annelizabeth50

Cons:
It costs time, effort and determination.
I might get rid of something and regret it. I did this one time.
Actually twice if you count what I lost in my move to New Orleans.
Pros:
When I die, when I am dead and gone… My kids don’t need to go through my stuff and say “What the …”
I might actually have less dust, dog hair and allergies.
Maybe I could actually find something.
Maybe I would stop buying the same things because I cannot find the things I bought before.
Maybe a simplier environment means an easier environment.
Maybe everything I own will be taken away by a storm, so why do I own it?
Maybe I will think clearly if my environment is managable. They say a cluttered desk is a sign of a creative mind. Not true for me. I have the clutter but not the creativity.
So “Yes” outweighs the “Buts” and maybe I will get my butt moving and spend 15 minutes each day tossing the stuff I don’t use now.

Debt is a funny thing.

Good Debt: You get into it in order to build a future such as buying a house or getting a degree or starting a business. If things pans out, the house interest is tax deductable and ends up costing you less than renting a smaller apartment. If things pans out, the house appreciates in value with time. If things pans out, you find a position in your field and successfully develop in your carreer path. The money is higher over the next four years to cover the cost of the last four in school. If things pans out.
This is actually good debt since the money you spend is suppose to make you more money, amoung other assets such as job challenge and enjoyment for example. The key here is that effort and safe risk taking improves your life and that of your family and in many cases that of your community. Paying for the use of someone else’s money is an adult decision based on planning and effort.

Bad Debt:
Dinner out, again and again. New clothing when you have other choices for the occasion. A magazine. Another movie. A Latte a day. More vacation than cents. (cents and sense). This “wanna list” seems longer than 43 times 43 times 43.. etc
You hear a “chink-n-chink” noise in your head. Your plastic slides silently but you know its deadly. Like a knife twisting into your financial future.
Yeah, you think you will pay it later. You will and you will pay for the use of the money you are using that you haven’t earned. I repeat YOU HAVENT EARNED IT!!! One more time for the guilty: I HAVE NOT EARNED IT!
Sadly, it is not really borrowing, its getting your needs fulfilled without the responsibilities taken care of. This is the child in you begging for candy. Once more for the guilty: THIS IS THE CHILD IN ME BEGGING FOR CANDY.

Necessary Debt:
When the car breaks down, and you don’t have the cash, you must make a decision to repair it or find another way to work.
When the court orders alimony and you have no overtime coming in… you have a painful decision to make.
When you are laid off and you find that adding $500 a month to your unemployment allows you to keep your home while looking for another job… These things happen to solid citizens.
Even if you have cash saved and think you are doing everything in your power to “do it right”, the world sometimes throws in a monkey wrench. Let your Yes be Yes and your NO be NO. Come up with a plan and make every effort to improve your situation. You have power that you are not using. Don’t Do the Victim thing because power disappears when you convince yourself that you are the VICTIM. I am only a victim of my own thinking.

When all is said and done, its time to pull up my pants and be a responsible ADULT. It takes a decision. It takes a plan. And it takes pesistence, effort and at times, very hard work. I may have failed myself before, but I don’t have to do it again. Bad Debt stinks. Its a trap,and like gambling, it can be “addictive”. Which simply means its a really bad habit on autopilot that I allow to run my life. Its more, more, more and never enough.

I believe its a boat that moves backwards in the water while you use mostly your leg muscles to push and also you arms to pull….
A rowing machine in a gym basicly. but the real deal on the Sound.
Missing Washington, Missing Oregon, I don’t get to go a-wandering until the fall, when air fares are better.