Many of these errors could be averted if each of us had a guardian angel pointing us in the right direction every day. But then, life would be boring. Everyone would be doing everything perfectly, and the emotional swings that we experience because of our behavior would not exist. There would be no pleasure and pain, or joys and sorrows.



Frankly, I would much rather live without being constantly dictated to by an invisible being telling me what to do, and how to do it. I prefer to have the freedom of choice and "learn" from my mistakes as I go.

Mistakes carry consequences; some are recoverable, while others are not. For example, you may have the opportunity to go back to a friend and apologize for your rude behavior when you last met, but sinking thousands of dollars in a bad business deal might be irreversible.

Few of us will have the chance to go through life again and repair all the damages we've created. On the other hand, many of us have the opportunity to undo some mistakes caused by hasty and uninformed decisions.

If we accept the idea that mistakes are common and tied to the human condition, we can also assume that people will create financial blunders.

In fact, personal finance is the most common platform for human errors. Many of us have purchased more "stuff" on credit for image-building than we care to admit. We are burdened with timeshares, expensive cars, and various others toys.

Granted, at the time of the purchases, the decisions made sense. However, two or five years later, these items became financial logs, weighing us down into financial ruin—the debt pit. Interestingly enough, while we're sinking to the bottom, we're holding on to them for fear of losing our superficial, public identity or self-worth. You might be in the debt pit to some degree.

Before you sink into despair, consider what's happening to you. In some ways, you may feel obligated to honor your financial commitment; that is commendable. But like a vessel in rough seas trying to make it ashore safely, you may want to consider throwing some of your "precious cargo" overboard to save yourself. Place those "image-building" items in the category of bad financial decisions or mistakes and dump them! Return them to the rightful owners and free yourself from their "bondage."

Many of these items are truly assets of the seller and can be resold for additional revenue. Besides, the interest you've paid so far may have already covered the entire cost.

I know some people will think that this type of action is irresponsible. They have the right to their opinions. But frankly, I see it more like saving yourself. Besides, I see no difference compared to some common habits in this culture, which many have taken for granted. Consider the following examples:

- Repossessions: If you're unable to make payments on the items you purchase on credit, the lender will not hesitate to take them from you and resell them. If the item is your car, you will have to hitchhike to work the following day. If it's your house, you will suddenly become homeless.

- Divorce: In terms of importance, nothing ranks higher in our culture than marriage and family. Yet, when people become angry or disappointed with their mates, they discard them with little or no thought of consequences. In most of these cases, children are caught in the middle. According to Divorce Magazine.com, 10 percent of the married population was divorced in 2002. Meanwhile, another study indicated that only 63 percent of American children grow up with two biological parents in the home.

- Items returned to stores: Most of us return items to stores without a second thought. While some stores grant us the privilege of returning broken or damaged goods, many of us abuse the opportunity. Two years ago, I read about impulsive shoppers that consistently return half of the items they purchased because of buyer's remorse.

- Stock investors: Fears about our economy are causing great uneasiness on Wall Street. Investors are now dumping billions of dollars worth of stock as they flee to safety while giving little or no consideration to the impact on companies and the economy on a whole. Salvaging their remaining funds from distressed companies, they are choosing to park their investments in U.S. government debt that offer literally, zero return.

Each of these scenarios is different, but the behavior is the same. It's called, "Doing what you must to save yourself."

"But what about my credit report," you ask, "and how will that be affected when I return these items?" The truth is, large liabilities like cars, houses, timeshares, etc., which you voluntarily return, or have repossessed will most likely lower your FICO or credit score. That is the controlling mechanism built into the credit system.

Consequently, most of us have been trained to give more consideration to the credit beast than to our own well-being. In other words, for fear of ruining our credit, many of us are choosing to suffer the pressures of debt to our own peril. We take precious dollars that could be used to stabilize our financial position and use them to pay for things that have lost their meaning and value in our lives.

If you plan to depend on credit for the rest of your life, a lower credit score could be a big problem. You will sink with the system, like many are experiencing right now, and ultimately be discarded into the wasteland of bad debt.

But if you choose to liberate yourself from the dependency of credit, once and for all, and develop a personal policy of relying on CASH for financial stability, your conditions will improve. In fact, taking steps to dump the liabilities that are depriving you from financial peace and prosperity is a bold move to financial independence.

Sometimes, it is necessary to do one more unpleasant task to fix a lot of other issues, as long as you don't repeat your mistakes in the future.

Take action-today- for your own safety and survival.

Best regards,

Tom Graneau, Sr.