This is particularly applicable in the current economic climate.

Where there are any assets that you could temporarily do without, consider selling them, along with the attached debt, for a price that a buyer would be willing to pay.  This may take some negotiation, and the paperwork will have to legally transfer the responsibility for the debt over to the buyer.  I suggest obtaining legal advice before you enter into such an arrangement.

There is also the valuing of the asset at market value.  It is best to pay the fee of an objective third party to do this, in order to save yourself potential problems later.  The relatively small fee is worth it (and it’s tax deductible).

The other alternative is to sell the asset, and use the proceeds to pay off the debt.  This gives you a clean slate and you can focus on making money to buy a similar asset outright, without any debt attached (depending on the asset, it might be a significantly reduced amount of debt rather than debt free).

Make your decision and stick to the result.  That is, once you have the cash to repay the debt, make sure you do just that.  There’s no point in turning one complicated situation into a bigger complication.

Remember, there are always options, and no matter what the economic climate there are always the right buyers (those that are willing to pay fair market price).

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We all have stuff lying around our homes that we no longer need.  There is also the saying that someone’s trash is another person’s treasure, so don’t underestimate the potential value sitting under your roof.  I once had an interesting experience while selling a street directory on Ebay.  I received a lot of interest, and as it turns out, there is a whole community of people who collect old street directories, and they’re quite valuable!

Selling these unwanted items on Ebay is a good way to may extra cash that can go to repay debt you have.

Take a look around your home and create a pile of ‘stuff’ that you can sell.  Before you actually put your item up for sale, do some research first on other similar items, to get a feel for what they’re selling for, and how the people are “marketing” them.

Very importantly – make sure you use the proceeds to pay off debt!!

Here are my steps for selling items on Ebay:

1. Sign up for an Ebay account – remember the User ID name that you choose will be the name associated with you as a seller, so choose a name that won’t offend buyers.

2. Once in your Ebay account, go to the top of screen and click on “Sell”.  A drop down menu will appear – select “Start Selling Now”.

3. The first thing you must do is to choose a category that suits what you’re selling.  You can either enter some of the key features of the item and Ebay will provide you will some possible categories.  Or, you can select the category yourself.

4. If you feel it will provide a much greater chance of obtaining a sale, you can pay for choosing a sub-category.  For household items I rarely do this.  Continue to the next page.

5. Now is where you get a chance to test out your copywriting skills.  There may be some preset questions for you to answer, and then you get to sell people on the BENEFITS of what you’re selling.

6. Upload a picture to the Gallery (I always do this, as it increases your “hit” ratio).

7. Select the length of your auction – that is really a personal preference.  I’ve tried all different lengths and haven’t found a great deal of difference between any of them, in terms of the effect they have on obtaining a sale.

8. Set your starting price – keep in mind you may only get 1 bid, so be prepared to take this as the final price for your item.  Add a decent amount for postage – remembering you also have to buy the bag the item will be mailed in.

9. Buy It Now is also a possibility. You pay extra for this, but it is an option you may want to consider.

10. As far as payment methods go, I find most people like to use PayPal.  However, a select few prefer bank transfer, so I’d suggest offering it as an option.

11. Continue to the next page and review your listing.

12. List Your Item, and you’re done!

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Being in debt can also be a habit.  Thankfully, habits can be broken by being replaced with a different, more constructive habit.

There are many schools of thought on how long it takes to break or make a habit.  I’ve found the consensus to be 30 days.  So, the task is to work on replacing your habit of being in debt, with another habit.  As with most things, the first step is mindset.  We’ve already dealt with that in previous posts, so I won’t go into it again here.

What action leads to the result of debt?  There are likely to be quite a few, but let’s start with spending.  If the habit of spending is what’s leading you to being in debt, why not replace it with the habit of not spending?

Start by taking a look at your credit card statement for the last few months.  What items on there aren’t absolutely necessary – be it the item itself, or the exclusivity of the item?

For 30 days, focus on not spending on items that aren’t absolutely necessary (i.e. food, rent/mortgage payments, petrol, public transport, etc.).  Once you get out of the habit of constantly spending, you will find it easier to moderate your non-essential spending.

I’m certainly not saying to never spend another dollar on items that aren’t absolutely necessary.  It’s important to you get your spending under control and take charge of the situation.

