Stephanie Bates, Negosentro |
Getting The Monkey Off Your Back
Debt is slavery, and you need to free yourself. But outside emancipating yourself from the country of your birth, what can you do? And as well, doing so won’t necessarily eliminate your debt. Especially as the world becomes globally aimed, resources exist where debt collection can transcend borders.
No, your best bet is to work off the debt; but that’s a tall order, especially if you have a limited budget. What can you do? Following are several tips you can use to help manage your debt and get out of it, as well as resources for when emergencies backhand you off the “wagon” of your independence plan.
For example, If you need cash in a pinch, there are options; like Swoosh.com, who declares: “Whatever the reason, we’re here to get you the extra cash you need—and fast.”
Unfortunately, borrowing money sometimes becomes a necessary reality for many people already under debt as well; here you can read about it; according to the site: “Most people at some point in their lives are going to run into a time when they need to borrow some money to pay for something—whether it’s medical expenses, an unexpected car repair, something breaks at home…the list goes on.”
Don’t Get Deeper Into Debt
All that being said, one of your best bets when it comes to shrugging debt is not adding any more to what you already owe. You want to find options which don’t involve such situations if at all possible. Additionally, cut out your discretionary spending. No more fast food, no more gas station snacks, no more high-dollar coffees.
Park up the block and save yourself the parking fee, avoid costly garages. Carry around brown paper bags so you don’t have to pay bag taxes. Shop as cheaply as you possibly can while retaining your health, and prepare meals at home—you can make better coffee that way, anyhow; and learn some valuable life skills if you don’t already have them.
Drink less. Smoke less. Ride your bicycle as much as possible to save on gas. This makes you more healthy and more energetic as well. Clean up your diet, and get on a proper sleep schedule. Once you’ve got that all justified against your existing schedule, your next step should be to find free time and devote that to secondary income.
Online you can find a lot of work, surprisingly. You’ve just got to know what to look for, and where. You can write little blogs and articles for money, you can complete small specialized tasks, you can do graphic design, and you could even start a lucrative YouTube channel if you’re willing to commit a year to something.
Your Payback Schedule
Consider this schedule: you’re up at 8, you’re working by 9, you’re done by 6. You workout until eight, get home at eight thirty, spend two hours working online, finish by ten thirty, and have an hour and a half to kill that evening before you sleep for eight full hours. Meanwhile you make your own coffee and meals, and ride a bike the most you can.
If you bought a coffee a day annually, at just $3, that’s $1,095 a year. If you spend $5 a day on fast food, that’s $1,825 a year. If you can cut $50 from your fuel expenses monthly, that’s $600 a year. You’ve just saved $3,520. Keep it up for five years, and that’s $17,600. Shoot, you can almost finance a collegiate degree just by spending more effectively.
And that’s not to mention the increase that would come from $20 a day through two hours of online work through the work week; that’s another $5,200 a year, for $26,000 total. Altogether you’re looking at $43,600 in five years just from supplementing your income and cutting down unnecessary cost.
Live beneath your means. Eat more healthy, conserve fuel. Look at energy. If you can save $5k, you can install a solar energy system that will likely make it so you save hundreds of dollar annually on utility bills, and even get a tax break. Think outside the box, and work as diligently as possible to get your life back on track.
