One of the toughest steps in claiming back your life and eliminating your consumer debt is to find that “extra” money needed to increase your repayments and make real headway.
Once the snowball gets mov-ing, and you see the debt reducing as a result of your efforts it’s much easier to keep going. But how do you start? You start by getting very clear on the difference be-tween NEEDS and WANTS.
Our society makes a big business out of blurring the lines between these. It is exceptionally easy to get caught in a spend spiral, sending money out of our lives unconsciously, like puppets with our strings be-ing pulled by the mass advertising machines telling us all the things we NEED to have in order to feel happy, loved, successful and wealthy.
If we aren’t careful, we can lose appreciation for ex-actly how fortunate and blessed we are and mostly what wealth really is for us.
At its best this spiral ensures we stay trapped in the earn – spend cycle making no headway on breaking free from debt, creating sustainable wealth and mov-ing forward towards financial freedom. At its worst it enslaves people in vicious debt traps, drowning in re-payments, feeling desperate and giving up on their dreams.
Here are four easy steps to breaking the cycle and finding that extra money to blitz your debts.
Step 1:
– Get clear about what actually makes you feel wealthy
– Make a Wealthy Living List of all the things you love most about your life, the times and experiences where you feel alive and rich and the things you are grateful for.
Step 2:
– Differentiate your NEEDS from your WANTS.
– Download your expenses for the past 3 months and review every transaction using the following question:
• Is this a NEED or a WANT? If you cannot abso-lutely, hand on your heart state it is a need, then it is a want.
• Make a red mark against every spend item that is a want.
Notice too all those cash withdrawals and items which you haven’t a clue what the money was spent on.
Step 3:
– Do the DIBMSU’s check.
– See if those WANTS align to the things that make you feel wealthy. Go back through the items with a red WANTS mark and ask:
• DOES IT BLOW MY SKIRT UP? Did this expense bring me an experience or thing on my wealthy living list? Anything that doesn’t absolutely blow your skirt up gets another red mark against it.
Step 4:
-Clear the decks and claim back your life.
– Go through each item with two red marks against it and commit to eliminating that spend from your life. You are aiming to cut out a minimum of 15% of your current spend.
– And Voila, you’ve not only found the additional money to break free from debt and get that ball roll-ing but you’ve discovered what actually blows your skirt up so you can have more of the things that make you feel wealthy now.