Dealing with Your Debt

Posted On: 2005-12-10Length: 14:13

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Hi, this is Joan, and this is episode 20 of The Prosperity Show. Thanks for tuning in. Our main site is prosperityplace.com where you can find lots of information about improving your relationship with money and yourself. I did skip Wednesday's episode. I usually do two a week, one on Wednesday and one on Saturday. But on Wednesday instead of doing a podcast I was having eye surgery. I detached a retina, now I'm kind of walking around with my head down which I have to do for a few more days. I'm fine, but my eye's just a little weird, and probably will have a little trouble seeing for about four to six weeks. They put this gas bubble in there. But it's so wonderful that they have these techniques and we can save our sight.

So today we're going to continue the discussion that we started last time about dealing with your debt. And what we talked about last time was raising your awareness about your debting patterns and being very aware to whom you owe what, and just embracing your debt as real, not avoiding it. Getting over any vagueness you have about it so that you can actually face it. You can't get rid of it until you really know what it is. And if you're like most people who are in debt, you've probably been in debt in and out, or steadily for an extended period of time. And so what we're talking about is changing some long-standing ingrained behaviors. And there are two ways to begin to approach your debt. One is with your behaviors, where you actually consciously say, "ok I'm going to do something different." And as you're doing that you deal with the feelings that come up as a result of having to make these changes. And I guess the first thing you have to do is to start out with a decision. You have to decide whether you really want to get out of debt. It's not an easy decision. It's not, "gee I'd really like to get out of debt, I'm going to do something." It's "I see that I've been in debt for quite a while, and I have to make some serious life changes, and I'm willing to deal with whatever discomfort comes up as a result of making those changes." You have to commit yourself to the process of getting out of debt, and set a very strong intention of doing so within a reasonable amount of time. I was talking to someone the other day who was $20,000 in debt and her income is about $35,000 a year at this point. And she said I want to be out of debt in six months. Well, that's clearly unrealistic. That unless she has an inheritance coming, or she can find a way of generating a large inflow of cash, suddenly she's not going to get out of debt. Now what happens when people make the commitment to get out of debt, very often...