Halve your Debt and Double your Freedom – without the mumbo jumbo
Posted December 4th, 2009 and last modified June 21st, 2011The following is an excerpt from the book: Halve your debt and Double your freedom – without the mumbo jumbo (Credit Crunch Edition)
It’s no coincidence that ‘debt’ is a four-letter word – it’s one of the nastiest concepts around. And for proof, you need look no further than the credit crunch that has held the world to ransom since the middle of 2007.
What started with a bunch of dodgy loans in the United States escalated into a massive loss of confidence in the financial system. Basically, no one knew who it was safe to lend to, so they stopped lending altogether. This seizure of credit led to a one-in-100-year international market turmoil and what we now know as the global financial crisis.
Could there be anyone still out there who doesn’t realize the dangers of excessive debt?
The average Australian is straining under the weight of an almost $3000 credit card debt, a $9000 personal loan and a $220,000 mortgage. That means they have to find some $2100 a month just to service their borrowings. And with money now so tight for many of us, it’s easy to fall further into debt.
But if climbing out of a debt hole seems more impossible than ever, I am here to assure you it is not. The global financial crisis has actually handed you a tremendous – but limited – opportunity to do so quickly. After all, the lower your interest rates, the faster you can repay your borrowings. And we are ultimately talking about huge savings – while the total cost of repaying a $220,000 loan at a more average 8 per cent interest rate is $509,339, at a 5 per cent rate it is only $385,829, a saving of more than $123,000. What’s more, if there’s any way you can keep your repayments at the minimum required at 8 per cent, you will save a further $69,000, and get out of debt 10 years earlier.
But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you need to act right now to take advantage of it. Before you know it, the aftermath of this crisis will be over and rates will be right back up to where they started. Indeed, they have already started increasing.
What follows are 10 very simple steps – expressed in layman’s terms – to bringing debt under control forever. Not only will you learn how to vanquish Very Bloody Bad Debt (all will be explained shortly), but also to use Alright Debt to secure your future.
Make the right moves now, and you will enjoy financial freedom for the rest of your life.
To buy the Credit Crunch Edition of Halve your Debt and Double your Freedom – without the mumbo jumbo, $19.95, go to www.nomumbojumbo.com.au
About the Author:
Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon is a highly respected financial editor, commentator and author, as well as a qualified financial adviser and stockbroker.
She is the editor of The Australian Financial Review‘s newsstand magazine, AFR Smart Investor, as well as the editor of the AFR Investor section published in The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.
Nicole makes regular expert appearances on Channels 7, 9 and 10, as well as ABC radio. A sought-after public speaker, she has also addressed investment audiences as far afield as the United States and United Kingdom.
Nicole has received various accolades for her writing. She was named the United Kingdom’s Pensions and Investment Journalist of the Year (2004) while working for The Financial Times in London and, on her return home, won the personal finance category of the Citigroup Journalism Awards for Excellence (2005).
Halve your debt and double your freedom – without the mumbo jumbo is the second installment in Nicole’s ‘no mumbo jumbo’ series. The first, Double your wealth and halve your worries – without the mumbo jumbo, was first published in 2005 with a revised edition published in 2008.
To buy Nicole’s book – the Credit Crunch Edition of Halve your Debt and Double your Freedom – without the mumbo jumbo, $19.95, go to www.nomumbojumbo.com.au
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