Too often, debt can be overwhelming. No matter how hard you try to keep up with payments, another round of bills piles on and you feel you’ll never get free of debt.
That’s the time when you need to take a close look at your spending habits, and then decide what to do about improving them. The most obvious that need to be reduced or totally eliminated include the following five trouble=makers:
1. Smoking: If, despite all the health warnings, you’re still hooked on cigarettes, this is the time to consider breaking the habit. The average two-pack-a-day smoker spends as much as $150 a month on cigarettes. As well as improving your health by dropping the deadly habit, consider how much that money can help you get out of debt.
2. Impulse buying: We’re too often easy marks for TV ads about big cars, posh vacations and other luxuries. Of course, once hooked by the debt, we wonder why we bought the stuff. If you want to get out of debt, skip impulse buying, whether it’s for a $30 hunk of jewelry or a $30,000 gas guzzler.
3. Booze: It may not kill you as quickly as cigarettes, unless you do it while driving, but drinking can be a very costly luxury. For example, that extra mixed drink or wine with your dinner out can add $10 to your bill. Also, an evening at the local pub may cost $50. By cutting back on your boozing, you can save several hundred dollars annually that could have cut down on some of that debt, and maybe improve your health.
4. Credit card: The little pieces of plastic are magic wands to many people. Just by flashing them, there will be dinners, drinks, new clothing, expensive jewelry and weeks in luxury resorts. They’re lulled into a false sense of getting something for free, until reality hits when they get the bills at the end of the month.
Then, if the credit card bills are not paid on time, the interest adds up and and debts grow higher. Reduce your debt by getting out of the habit of using your credit card too often.
5. Improve yourself: Maybe a basic reason many people never get out of debt is that they have the lazy habit of accepting mediocrity. They’re satisfied just to be employed, do the daily grind and go home. You’d have less worries about debt if you’d continually find ways to advance your career.
Find opportunities for promotions and bonuses at your current job, or look beyond for a better opportunity elsewhere. Additionally, if an advanced degree can help your career, investigate how to accomplish it. If debt is always a problem, earning more money may be the most sensible solution.
There are some bad habits that contribute to the annoying situation when people find themselves constantly in debt. In each case, with firmly applied self-control and determination to succeed, those habits can be easily eliminated.