bad, another 14.9 percent of Americans are relying on an
inheritance as part of their retirement plan or
wealth-building strategy.
One must have some sort of
occupation nowadays. If I hadn't my debts I
shouldn't have anything to think about.
— Oscar Wilde
This is
amazing. Let's put this in proper
perspective: The odds of
winning the Mega Millions Jackpot are said to be one in
175 million. So a handful of individuals in one's life
time will win a major lottery and so many people are
relying on themselves being one of these individuals.
Frankly, these people are idiots.
What's more, of the 20 percent of Americans
who will inherit some money, most will receive less than
$50,000 in cash. Enough to buy a nice new car, perhaps, but
certainly not enough to fund a comfortable retirement.
Sadly, literally millions of Americans are
relying on gambling and death to secure their financial futures
so that the can retire in style. Instead of working harder to
make more money and being smart enough to save at least 15 to
20 percent of their earnings, they continue to spend and
accumulate debt. Not very bright, wouldn't you say?
Reasons Why So Many
Canadians
Are in
Debt
Not to be
outdone by Americans, more and more Canadians are showing
that they are also fools with their money and that is why
they wind up in debt.
-
According to a recently
released Statistics Canada study, almost half
of Canadian households spend more than their
pretax income in a given year. That's up from
39 per cent in the early 1980s. From 1982 to
2001, the study found, per capita debt
doubled, because of sharp increases in both
mortgages and consumer
debt.
-
67
percent of Canadians say money is their
most frequent worry.
-
Only 40 percent of Canadians
know how many millions are in a
billion.
-
Still worse, only 25 percent
of Canadians know the difference between the
National debt and National
deficit.
-
According to Desjardins
Financial security's latest retirement study,
many Canadians are not prepared for the
challenges retirement can bring. They are
failing to consider a variety of factors and
risks that can have an impact on the yield and
longevity of their savings, such as inflation,
rising life expectancies and healthcare costs.
Nearly 60% of those surveyed are not concerned
about having a large enough nest egg to
sustain their standard of living in
retirement. More than 80 percent have not
eliminated their consumer debt in retirement
and even more are not concerned about paying
off their mortgages (88 percent). And more
than half are not worried that inflation will
erode their savings.
Debt
Management:
Top-10 Ways to
Stay Debt Free
-
If you can't pay off your credit cards totally
at the end of the month, quit using them.
-
Keep your overhead low. Cut down expenses and
have "a high joy-to-stuff ratio" by reading
Your Money or Your
Life by Joe Dominguez and
Vicki Robin. This powerful book has helped tens
of thousands of people get their financial
lives in order so they have to work less.
-
Live below your means. Attempt to get the
Joneses to your level instead of aspiring to
keep up with them.
-
Don't look at your limit on your credit card as
a required spending amount. Go one step further
with your credit cards. Don't ever use them for
credit. Use them for convenience and to acquire
airmiles. Pay the bills immediately.
-
When you are considering buying something, ask
yourself how many hours you will have to work
to pay for it. Is it worth it?
-
Remember that being frugal is not being cheap
or stingy. The word frugal comes from Latin
words associated with virtue, value, and to
enjoy use of.
-
Make sure your expectations for the good life
are in line with reality.
-
Consider getting rid of your car. You will be
able to save a lot of money for your leisurely
pursuits. In Vancouver, a new car costs
anaverage of $595.00 a month to run. Remember,
depending where you live,you have to gross
$1000.00 a month to net $595.00.
-
When spending money on any item, spend only as
much as you have to and as little as you can
get away with.
-
Don't buy something just to be cool. Cool and
intelligent are not synonymous. The urge to be
cool has driven many people into personal
bankruptcy.
Above all, take 100 percent — 99 percent
won't do — responsibility for your life. Never blame anyone but
yourself for your money problems. You are to blame and no one
else. Unless you accept this fully, you will have money
problems.
Debt Managment
Resources
Top-10 Pieces of
Advice Anybody Ever Said about Debt and How to
Get Out of Debt
#1 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
Who pays his debts, gets rich.
— French proverb
#2 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
He that has not bread to spare should not keep a
dog.
— Chinese proverb
#3 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
The saving man becomes the free man.
