Читать книгу Sort Your Money Out - Glen James - Страница 20

You must, must, musssttt decide and agree with yourself (and maybe your partner, if you have one) that from here on in there will be no more consumer debt in your life. You need to be resolute. Starting to get out of debt will be close to impossible if the debt is continuing to grow or if you go for a couple of weeks or months and then you're back at the checkout with your plastic or buy-now-pay-later app, ready to throw it around like in a terrible 1990s comedy movie.

The reason you must first decide that enough is enough is because it's honestly a waste of time and energy if you start trying to get out of debt and when the next flashy item appears you're straight back to using debt to make a purchase. That's because you're not disgusted enough with yourself yet (hehehe, I'm remembering myself before I was done with consumer debt!).

I like to think about mindset and philosophical things when it comes to consumerism. In Australia, we have it pretty good — it's not as crazy as the USA, which has a hyperconsumerism-motivated society (though I think this is slowly changing). I once saw an average house in mid-west suburbia (Columbus, Ohio) where a guy was riding his ride-on mower in the front yard — most likely purchased on finance. It's probably rare to see someone in Australia riding a lawnmower in suburbia — although my dad purchased one because he got it ‘cheap’. Okay, Dad. At least he paid cash (and went halves with a neighbour — ha)!

Many people in the world (approximately 9.6 per cent of the world’s population) live on under US$2 per day. I sourced this figure from a book by Peter Singer called The Life You Can Save. Now, compared to the poverty and limited means that the majority of the world's population relies on daily, looking at the consumerism machine that our privileged, Western society celebrates makes me think that enough is enough. I want out. I need out. I think about how the rest of the world lives and compare the fact that I have borrowed money, paid for the pleasure to borrow it (interest) and then consumed an item of luxury — and I feel ashamed of myself and our society.

You need to reach a point where you decide that debt is negative, self-limiting and that it should have no place in your life from now on. There is no point starting to get out of debt unless you are aware of the fact that debt is a terrible thing that has not really brought you any blessings this far.

It is perhaps more important now than ever before to be resolute in your philosophy around consumer debt because technology has advanced to the point where we can enter into debt more quickly and easily than ever — just one click on ‘install app’ and the cycle restarts. Conversely, it has never been so easy to invest for the future and manage your money with the use of technology.

If you are truly not at a point where you are serious about stopping your debt cycle, I suggest you stop reading now and get on with your day. Don't waste your time reading this book (hehehe).

Everything we do in personal finance and building wealth is based on the fundamental principles of spending less than we earn, having a good cashflow system and investing for the future.

The reason I harp on about the importance of making a personal resolution to no longer have debt is because I have seen too many people put so much energy into paying off their debt, then enjoying a couple of months without debt and loving life, and then running back into debt with ‘all the extra money they have’. It's just not worth the huge effort in trying to clean up your act if you are only going to relapse.

I hope that by the end of this chapter you'll be ready to cut up the credit cards, close the loan accounts and delete the buy-now-pay-later apps.

If and when you reach the point in your life where you are ready to say goodbye to debt, keep yourself accountable and share the resolution by filming yourself cutting up the cards (or do a screen record of yourself deleting those apps) and tag me on Instagram! @mymillennialmoney