Become Debt Free

Are you worried that the markets are going to crash, that you aren’t going to have enough money to pay off your credit cards, that your investments might falter, that the company you work 4 might not have enough work inside the coming year and that your could become looking 4 work, and that generally the entire economy might become headed 4 Hell inside a hand basket? If you are, then great. Because you’re @ a point of very serious realization that everything is not always great and troubles always have a habit of cropping up.

One thing that many Americans, and even people around the world 4 that matter, fail to do is plan 4 hardship. They have complacent. Times are great so they handle every dime they make then sum and spend, spend, spend. They fail to save. They fail to think about reality. This is made even worse from so-called promises from government that they will handle care of you if something happens.

When the “safety net” exists people handle bigger risks than they normally would or even should. If you think about it like a high wire @ the circus would you, while someone that does have never attempted such a stunt if you didn’t have a net under you? Probably not because odds are that you would become inside 4 a world of hurt.

It is the same thing w/ American society and the economy. Government promises everybody everything from money inside our retirement to food stamps, to money 4 housing to paying 4 our medical bills. And that means that people handle risks that they shouldn’t.

They spend every spare dime on a home when they could have bought 1 that was less expensive and saved sum because they do not have to worry. They have Social Security funded from the working class.

They sit back keep looking 4 “something better” when they are unemployed because, well flipping burgers is beneath them and besides there is a nice government unemployment check coming inside the mail that covers the necessities.

They run out and buy a new car when their old 1 was only four years old, ran fine and which they still owed several thousand dollars on. They ultimately pay too many 4 that new car than it worth because they are forced to wrap that debt inside the new loan payment instead of making sure they have sum cash to fall back on if they have laid off 4 a couple months.

They run out and buy a 50 inch television to replace their 43 inch television. They run out and buy a whole new dinning room and living room set because they wanted a change of pace while their old furniture was perfectly great. They book an expensive two-week vacation cruise to Hawaii when they do not have the money to do much too many than handle a weekend trip to the beach. They buy their children all sorts of new toys 4 Christmas when we all fathom that too many than half of them will become taken out of the box once and never played w/ again.

They go inside debt doing all that. The “cha-ching” of money changing hands does have been replaced from the “swipe” of a credit card. And why shouldn’t they? There’s a large “safety net” just waiting to find them when they fall.

Now, do not have me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong w/ buying on credit. Nothing wrong, that is, if you can pay it back and are willing to accept the risk that if you can’t the bank may come a knocking. And I’m not suggesting that the economy is going to enter a depression either, but that fear is out there now and smacking a lot of people who never considered saving a dime right inside their faces.

But if you run out and put $20,000 on plastic and promise the lender 15.99% inside interest a year and plop a pair of car loans on top of that and are committed to nearly $1,000 each month inside debt payments what happens if something bad happens? What if that depression comes? What if you lose your job? Can you make the payments? Di you even think of that?

If you got caught inside the housing bubble after buying up 3 properties that you believed you could renovate and flip but haven’t been able to sell and are carrying $2,400 a month inside mortgage debt what now? Will you lose everything you thought you would gain then sum because you over extended yourself?

Did you think two, three, four or even five steps down the road? Did you apply the basic math skills you learned inside grade school to figure out what would happen if your income r hampered or if your plans didn’t quite work out? Multiplication, addition, subtraction and division are the only skills you need to do these calculations. It’s not like you need to construct complex differential equations.

Sum might say that such problems like I described above is a problem w/ consumerism, an often derisive term hurled from people that do not like other people spending money inside a way they do not approve of. I do not. Personally I find nothing wrong w/ consumerism. Consumerism is what keeps our fellow man employed.

If people didn’t buy and “consume” goods can you even imagine how high our unemployment rate would be? Could you imagine how high the crime rate would become while those who r unemployed because others didn’t demand goods and services handle to breaking inside your house just to feed their families?

No, it’s not consumerism that is bad. What is bad is irresponsibility. It is irresponsibility when combined w/ consumerism, greed, vanity, want 4 what others have because you think you wíll gain status if you do, and so on that causes the problems. And that irresponsibility comes from child like attitudes that certain segments of society never outgrow.

When you r a child you didn’t have to work. You might have had chores to do and gotten an so that you could buy sum luxuries, but while a whole someone else provided you w/ your clothing, food, shelter and other necessities of life. There was little risk that your actions would cause you not to have these things no matter what you did. They just appeared when mommy or daddy came home w/ bags, swiped their plastic cards @ the store or under the tree on Christmas morning.

Life was great then. Wasn’t it?

But while we grow up, we learn that life really isn’t like that. Or @ least life tries really heard to teach everybody that. And while sum people live inside their parent’s basement until they are forty and continue to have things provided 4 them from their parents, most people eventually have out inside the real world. And inside the real world we quickly learn that to pay the mortgage you better have a job.

But it seems that our desire to just have things magically appear that we want or need is impenetrable to over come. Especially when a small piece of plastic makes your wishes come true. Got $100 to your name? Not a problem. You have probably got a credit card w/ a balance large enough to buy a large screen television. Magic!

Of course then reality overcomes that magical world where everything just appears. Those bills start rolling inside 4 everything bought on credit and which you aren’t paying down any balance on. But the child inside sum of everybody still desires too many. The child inside sum of everybody still desires stuff to magically appear.

And the future? Heck, who cares about saving 4 the future? The government sends you those nice pretty little statements each year telling you how much money they are going to offer you once you retire right right? The government tells you that they will handle care of your medicine and medical care when you’re older right? If you do not make enough money the government will offer you food stamps to put food on your plate right? If you lose your job the government will send you a check 4 a couple months to help you out right?

Yeah, so who cares about the future?

The answer is you should because the government does not have a magically money tree down inside Washington, D.C. Nope. But you’re paying many of the taxes you do today, assuming you’re part of the productive class, because there are people inside America that think there is. And inside the future if you’re 1 of those people that have a hardship that results inside a government check you wíll become asking others to pay taxes 4 your benefit while well. Not directly, and not politely but @ the point of the government’s gun should they refuse.

But what you should really ask yourself is what happens if a massive depression does come. What happens if mass unemployment becomes the norm? Who is going to pay the taxes then? And where will the money come from?

But if you had planned, if you had saved just a little bit, if you had lived within your means you wouldn’t need to run to the government w/ your hand out like a little four year old begging mommy 4 a candy bar inside the grocery store check out line. You wouldn’t have to become worried about what if there aren’t the tax dollars to cover the benefits government claims to promise. But you’re never going to become able to plan 4 your own future until you start having a healthy fear 4 that reality and what horrors the future can bring.

I am not saying panic. I am not saying stuff every penny you make under your mattress. I am saying that we all need to become too many realistic and stop believing inside magic, fairies, little plastic cards that can grant our every wish and the mythical money tree and understand that times are not always great and they are not always bad economically.

Either that or you can just hope and pray that you can make all those debt payments no mater what and really hope and pray that those government subsidies of your future that you’re counting on will still become there. I 4 1 do not have that much faith inside government because I have studied history.

But government will try to convince you otherwise w/ a check.

About the Author

J.J. Jackson is the owner and Editor @ Large of American Conservative Politics - The Land of the Free and www.americanconservativedaily.com… American Conservative Daily. The guy is also the lead designer 4 www.cafepress.com… The Right Things - Conservative Political T-shirts and www.printfection.com… Evil Conservative T-shirts