Living debt free is a highly desirable, although not always practical, goal. In today’s worsening economy, debt doesn’t just keep us living paycheck to paycheck, it can become a disaster, a future nuclear bomb to household budgeting. And Kevin Trudeau, in his latest blockbuster (he hopes), Debt Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About, claims to expose the dirty secrets of the financial sector.
As usual with Trudeau, everything is a huge plot. In his Natural Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About, he blamed the medical industry and pharmaceutical companies for covering up natural cures that are just as effective as pharmaceutical ones, but without the side effects.
We agree totally.
And he makes the same argument with his Debt Cures book … that is that financial institutions have lied and pushed us into debt for their own profits. It’s a ‘conspiracy’
The problem we have with Trudeau is that he makes all of us into VICTIMS. “Hey, I’m not responsible for my choices. Everything is the fault of the Big, Bad, Evil company”.
Bushwa!
This is the language of powerlessness and it removes any learning from the situation: It’s not your responsibility, the blame lies with the evil credit card company, bank and mortgage company.
We never learn if we don’t examine what we’ve done and what the consequences are. The fact is that if you are in debt, YOU are responsible; if living debt free is only a distant mirage, YOU made that choice.
This is NOT to say that anyone making these unwise choices is bad, evil or should feel guilty. It just means that we should learn to make better choices in the future.
Our culture teaches that debt is good. And sometimes it’s a wise financial choice. Borrowing to buy a home that will appreciate in value, and is cheaper than rent, can be a very wise decision. The trick is in knowing which assets will appreciate over time and are worth some debt – and which won’t. Reminder to all of us: the huge big screen TV and iPhone won’t grow in value. Going into debt for them is foolish.
Now that credit is tightening and the economy is in a downspiral, family budgeting becomes every more important. Getting out of debt should become a high priority and Debt Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About does have some helpful ideas for reducing or eliminating debt. He includes website URLs with free and helpful information, and although there are better books on living debt free, this is a fairly easy read and can get you started if you have a serious problem.
Forget the blame game and make your Living Debt Free Plan – then carry it out. Living paycheck to paycheck is not only a losing way to live, as the economy goes deeper and deeper into recession, it becomes ever-more dangerous.
Jim says
I could not agree more. We are all responsible for our debts. The only way out is to live debt free without credit cards.
Bankruptcy is a poor choice as it has too many long term side effects that can cripple you and your family.
Jim
http://www.bankruptcycreditcardinformation.com
Lisa says
I think having a credit card is okay as long as one can balance his bills. In my case, I do have a credit card but I swore I will never use it unless it is really an emergency. Credit cards can be useful during those times. I am proud that until now, I am still keeping my word.
Biz says
Hm, hadn’t heard about his latest book coming out. It’s really a different topic than his last one, wonder how much he knows about it. But you make a good point: our society might make it easy to go into debt, but in the end it’s still our responsibility.
jc says
The idea of a debt free society is fallacy. Credit cards are a great thing to have, it’s just when people get a hold of them and use them like it was free cash, that they become bad. Personally, I have had to build credit in order to progress in the free economy. It is an oxymoron but people need some debt to gain any tangible items.
Dennis Hester says
Before most of us can even attempt to think about “debt free living,” we are going to have to have major surgery — on our thinking. Larry Winget is one of my favorite authors and in his book, You’re Broke Because You Want to Be, “How to stop getting by and start getting ahead,” he says, “The fact that you don’t have any money is a result of all your other problems.” He goes on to say our biggest problem is not in our wallets or our bank accounts, but between our ears. Debt free living takes a tremendous amount of commitment and determination to never go where we don’t want to go — over our heads in debt.