Pay now in cash or pay later with your life

That sounds like a bad line from a really bad gangster movie – ‘Pay now in cash or pay later with your life’. The not so funny thing is that a lot of people in debt are faced with something approaching this attitude from their creditors. To be honest creditors don’t care about you, they don’t care where you are in your life or what you are going through. They just want their money back with interest and will go to great lengths to get it.

The point about paying with your life relates to the fact that creditors will haunt you for the rest of your life if you do not settle with them. They will make a point of putting a big stain on your credit record. So when you get back on your feet, because YOU WILL get back on your feet, there is a chance that your past credit mistakes will continue to linger.

So where does that leave you now, today? If you are in debt then start looking to the future and how you want it to be. Start building that future today through your spending habits. Start paying in cash now for everything. If you don’t have the cash then don’t buy it unless it’s an absolute necessity. Get your own back on your creditors – starve them of future business. Resolve to yourself and say

I am no longer going to use my credit cards or take new loans because of the way I have been treated. I will pay you what I owe you but do not expect to ever receive any business from me again - ever. From now on I am operating a ‘cash only’ system and I am determined to make it work. So please move out of my way.

Hit them where it hurts. Give them back their money – exactly what you owe them but nothing more. Pass no more business their way and see how long it is before they start sending you ‘special offers’.

Cash is king – cash for necessities is king – everything else is just junk. If you have mountains of debt and have been sustaining your lifestyle with easy credit then the switch to using cash only will be a huge shock. Have no doubt about it, the cash only system will cripple your current lifestyle and send you back to what many might regard as the stone age. But you know what? That’s a good thing. If you can accept the challenge of going cash only then you have won half the battle.

Cash only lifestyle – will life really be that bad?

Yes it will be that bad. Realistically if you are in debt then you should only be spending money on the key necessities – food, shelter and transport and using cash to do so. After that everything else is up for serious debate and unless you have medical issues then everything else will be shot down. If you don’t have the cash then you will have to do without it. If you really want something then save for it. You will appreciate it even more if you do.

The key to motivating yourself is always to keep your eye on the prize. The prize is to be debt free. Put post-its of your goal all around your home and in your car. Remember that you need to keep pushing and moving forward on this. The end justifies the means so if being debt free means that you live like a monk for six months then so be it. I can’t make the point strongly enough that you need to change in order to become debt free. Becoming debt free won’t happen if you continue on your current path of overspending and not budgeting. Change needs to happen and the only person who can make these changes happen is you. I can only point out the areas you need to look at and offer words of encouragement but I can’t do the work for you.