Debt has a way of sneaking past your Bulldog and leaving your cookie jars totally empty.
Here are a few ways you can prevent that from happening (or to retake control of your situation if it already has):
1. Live within your means
Make a list of all your necessities. And allocate just 5-10% of your net income toward your leisure expenses.
If you don’t whip your spending habits into shape quickly, you’re allowing Debt to whoop your behind every single day in front of your Kids and over time in front of your Great Grand Kids.
Borrow a page off Carlos Slim’s and Warren Buffet’s spending habits (currently the second and third richest Men in the World), and you’ll be awestruck by how frugal and simple they’re with their “basic expenses”.
2. Get rid of all unnecessary subscriptions
Do you subscribe to news magazines and Cable providers that make you feel“emotionally bloated”? And do you have a membership to a Gym that you haven’t seen in 5 years?
If so, now might be a good time to call em over for their farewell party.
3. Pay for the product and not the Brand
Some Brands just charge you extra for their bedazzled packaging, reputation and their mildly subtle differences. But often times, they’re near enough identical to the cheaper alternatives. Whilst that’s not the case with everything, we can still shave off a good percentage of our shopping bills just by shifting our shopping mindset from “flashy” to “smart”.
This isn’t such a bad way to live either, even if you have the money because the nickles you don’t watch add up to Dollars before you could even say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
4. Go second hand
Feel bad about going second hand? Don’t. Second-hand doesn’t mean second rate. In fact, many Millionaires and Billionaires still buy many things second hand, starting with their Cars.
But avoid buying things that you need backed with a solid warranty.
And when buying second hand, buy them as “near enough new” as possible.
5. Buy online
A great way to save money is to buy much of what you need online. Online might not be the most cost effective solution for everything. For instance,the best option for your groceries can be your local Supermarket or to go shopping after hours wearing a burglar outfit with a few trusty bricks.
With regards to where to shop online, have a look around on eBay and Amazon first as they often serve as the portal that brings many leading competitors and small sized Businesses under one roof, thus giving you more options than you could handle with just one brain.
Also keep in mind that whilst it’s important to keep one eye superglued to the price tag, it’s just as important to keep the other one awake to weed out sellers who are fairly new to the marketplace, don’t have enough feedback to merit credibility and aren’t as responsive to their customers.
6. Eliminate those expensive habits
No one likes the feeling of being broke. But those hardships can also serve as filters that have been intentionally put in our path to refine us.
Many of us have habits that are less than helpful (to both ourselves and the people around us). It can be the occasional cigarette we light up or a few seemingly harmless social drinks that get passed around or the weekly lottery that doesn’t seem to be adding up to much.
They may not seem like much on the surface, but the detrimental damage that these habits have on tens of millions of people each year is nothing short of catastrophic.
More than that, what it may be costing you are your Children, who generally repeat the exact same habit patterns as you when they grow up, purely as a result of what’s been fed into their minds.
So, why not make this “setback” a golden opportunity to reinvent yourself and emerge as a much better, happier, shinier, sleeker, snazzier, stronger, resilient, sweeter, serene and a more scrupulous version of yourself?
7. Switch Energy Providers
Sometimes going with the cheapest option (especially where service, transparency, and dependability are concerned) can leave you with constant toothaches and swollen ears, particularly after talking to them over the phone.
On the flip side, it might also not be such a great idea to pay them a hundred times that what you should be paying either.
So, the right way to go is to find a service provider that not only puts a smile on your face but also puts a smile on your bank account.
8. Evaluate those“minor” everyday expenses
Ever heard of a Doctor Diagnosing a Patient with a life-threatening illness
or telling them that they’re losing their teeth and their hair over a Pumpkin? How about over a cigarette?
Strangely enough, it’s always the little stuff that bites us the hardest.
So many of us spend a fortune on bottled water when it’s absolutely free, pay hundreds of dollars to upgrade our phones to the latest and greatest model that’s only a hair fringe slimmer, spend thousands on the latest TV screen that’s only a few inches bigger, buy a latte and a doughnut everyday that costs thousands of “love handle inflating” dollars every year.
So, which scrawny little bug’s been nibbling away at your bank balance?
Identify it, give it a little miniature cookie as a commiserative present and then kick it out for good.
9. Get rid of that Gas guzzler
Is your car cooperating with your wallet?
If it doesn’t, then perhaps you should consider switching to something a little more economical and “blood-pressure-friendly”like a hybrid, an electric or consider buying a few Sheep to get you around.
10. Track your expenses
Waking up is only worth the effort if you don’t stay in bed the rest of the day.
Likewise, taking control of your finances starts by waking up to the little Ant Colony that’s being built right under your Sofa.
But you only start seeing tangible results when you start writing down every little nickel that you spend and start making decisions to cut out those unnecessary expenses one little Ant at a time.
11. Pay off 5-10% (or more) off your debt every month
One way to get out of debt is to find a debt-friendly,inhabitable planet. But if that sounds like too much of a stretch for you, then consider paying off a set percentage of what you owe every month.
Aim to pay off at least 5-10% of it each month (ideally on autopilot) but the more you can afford to pay off each month, the better. Pay off the smaller debts first (or the highest interest ones if you prefer) to give you some momentum.
But if you’re having trouble getting your finances under control, reach out to a Credit Conciliating Service asap.
12. Give yourself the edge
Despite all our best efforts, things don’t always go according to plan. Or things just go from bad to yikes leaving you with one ugly puddle of goo to clean up.
Nobody likes cleaning up messes and nobody certainly likes having those messes to clean up in the first place.
So what if there was a special kind of “insurance” that’s specially designed to prevent half of these “inconveniences” from happening the first place? And when they do, what if they also helped clean them up to be better than before?
Wouldn’t that be something?
Well, the good news is there is. And it’s available to all of us, regardless of our geography, height, width, circumference, background etc. It’s called“Supernatural Insurance”. And it kicks into gear the minute you start treating every single person that you meet (regardless of how much of a douche they are)like the most important person that you had ever met and when you start making a 10% contribution from your net earnings every month to a Charity or Cause that “genuinely” helps people who cannot help themselves.
And once you become this exceptional human and start living on this “higher plane”, things will begin shifting slowly in your favor in a way that you cannot even imagine. And it works just the same regardless of your faith or lack of it.