At the end of your 30 days, look back on how easy or difficult the process was.  It might even be worth keeping a “money diary” through the process, so you can more effectively track your progress.  What have you got to lose?

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At its most fundamental, in order to grow your reserves of money, you shouldn’t spend more than you earn.  This is a basic concept and if all else fails, will always mean that you end up with more than you started with.

We are all creatures of habit.  If you are constantly in debt and feel as though money is a struggle, take a look at your past 3 months of incomings and outgoings.  Do you see a pattern forming?

There is always something that comes up and unless you make the conscious decision to break the pattern, it will keep repeating itself.  This is closely linked to your view of money that you learned as a child.

This is not to say that you need to go into analysis paralysis with every financial decision that you make.  Just be aware that there may be a pattern, and as soon as you become aware of it and realise you are in control of changing the situation, you have more power than you started out with.

Again, at the basic level, think about how easy it is to spend money.  Also, credit cards make it so easy to buy everything we want now, without thinking about whether we could have waited until we really had the money to buy the item.

It’s natural to be impatient and want something straight away, but believe it or not, you will actually value the item more if you wait until you can actually afford it outright.

This is all commonsense, but it’s good to be reminded sometimes…

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Guilt and regret belong in the past – leave them there.  What’s done is done.

T Harv Ecker, in his book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, says, “The fact is that your character, your thinking and your beliefs are a critical part of what determines the level of your success”.

If you’re in a position that you don’t want to be, find role models you are, and learn from them.  There are so many great people out there – learn from their triumphs and challenging experiences (they have all had them).  Their stories are fascinating, and it will show you what’s really possible, and the mindset it took to get there.

We all have a money mindset and as with everything, we can determine what our mindset is – it’s not always easy, but it can be done if you truly want it.

One of my favourite stories in this arena is Richard Branson’s “Business Stripped Bare”.  While not directly related to debt reduction, it goes through what process Mr Branson went through in order to build the Virgin businesses into what they are today.

Donald Trump is another worthwhile source of information.  He built a business empire, only to over-extend himself with debt and lose it all, and then some.  He not only recovered from this, he is even more wealthy than before.  These are the people to watch and learn from.

For truly mind changing concepts, pick up a copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think And Grow Rich”.  While the language is a product of the time the book was written in (1937), the messages contained within this book are powerful.

Here is an important sentence from this book, which I want you to really think about:

“The turning point in the lives of those who succeed, usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves””.

If you’re experiencing a period of crisis, what “other self” will you find?

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The first step is calculating how much debt you actually have, and the sources of it.  It’s not a pleasant process, but extremely necessary.  Make a list of what debt you have and with whom the debt is sitting with.

If it’s predominantly on credit cards, you can often open a new credit card and the transferred balances incur a lower rate of interest for an introductory period.

Keep your eye out for these types of deals, as they will accelerate your debt reduction process.

A very important aspect to this however is to then CANCEL all those credit cards you previously had balances with.  Remove the temptation.  You will feel lighter, and it will also improve your future credit prospects.

Likewise, if you have a home loan, and there is some equity in your property, you may be able to increase your home loan to pay off all your credit cards.  The interest rate on a home loan is generally substantially lower than credit card interest rates, and it also simplifies the repayment process, as you only have one bill to pay off at the end of the month.

Again, the important caveat to this is cancelling the cards that have been paid out.  Just keep one (or possibly two) credit cards, and ensure they have a low credit limit.

This is also not a strategy to repeat every other month.  Be disciplined.  Do it once and learn from your spending mistakes.

Getting into debt can happen without you really notice it, so take steps to reduce the debt and move on.  There’s no need to dwell on the process and spiral into a depressive state.  This may sound easier in theory then practice, but we’ve all been there at some point or another.  Learn from the lesson and don’t let a state of debt define you.

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Unless you receive an unexpected financial windfall, you will need to approach reducing your level of debt in the same way.

To start with you need a plan for reducing your debt.  Pick the debt that has the highest rate of interest charged on it, and focus more of your money on paying that off.

Break down your earnings in terms of how much you can use to service each different source of debt that you have, and allocate more to the source you’re focusing on.

If the amounts aren’t going down as quickly as you would like don’t be discouraged.  Remember, it’s a step by step process.

Don’t overwhelm yourself during the process.  Once you’ve calculate all your debt, there’s no need to constantly refer back to the amount.  Set your payment plan in motion and then refer back after a few months.