— Chinese proverb
#4 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
You can't put your VISA bill on your American express
card.
— P. J. O'Rourke
#5 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
He who borrows gets sorrows.
— Turkish proverb
#6 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
No man's credit is as good as his money.
— Ed Howe
#7 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay
them.
— English Proverb
#8 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The
non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order.
For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware,
between these two contradictory necessities.
— Simone Weil (1909-43), French philosopher, mystic. "On
Bankruptcy".
#9 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debts — you have
no idea of the pain it gives one.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824), English poet. Letter, 26 Oct.
1819 (published in Byron's Letters and Journals, vol. 6,
ed. by Leslie A. Marchand, 1973-81).
#10 Piece of
Financial Advice about Debt Management
It is said
that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world
owes the world more than the world can pay.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), U.S. essayist, poet,
philosopher. Essays, "Gifts" (Second Series,
1844).
More Financial
Advice about Debt
Management
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the
national debt.
— Herbert Hoover
The Lord forbid that I should be out of debt, as if,
indeed, I could not be trusted.
— François Rabelais
Debts increase by arrears of interest.
— Livy
It is very iniquitous to
make me pay my debts — you have no idea of the pain it
gives one.
— Lord Byron
No matter how a dun is addressed, it always reaches
you.
— Kin Hubbard
Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who
shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust,
of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a
peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation
to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar
newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a
distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark:—
"I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two
millions of dollars."
— Mark Twain (1835-1910), U.S. author. The Gilded Age, ch.
26 (1873; written with Charles Dudley Warner).
Blest paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!
— Alexander Pope (1688-1744), English satirical poet.
Epistle to Bathurst.
Creditor. One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the
Financial Straits and dreaded for their desolating
incursions.
— Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's
Dictionary (1881-1906).
O Gold! I still prefer thee unto paper,
Which makes bank credit like a bark of vapour.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824), English poet. Don Juan, cto. 12,
st. 4.
A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master
owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity,
and can command it.
— Victor Hugo (1802-85), French poet, dramatist, novelist.
Marius, in Les Misérables, "Marius," bk. 5, ch. 2.
Alas! how deeply painful
is all payment!
— Lord Byron
I have been in love, and in debt, and in drink,
This many and many a year.
—Alexander Brome (1620-66), English poet. Opening lines of
The Mad Lover.
There is, of course, a gold mine or a buried treasure on
every mortgaged homestead. Whether the farmer ever digs for
it or not, it is there, haunting his daydreams when the
burden of debt is most unbearable.
— Fawn M. Brodie
To John I ow'd great obligation;
But John, unhappily, thought fit
To publish it to all the nation:
Sure John and I are more than quit.
— Matthew Prior
Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on
every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound:
great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little
danger.
— Samuel Johnson (1709-84), English author, lexicographer.
Letter, 1759, to Joseph Simpson. Quoted in: Boswell, Life
of Samuel Johnson (1791).
In the midst of life we
are in debt.
— Ethel Watts Mumford (1878-1940), U.S. novelist, humorous
writer
The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The
non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order.
For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware,
between these two contradictory necessities.
— Simone Weil (1909-43), French philosopher, mystic. "On
Bankruptcy" (written 1937; published in Selected Essays,
ed. by Richard Rees, 1962).
Bankruptcy is a sacred state, a condition beyond
conditions, as theologians might say, and attempts to
investigate it are necessarily obscene, like spiritualism.
One knows only that he has passed into it and lives beyond
us, in a condition not ours.
— John Updike
A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master
owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity,
and can command it.
— Victor Hugo
A man's indebtedness . . .
is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he
dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.
— Ruth Benedict
Dreading that climax of all human ills
The inflammation of his weekly bills.
— Lord Byron
It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope
to live in the memory of the commercial classes.
— Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), British playwright, author
Cash-payment never was, or could except for a few years
be, the union-bond of man to man. Cash never yet paid one
man fully his deserts to another; nor could it, nor can it,
now or henceforth to the end of the world.
— Thomas Carlyle
COPYRIGHT © 2010 by Ernie J.
Zelinski
All Rights
Reserved
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