Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Illusion of Debt : Why We Should Avoid Credit as a Life Style.

                 I am getting ready to start an online website called The Wealthy Step. As an American, I have an entrepreneur drive regardless of economic times. I am willing to take some risk to overcome economic adversity. Since now, I have this website done professionally for me getting everything in order, using WordPress plugins with a good web host server and other tools to get things just right. I am almost ready to launch and give it a shot. I am a firm believer in the risk takers always win regardless of all the string of failures over time they may encounter. The drive to succeed will pay off eventually.

                 The money I invested is my money I saved. When I do the real launch doing the promotion driving visitors to my website. I decided to look for opt in email addresses and a way to drive traffic to my new website. I came across this Canadian company promising 50,000 visitors to the new website if I buy their service. I went through the video presentation, and then I had a video conference after I viewed the clip. I went to a chat room were the man tried to sell me packages with all these bonuses for $99.95. I told not until this weekend would I have the money. I was just shopping around. Well they wanted me to use credit. I said I do not believe in credit. They had a fit because I told them it is the beginning of the month and just paid all my bills. I am tapped out. They most likely lost my sale because of that.

                If I decide to buy the service. I will use my own money. They preferred I use credit. I backed out of that service because they were starting to sell like high-pressure salespersons. They liked credit as long he got the money from me by any means possible. He would not like credit if he had to pay 30 to 50 percent compound interest rates. I choose not to go into debt. I carry a credit card for emergency purposes only just in case of a major car repair or something along those lines happens. Nevertheless, I use credit sparingly. If use it for a major car repair or something of immediate need. I will pay it off as fast as I can making a few personal sacrifices if necessary to pay off the balance. I can be done if a person has the discipline to it.

                I live around people I like to call the phony snobs. They look at my furniture and see it is not the modern day look and my car that is not new. I have a flat screen TV, Direct TV with a decent computer. It is not new to the latest style or technology. My car is not new and my house is a home that looks warm and welcoming to those who visit me because I have a nice home atmosphere. The nice thing is everything in my home. I own free and clear. I owe no money to rent to own places. I have no credit card bills or no car payments. I live pretty content and have that peace of mind that goes with it.

               Some of the people who look down on me because I am not into latest style of the day because it not modern as theirs. These credit junkies base their self-esteem on all this extravagant stuff. I deal with these phony snobs by laughing at them. If you ever went over to one of these people's houses, it is not a happy home at all. The atmosphere is tense regardless how nice it looks; they may have to big screen plasma TV, with a nice walnut cabinet entertainment center. Kids have the latest X-box. I will see an Escalade and a Prius in the driveway. The place will looks nice. Since all this brought on debt. The couples are always fighting over finances because they are always broke. They have a lifestyle that is propped up by credit and debt. Even if their credit cards are maxed out always. Once there is a little balance again. They will max it out again. They are not rich, as they like to make us think they are. They are just stupid.

               For me I am a little patient. If I go to the rent-a-center. I will buy the repossessed furniture after dumb couple like the ones I know. When they cannot make the weekly payments anymore. The Store will repossess it. Since the store needs room for new inventory. If they know you have cash in your hand. They will be more then reasonable. They will be happy to get rid if it for a good price so it will not take up anymore space in the backroom.  With a little upholstery repair or cleaning. It is good as new and I get a very cheap price paying cash.

             I knew a couple that was once married. They spent close to $70,000 on their wedding. Honeymoon and all on money they do not have. They paid for it all on credit. The payments paying for this wedding was the very thing that caused them to divorce. Bankruptcy was the only way out in the end after the husband was given the debt by the courts in the divorce settlement.. Unnecessary debt causes strain in marriages and many divorces. It is better to stay out of debt once married and learn to save money instead as a couple collecting precious metals instead putting money in a bank account where the money junkies will steal it.

              Thanks to the Federal Reserve System, we lived in a debt culture with easy money for so long. This influx of easy credit for everything has really starting to take its toll on the economy. When I learned the truth about credit cards and how they make their money. I stay away from them as much as possible. I have one I rarely use. Credit Card companies do not loan you the money. Like the Federal Reserve, the money is created out of thin air by our signature. Then we pay high interest rates on the money created out of nothing. A big swindle, we pay in usury. What we need is a jubilee wiping out all private debt once the monetary system goes back to a commodity-based currency. No more easy credit anymore issued by a private central bank. People will learn to save money and manage their finances better when there is a more honest money system..