Remember to budget in some fun spending money, otherwise, if you deny yourself for too long, you may end up caving in during a moment of weakness and set yourself back further than you want to.

It’s not about being perfect, it’s about getting things back on track.

This may sound very “touchy feely”, but it’s designed to put things into perspective.  If you’re serious about reducing your debt, then you need to take stock of the “big picture”, and understand what you truly want from a financial perspective.

So, take it a day at a time, and be realistic in your repayment schedule.

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By that I mean, they are very fond of their car and really take care of it.  I say, many and not most deliberately, because all the women in my family, although we love our cars, we aren’t fanatical about them. However, it is just as important to watch the expenses you incur in looking after your car as are the expenses when grocery shopping or any other part of your financial outlays.

So here are 9 simple, effective steps to owning a car

1.  The initial outlay when purchasing a car needs to be thoroughly investigated and kept within your financial circumstances 

I’ve seen children of friends buy a car because, “I’ve always wanted this car”, when it was really not prudent to buy that car given their financial circumstances.

2.  Pay cash.  A car depreciates in value before you’ve even driven it out of the car yard. Buy within your means.  You can always upgrade when you have saved for that purpose, not when you have the money, when you have saved for that purpose.  There is a difference, isn’t there?

3.  Watch what extras you buy.  It’s not necessary to have a spoiler, hood scoop, bras, fender flares, pocket fenders, personalised license plate, fender trims and so on.  Especially on the day you buy your car, be strong against sales pitches.

4.  No need to buy premium petrol.  There are good ‘green’ petrols available today with increasingly larger amounts of ethanol content which do the job well

5.  Use engine cleaning products when you have an oil change.  Not only do these products, such as Neways’ “Roil”  clean out your engine, plugs, joins, etc, but you also end up using much less fuel per kilometer.

6.  Check out alternative excellent car service providers and mechanics rather than the brand dealer’s facilities, you’ll find that the costs of car maintenance are substantially decreased.

7.  Wash your own car.  It may be easier to have someone else wash your car, but if you are trying to get yourself financially out of the mud, think of all the $20 plus you are saving when you wash and detail your car yourself

8.  Make sure your log book is up-to-date so that you avoid potentially major repairs in the future 

9.  When a tyre needs replacing, rotate the others.  There is no need to buy more than the one tyre that needs replacing at that point

Okay, just 9 simple, effective ways to keep on top of money spent looking after one of your major investments, your car, even if it is an investment that will always run at a loss, unless you own a vintage car, a collector’s item.

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It’s a well-known fact that, our sense of smell has the quickest and most direct line to our brain, and so, when we smell all those tantalising aromas, our brain says, “I must have that.”

Even the most disciplined buyer can be tempted to ignore the well-thoughtout shopping list. You then end up spending at least a quarter as much again as you had planned to spend.

Here are 6 grocery shopping tips to stay on track

1.  Write your shopping list in a strong colour pen, such as red, and on a proper piece of paper, not some crappy piece of torn-off piece.  This gives your list power and prominence.  It’s a psychological tool for your conscious mind to dominate when your subconscious mind tries to falsely please you by getting you to indulge in something it thinks you want.

2.  Be forearmed with some appropriate money-saving coupons.  These are still very popular on the back of payment dockets and as promotional tools.

3.  Check out the ingredients on home-brand or store-brand items and if they have all the healthy ingredients that you want and none of the chemical ones to avoid, then try one that product. If then taste is also good, then you can buy it again another time.

4.  Get familiar with prices of the different supermarkets and specialty stores such as fruit and vegetables you can easily access.  For example, it might be better to shop at a specialty shop or a farmer’s market than at a large chain store. 

Speaking of fresh fruit and veggies, some large supermarkets actually put sulphur substances into the water they spray on them to keep them fresh looking.  Not good – see ** below.

Shopping at your local farmer’s market can be a great way to shop for fresh fruit and produce. It’s also great for socialising with like-minded people, you save money and it’s eco-friendly.  The food has travelled less distance to get to you, thus saving on fuel.

5.  If it suits your shopping style and/or the size of your family,  buy in bulk less frequently

Buying in bulk can be a great way to save money. If you have the space, the money, and a large family buying in bulk is a great option, not only to save money, but also to save money on your grocery bill and save time as well.

