Debt Pleasure Debt Pain

Our lifestyle usually determines for many of us our debt position. If you step back an examine your current financial state you’ll most likely see that your mountain of debt or hole you’re digging of getting deeper into debt comes down to pleasure or pain.

Pleasure or pain sound as if they are very different items or worlds – yet the two find themselves as close relatives. Let me explain!

Trying to “please” ourselves or loved ones with items which cripple our finances and flat cannot afford many times makes us feel better for a short moment.

Sure the exhilaration of showing off the new LCD 50 inch TV when friends come over for a BBQ makes you grin from ear to ear. The friends leave thinking you have it all together financially.

The “pleasure” soon fades away when the credit card bill shows up each month and the “good deal” you bragged about to the friends at the BBQ is eaten away with finance charges.

Having things is not bad. Buying them with planning is smart.

After the “pleasure” center has faded the “pain” begins. The pain of paying for months on end for a purchase that you should not have made!

Debt “Pain” comes in other ways. The “pain” of wanting to give to others but knowing you cannot afford it. We already mentioned the pain of monthly bills you face and cannot really pay for without some area of your life suffering.

Step back and look at your financial lifestyle. I’m sure (from my own experience) you can flip the pleasure/pain of debt upside down and enjoy it from a whole new perspective. Stopped for a moment and think about how much “pleasure” you and your family would experience by paying for items you really need and want in cash.

Imagine the “pleasure” you’ll experience when your head hits the pillow at night without the “pain” of waking up to mounting bills.

Over the pass few years I’ve worked on eliminating the “pain” in my life. This “pain” is not all about money. It’s been about changing my lifestyle by simplifying things. Eliminating the clutter in my life.

Clutter may be less bills, reduced paper, less commitments and a host of other things. This gives me more time to focus and enjoy the “pleasures” in my life.

The old saying of “How do you eat an elephant? It starts with one bite at a time” holds true for us all. Start today looking at the “pain” in your life and the steps you can take to get rid of that “pain” or the clutter that causes the pain.

Here’s Some Action Steps for Less Pain and More Pleasure

• Call the credit card company to reduce the interest on your credit card
• Consolidate all your credit cards onto one card that gives you benefits like the
• Clean out the garage of all the items you don’t use or really need and take them to Goodwill
• Organize your bills

Here’s one I did just the other day. I contacted a credit union where I had an account and closed it out. The account was one my parents opened for me as a kid years ago. The account had approximately $100 in it. The money will go into an account I actively use for saving.

Now I no longer face the “pain” of opening put another piece of mail, filing it, need to change addresses if I move and I experience the “pleasure” of consolidating one more thing in my life.

How about you? Start eating that elephant today!