Transforming Your Debt Into Wealth

[Shokkers]

I can imagine a lot of guys wanting to venture abroad, but being stymied by their financial debts...
There's a GREAT book (and audio CD) by John Cummuta, called TRANSFORMING YOUR DEBT INTO WEALTH, and it shows how virtually anyone can go from being neck-deep in debt (credit cards, car payments, mortgage, etc) into being DEBT-FREE, normally under 4 years.
Google the title, or the author's name.
Best, K.K.

[Travel Dude]

I can imagine a lot of guys wanting to venture abroad, but being stymied by their financial debts...
There's a GREAT book (and audio CD) by John Cummuta, called TRANSFORMING YOUR DEBT INTO WEALTH, and it shows how virtually anyone can go from being neck-deep in debt (credit cards, car payments, mortgage, etc) into being DEBT-FREE, normally under 4 years.
Google the title, or the author's name.
Best, K.K.

Sounds like a good book that I will look into. Another book which is sort of on the same topic same is Debt is Slavery by Michael Mihalik.

[ladislav]

So what is the gist of this book? I have read similar books before and they did not teach me anything new. The way I dealt with mine was go to Japan and Saudi and pay my cards off.
I do not think debt is slavery. I was able to accomplish great things by having credit and borrowing money to meet my goals. Credit is a financial tool and if used wisely it is your best friend.

[Shokkers]

The gist is to take your discretionary income--money that goes normally to frills and luxuries--and apply it to one debt at a time until it's paid off. Using Cummuta's program, one can get out of debt much quicker than normally.

Credit and debt are two different things; credit is helpful if it's used wisely, but most people don't. One woman I read about pays for everything on a 'points' style credit card, but she only spends within her means and pays the full amount owed every month. That way she doesn't go into debt and racks up all kinds of points for other niceties.

Congratulations on being debt-free, if you are.

[ladislav]

While there are irresponsible people who charge unnecessary things, life in the US without debt is only possible if your parents give you money to go to college etc. It is not easy to save money in the US with the high taxes and high rents. While still maintaining a resonably normal lifetsyle. How long will it take you to save money to buy a car? A house? 20 years? How about to save for college? And what if you need a job and a car now!?

And I do not want to live with a roommate to save money.

And medical expenses? Even if you have insurance, there are deductibles and the insurance companies gouge you for money pretty badly.

I used to be down on myself for not being able to save enough but then I went to Saudi and continued living the same lifestyle as in the US, but was saving at least 2K a month. Also, I paid off my debt in 18 months and started saving cash. Not in 4 years. Hey, maybe I should write a similar book- "How to pay off your debt and build wealth by working outside of high tax, high rent America".

[Shokkers]

Hey, maybe you should.

In any event Saudi Arabia would have to pay me a lot more than 2K a month to live there.

[ladislav]

Hey, maybe you should.

In any event Saudi Arabia would have to pay me a lot more than 2K a month to live there.

They paid $ 4800 a month plus free housing and no tax and 60 day vacations. That is why I could save 2k a month.

[MrPeabody]

I have zero debts, but saving doesn't do much good either. Today's system punishes savers and rewards irresponsible speculators by making money basically free. How can anyone retire when their money is making 1 to 3%? Now that the system is broken I am hoping for a severe deflation or a spike in the interest rates of bonds.

[globetrotter]

While there are irresponsible people who charge unnecessary things, life in the US without debt is only possible if your parents give you money to go to college etc. It is not easy to save money in the US with the high taxes and high rents. While still maintaining a resonably normal lifetsyle. How long will it take you to save money to buy a car? A house? 20 years? How about to save for college? And what if you need a job and a car now!?

And I do not want to live with a roommate to save money.

And medical expenses? Even if you have insurance, there are deductibles and the insurance companies gouge you for money pretty badly.

This is how the Chinese do it, and how Americans did it prior to 1970. If you wanted something, you saved for it. The Chinese have 63 Trillion Yuan saved up.

The First Great Depression was brought about by the 1st consumer credit expansion bubble.

In 1919 there were no mortgages in the USA. By 1929 it was normal to get a mortgage to buy a house. No installment plans for appliances, autos or other goods in 1919, by 1929 every one was buying on credit, including stocks. The collapse of this bubble caused the GD I, and the collapse of the current credit bubble (one human lifespan away - 80 years. 1929 + 80 = 2009!) will be the cause of another Depressionary-style episode.

In other words the current financial crisis has been caused by the existence of debt.

If America requires one to live on credit/debt to live there, then it isn't really that great of a place to live - is it? If you save money and become solvent in every other country you work in, EXCEPT THE USA, and in the USA you go into debt heavily, then this should clearly indicate that a debt-based lifestyle is non-functional.

You had to leave such a society to get out of debt, save and earn good money. Your own actions prove that debt is bad.

[FuzzX]

Credit card companies are the scum of the earth... lets face it... most debt/credit (samething with a different name) exist to keep you a slave to the system... they don't want you to pay your debt off?! Why? They can't make money if you pay your debts off or fail to spend recklessly. The best way to deal with credit cards is to put them in the blender hit the shred button and walk away. The same goes for the student loan people, I've been running from a 30k student loan for the last 10 years... its only this year that I finally decided to put an end to this crap and throw everything against it for a year until it is now almost completely gone... I will never live in debt or using 'credit' again, cash is king from now on. I am not working in my chosen field as I graduated with a fairly useless diploma. It has been a long hard fight to get back on my feet.

Here's a great article at SS about this sort of thing: http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=172543 (read under Squirrels)

Anyway the best way to get out of debt is to work maximum hours, sell your stuff, downsize your apartment, and live on kraft dinner and water for a year. Throw everything you've got against the loan until it is paid in full and then anything you make for the rest of your life is YOURS... I have never experienced this feeling as I went from highschool right into college debt. It only hit me when I got into the job market that I had destroyed my life and any hope of having a future. I went into the 3rd world hoping to outrun my loans... but realized that making money in the 1st world and taking it to the 3rd is the best idea ever. Once my loans are gone, I will be able to fully retire into a middle class lifestyle after only 3 years work.