38. Get Out of Debt

There’s a good chance that your parents, like mine, were survivors of the Great Depression. Throughout their lives my folks had one inviolate rule when it came to finances: If they didn’t have the cash in hand, they didn’t buy it. With the exception of the mortgage on their home, they never had a debt in their lives. They simply refused to take advantage of the post–World War II buy now–pay later mentality that has made us a nation of consumers and debtors. Whenever they needed a new piece of furniture or a major appliance, they took money from their “contingency” fund, or, if the fund was depleted, they waited until they had set the money aside by saving a little each month.

Many people from our parents’ and our parents’ parents’ generation lived that way. Considering the fact that debt is one of the leading causes of emotional and psychological stress in our lives, many of us would do well to live that way today.

If you’re one of the more than fifty million Americans for whom credit card or installment debt has become a problem, there are a couple of things you can do:

1. You can take steps to get out of debt on your own.

This means sitting down and figuring out exactly how much you owe, then setting up a plan so that you can pay it off as quickly and as methodically as possible, even though it may take several years to do it. It also means making a promise to yourself to stay out of debt in the future. This solution is doable, but it requires discipline, determination, and a total commitment to getting out from under the stress caused by debt.

2. If you suspect you’re in over your head and you’re beginning to think you’ll never get out on your own, you can get help.

Jerold Mundis, in his excellent book, How to Get out of Debt, Stay out of Debt & Live Prosperously (Bantam Books, available in paperback), offers a time-tested system for getting out of debt. Based on the principles used in Debtors Anonymous, the program he outlines has been used successfully for years to free thousands of people from a life of debt.

This solution also requires discipline, determination, and commitment, but the book provides a proven, step-by-step program to help you along the way.

I can’t promise you that getting out of debt will be easy, but it will certainly simplify your life.