On Debts and Loans

Sleepless nights, unrelenting calls from the bank, interests piling up on top of the other, law suits filed and families breaking up… How tragic can it be? But this is how most of us are living now, right? We work until we drop and by the time we get our paycheck, about 50% of it goes to payment of loans or other forms of debts. And despite the availability of thousands, if not millions, of advises on the web or award winning books published about the matter, where probably a lot of people were even able to profit from, most of us, in one way or another, end up in the same rut. I had my fair share and the way I see it, even if you get out, there is still that tendency to go back, as if it is some kind of fixation.

I bet you that the chances for a newly hired going the same route is a lot higher compared to him ending up in a well managed financial situation. So how do you defeat an unseen nemesis? Is this part of the grand design of living in this world? Does it mean that even before this generation’s workforce is born, their fate has already been sealed? That they will soon be joining the bandwagon, living on a paycheck to paycheck basis trying to make ends meet?

How does it really work? I mean, why do most of us end up in this situation? Is it really because our pay is not enough for our basic needs? Is it because of rising prices on almost anything? Or is this deeply rooted on some buying parody? How does one’s visit to the store get stimulated? We all know that on a daily basis, advertisements bombard our lives and they come in various media, i.e., television, radio, internet, short message system, newspaper, you name it and they are there. Indeed, succumbing to the advertisers’ hypnotic power if you may call it, becomes the end of financial freedom for most of us. Add to this the artificial purchasing power that credit cards give, it becomes a perfect concoction of financial disaster.

Some would say that it just requires a certain degree of discipline to overcome this but while we strive to curb our buying habits, is it not but appropriate too that advertisers become a little more discriminating in their propaganda? While I agree that these mechanisms are meant to further improve their business and which later will translate to more jobs for us, I think that there is really an imbalance on how these advertisements affect us as consumers vis-à-vis its effect on us as a workforce.

In the final analysis, we must do two fundamental things that are within our grasp and these are, to acknowledge the fact that as part of the working sector, we have limited financial resource therefore, we have to keep a tight rein on our artificial needs, if it is not possible to do away with it; and finally, we must be vigilant in scrutinizing the commercials that we allow our kids to watch so that they will not grow up getting fond of buying everything they see on television.

*** hubby's on a roll...thanks Ga!