Be Debt Free – Clear Your Debt Burden

Debt is the one thing guaranteed to keep someone in poverty. Debt is something most people cannot afford, yet the vast majority of people are in masses of debt, why?

Following the austere years of World War Two, people were fed up with the ration books, with the make do and mend mentality.

The 1950’s saw a big increase in the buy now pay later sales tactics, leading to mounting debt and burdening families for years to come.

Escalating through the 1960’s, people saw their neighbours getting new furniture, all the latest new fangled mod cons, not really knowing how it was to be paid for, they just knew they had to keep up and have these things too.

But the 1970’s saw some pay back for the ever increasing debt balloon – the balloon burst. Escalating oil prices, miners strikes, led to three day working weeks, unfortunately I’m old enough to remember the regular power cuts, reading by candle light (if you could even get candles), no television or radios (games consoles and the like hadn’t even been invented then so we didn’t moan we couldn’t use them), we didn’t even have the luxury of a battery operated radio.

Then, ‘BOOM’, the 1980’s were upon us with all the excesses of the rapid rise in wealth, share ownership, but very soon - ‘BUST’. It soon fell apart and everything went into freefall, mass riots, repossessions, another miners strike (although this time there would be no victory) mass job losses. But, who was to blame? Lenders wanting to make a quick buck? Or the borrowers for over extending themselves with debt without really having a clue of how they were going to repay it?

That last paragraph related to the 1980’s, but could equally apply to today, the 2008/2009 period is equally, if not worse, bleak and we find ourselves again in recession. But whoever you blame, whatever the cause, we are here, we are in it and no one is coming to our rescue, we have to find our own way out!

The answer is simple: we have to ‘Live within our means’

Until next time: what does living within my ‘means’ mean?