6.  Use cash. Estimate the amount of money you will need to pay for your grocery shopping and leave credit cards at home.  If you have to, put products back if you haven’t enough money on you, they will always be there at that price again

Make sure however, that you follow the Golden Rule of just buying things that are on your list, and that you truly need and will use.

The only possible exceptions can be consumables that you always need such as toilet paper, laundry detergent, soap and other essentials, but only if the price reduction really warrants this deviation from your list.  Also watch the quantity of perishable items you buy.  We, in the Western world, statistically throw out far too much food which has gone ‘off’.

There you have 6 simple strategies to help you save money on grocery shopping.  The money saved can be put into another account or for future grocery shopping when you may run out.

Remember, little steps make big journeys.  No steps mean that you stand still, don’t improve.

**Health effects of sulphur

Adapted from: http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/s.htm

All living things need sulphur. It is especially important for humans because it is part of the amino acid methionine, which is an absolute dietary requirement for us. The amino acid cysteine also contains sulphur. The average person takes in around 900 mg of sulphur per day, mainly in the form of protein.

Elemental sulphur is not toxic, but many simple sulphur derivates are, such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen sulfide.

Sulfur can be found commonly in nature as sulphides. During several processes sulfur bonds are added to the environment that are damaging to animals, as well as humans. These damaging sulphur bonds are also shaped in nature during various reactions, mostly when substances that are not naturally present have already been added. They are unwanted because of their unpleasant smells and are often highly toxic.

Globally sulphuric substances can have the following effects on human health:

• Neurological effects and behavioural changes
• Disturbance of blood circulation
• Heart damage
• Effects on eyes and eyesight
• Reproductive failure
• Damage to immune systems
• Stomach and gastrointestinal disorder
• Damage to liver and kidney functions
• Hearing defects
• Disturbance of the hormonal metabolism
• Dermatological effects
• Suffocation and lung embolism

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Spending money is a habit.  In fact, everything we do is a habit. And, just as we created that habit, we can also get rid of that habit.

Notice I didn’t say, “Change that habit”.  I said, “Get rid of that habit”.  Habits cannot be changed, they must be replaced by another habit, so that it fades ‘off into the sunset’.

Just imagine back to when you first started work and you received your first pay.  You had all these good intentions to save, didn’t you? 

Put this much away

• for commuting
• for entertainment
• for clothes
• for personal care products
• for expenses (you diligently made a list of each legitimate expense)
• for unforeseen expenses

AND the rest was to be SAVED!

How long did this last? A month, 3 months, a little longer?

And then, what happened? Temptations started to get you off track.  Oh, yes, you could always justify them, couldn’t you?  Yes, we humans are good at justifications.

Here are 8 simple tips to get you back on track.

1. Revisit your original list.  Make a poster and put it where it will be constantly visible; where you can’t miss seeing itsave money

2. Make a grocery shopping list and don’t buy anything that isn’t on that list unless it is absolutely vital.  Don’t buy things because you think they could be useful at some time in the future.money habits

3. Look for ‘specials of the week’ when grocery shoppingcredit card spending

4. Look for bargains when doing other shopping.  Don’t buy something just because it’s a good price if you wouldn’t have bought it at full price. 

I have a friend with whom I go shopping sometimes and she gets so excited at the hundreds of dollars she has saved, forgetting however, that she wouldn’t have bought those things in the first place.

5. If it’s clothing, go to op-shops, factory outlets, charity shops, online auctions; many designer clothes end up there, as do many  brand new clothes.  I speak here from personal experience. I’ve sold clothes I had never, ever worn.

6. Buy good-quality non-branded products, whether food, clothing or anything else

7. As a rule, don’t buy anything that you couldn’t pay cash for.  Credit cards give people a false sense of ‘wealth’.  They incur overdraft fees if you don’t pay the full amount when due.  Rule-of-thumb, leave you credit cards at home.

8. Learn to say ‘NO’ to yourself and to others, especially to those best negotiators of self-will and self-interest…children

One of the most difficult habits to address in today’s consumer-oriented world is to delay gratification. Yet, it is absolutely necessary if you want to reap long-term rewards and live the life you want years down the track.

BREAK DOWN the cycle of spending money that you do not have. 

SAVE UP for what you want.

These are just eight ways you can get back on a saving track. Add tips of your own to individualise your new money-saving project so as to make it your own.

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