Personal Debt Free Living Can Be Achieved In 7 Steps
Personal debt is now at the highest level that it has been in history. Money issues are the primary cause of divorce, depression and any other number of crushing personal problems. Imagine the weight that could be lifted off your shoulders if you could live a debt free life.
I'm deep in the middle of the mid-life years and for many of my previous years I knew nothing besides living in constant debt. The burden that put on my emotions, psychological well being and relationships was beyond measure and is something I never want to experience again. I would like for you to not have to go through that same pain and so below I have laid out how to achieve debt free living in 7 (not necessarily easy) steps.
1. Accept that change is neccesary. Keeping the same bad habits will only result in the same problems repeating themselves.
2. What's your current position? Take an afternoon to write down your existing debts, all your current assets (house, car, etc), and how much money you have coming and going out every month.
3. How would you like your life to be? Be introspective and ask yourself some serious questions. Don't spend time on little items but really ask yourself - What are my principles and values? What do I really want to get out of life? Use these as your defining goals and base all future decisions on them.
4. What are your options? Decisions present themselves everyday that affect both additional income and how your money is spent.
5. Decide on your options. Evaluate the answers from step 4 and make the difficult decisions. Finding part-time work? Starting an online business? Cancel your cable TV subscription? Use your cell phone less? These represent just a few examples of things you need to consider.
6. Create a plan. Now that you've chosen your options put a plan down on paper. Then you'll have something to refer to when making day to day decisions that are necessary to meet your long term goals.
7. Stay focused. Measure your progress and develop a system of rewarding yourself for each objective that you meet. Tweak the things that do not seem to be working. Before long you'll be financially free in way that many can only dream about.
I'm deep in the middle of the mid-life years and for many of my previous years I knew nothing besides living in constant debt. The burden that put on my emotions, psychological well being and relationships was beyond measure and is something I never want to experience again. I would like for you to not have to go through that same pain and so below I have laid out how to achieve debt free living in 7 (not necessarily easy) steps.
1. Accept that change is neccesary. Keeping the same bad habits will only result in the same problems repeating themselves.
2. What's your current position? Take an afternoon to write down your existing debts, all your current assets (house, car, etc), and how much money you have coming and going out every month.
3. How would you like your life to be? Be introspective and ask yourself some serious questions. Don't spend time on little items but really ask yourself - What are my principles and values? What do I really want to get out of life? Use these as your defining goals and base all future decisions on them.
4. What are your options? Decisions present themselves everyday that affect both additional income and how your money is spent.
5. Decide on your options. Evaluate the answers from step 4 and make the difficult decisions. Finding part-time work? Starting an online business? Cancel your cable TV subscription? Use your cell phone less? These represent just a few examples of things you need to consider.
6. Create a plan. Now that you've chosen your options put a plan down on paper. Then you'll have something to refer to when making day to day decisions that are necessary to meet your long term goals.
7. Stay focused. Measure your progress and develop a system of rewarding yourself for each objective that you meet. Tweak the things that do not seem to be working. Before long you'll be financially free in way that many can only dream about.