              Back in 1933, to go into debt was a taboo. People did not use credit to buy a car or a house. They did not go into debt for new furniture. They saved money for it. I would wonder why people who lived through the great depression were very frugal with their personal finances. They had no debt at all. The house and car they own free and clear. They lived out their retirement years not being slaves to debt. It is because they lived in a time that every penny saved was crucial. I pray we go back to a culture of saving and investing moving away from debt and spending.

            Having a private central bank called the Federal Reserve System is a moral hazard because it artificially created a life style where people use credit to accommodate their lifestyle instead of saving money. They wind up paying more money in interest rates and finance charges where it will cost three to four times as much then the purchase they made using credit after looking back seeing how much money was wasted on interest charges. It would be easier saving money and not wasting money enriching the money junkies with these high interest rates and finance charges. Debt is a vicious cycle people must break free of or they will be slaves to it. If a married couple is frugal with their finances staying out of debt. Chances are they will have nice quality time without the stress of unnecessary debt. Credit kills good marriages and destroys families. We must reverse the trend now if our society is going to survive.

             The concept of using debt to elevate a lifestyle is an illusion. People are not any wealthier having all these nice things with the latest style furniture, electronic devices and new cars shows we have a poverty of values when it comes to money because they use credit to acquire all this stuff.. People need to start getting out of debt and stop trying to keep up with the Jones. It is an illusion to use debt. The best decision is not to go into debt where we are free to invest and save. Once we do that, then we have control over our lives because we are not debt slaves anymore. That is my choice taking The Wealthy Step back to sanity. Do you agree?

7 comments:

  1. Sometimes I get embarrassed driving up to city council meetings in my 1990 Oldsmobile; the sun is starting to kill the paint and the upholstery. But I own it; bought it second-hand with a few thousand miles when some 'wealthy' folks were trading up. I live in an apartment now so I can't wax it and don't have the budget to get it waxed more than once a year. Still - what little I have goes to keeping the engine in top shape.

    I refused to play the game back when refinancing was Human Resources answer to 2 percent raises. Sold the house. But the kids were nearly grown, and now I made it this far.

    What I have, I own. It ain't much but it is mine. I'm prepared to scale it down to a backpack if that's what's necesary.

    It would have been nice if the American Dream were real but it never was.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In the case of a Debt Jubilee, do the debtors get to keep the stuff bought with fiat debt/currency?

    I don't own house and I am not in debt to anyone for anything. Been waiting for this thing to blow for sometime now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great article.....everyone needs to read this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Finally SOME Americans are waking from slumber. Paying interest to the wealthy makes them very happy, indeed.If you do not have enough money to buy a house, try Sharia financing from an Islamic bank. No interest, because they do take risk in buying a home just like you do. So if the price of it sinks. The bank will re aprise it, and both your payment (rent) will go down. And that is all you pay, rent for the portion of money you do not own, and if you want to pay the oustanding amount at certain stage, you add couple of hundred to your "rent" every month, but you do not have to do that. If the price goes up, you make money and so does the bank according to the percentage that you own. And you do not have to be a muslim to see them in an Islamic bank.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ridiculous. Credit is a financial tool, like any other. Would you rather have $10,000 under your mattress to cover emergencies, or a credit card?

    It's a tool. A powerful tool, that demands caution in its use. If you have credit, put it to work for you. Use it wisely. Don't be a slave to it.

    But fearing credit is a ridiculous piece of Luddite nonsense. And the evidence of that is right in this article. The author missed out on an opportunity to make money because he feared "credit" like some evil bogeyman.

    If he used credit responsibly, he could be in that business this very minute. But instead of a money making business, he has a blog post and no business. Sure showed them!

    ReplyDelete
  6. We live so long, the culture of easy money in debt. All this influx of easy credit really began its economic impact. When I learned the truth about credit cards, and how they earned money. I stay away from them as much as possible.

    Debt Management

    ReplyDelete
  7. You have a time machine: you can send $1,000,000 in gold bars back to the year 1890 then dig it up in 2012. Or, you can send back $1,000,000 in paper money then dig it up in 2012?

    This is not about time machines, or antique paper money.

    That gold from 1890 is worth what? 50mil? 100Mil?
    The same in paper money is worth $10,000? less

    Credit is based on paper money and usury. It's a scam.

    You collapsed the economy and made America a JOKE on the world scene. You sure showed them.

    ReplyDelete