We all know that acquiring overwhelming debt is stressful from a financial standpoint. However, it might surprise you to know that more than 70 percent of divorces in America are brought about due to financial problems.
One thing Americans are NOT is savers. We simply don't put away enough money to protect us in the case of financial emergency. In fact, the average American consumer carries so much debt load that they're a mere three paychecks away from having to declare bankruptcy.
Financial emergencies arise all the time, of course, but Americans continue to build up credit card debt, without thought of the possible consequences. That's why nearly 1,500,000 people in the United States are forced to file for bankruptcy every year. Another 1,500,000 people will turn to the various consumer credit counseling organizations for help in order to try to avert bankruptcy. That's a staggering number, but it's dwarfed in comparison to the 37,000,000 people who endeavor to work out plans with their creditors on their own. That's 40 million people a year who are in enough financial trouble to take drastic action!
How do people get in such horrible financial condition? One way is through the use of credit cards. They may be convenient, but they certainly make consumers pay more for the merchandise they buy. For instance, a person paying for a purchase with a credit card will pay, on average, more than 130 percent for that item than if they had simply paid cash for it.
A large majority of consumer only pay the minimum payment on their charge cards, but those payments are generally 90 percent interest, with only 10 percent going toward reducing the principal. A staggering 71% of all credit card holders pay only the minimum payment, and they do it without a thought to the consequences. If they can easily afford the monthly payment, they just keep paying it, without realizing how expensive their purchases ultimately have become.
If you are one of the millions of Americans who are only paying the minimum amount on your charge cards, start paying MORE each month. Even if it's only a little more. Reducing the principal balance will shorten your overall payment schedule--sometimes by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
The statistics are mind-boggling, and with interest rates headed even higher, you must educate yourself on the wise use of credit, pay cash whenever possible, and try to live within your means, even if it means doing without some things. It's the only way you can avoid becoming one of those sad financial statistics yourself. Include monitoring your credit card use in your New Year's Resolutions.
Many people evaluate their lives and set new patterns around the New Year. There are several ways that this can deliberately set you up to fail.
Often this is done because there is an expectation from others that you should set resolutions at this time of year. Also there is often a sense of giving things up or a judgment about not having succeeded the previous year. Typically these type of resolutions have the word ?must? associated with them. Here are a few examples I have collected over the years as an NLP Coach:
I must change jobs
I must be able to get into this new dress by February
I must do this, give up that...and so on. I'm sure you get the idea.
This approach has a few pitfalls. How committed is the person to their goals if they feel forced in to them? The judgments and the sense of giving things up attaches negative emotions to the goals so they don't seem like fun or excitement. Is it any wonder that so many people fail with New Year Resolutions before the end of January?
NLP Techniques ? A Solution
Three elements of NLP Techniques include examining intention behind behavior, emotional state and belief changes. By taking these three elements we can start looking at our New Year Resolutions differently.
Goal Setting and Intention
By examining what we gain from our goals, who they are actually for and why we want them some interesting things sometimes fall out. The motivation to succeed or not comes from this element.
Emotions ? The Secret to Success
Have you ever seen or experienced the situation where the closer you got to success the more anxious you got about it? And then possibly fell at the last hurdle? The problem with being too emotionally attached to your goals might lead to failure. How well would your crops grow if you were constantly digging them up to see how far they had got?
NLP Techniques ? Belief Changes
What you believe about yourself and the world around you will determine your success or failure. Any NLP Practitioner Training will show you a whole number of techniques for changing beliefs, letting go of limiting beliefs and installing empowering one.
Using these NLP processes you can ensure that the goals you set and the New Year Resolutions that you take on are meaningful and that you will succeed. But the real power for making big sweeping changes to your life comes from NLP Coaching Systems.
NLP BreakThrough Coaching Process
Many coaches are also NLP Practitioners and they have integrated some powerful tools into their coaching practice. But there are a few very skilled Hypnosis and NLP Trainers that have developed the NLP BreakThrough Coaching Process that can help in making serious and deep changes in a person's life.
This highly specialized NLP Coaching process starts by examining your goals, expectations, unconscious behaviors and repeat patterns of behaviour. Through this we can determine the key limiting beliefs and negative emotions that will let you really achieve anything you want. Then through systematic Interventions you can let go of the past and embrace powerful new ways of being. The whole process usually takes as little as three or four hours. Many people that are serious about their goals and achievements have taken this route to success.
When you think about how you and the people around you set their New Year Resolutions you might be considering doing things differently. A little imagination and creative thought might give you the opportunity to achieve more in the next twelve months than you have in the last twelve years. How much of a result would that be for you?
Both Jeanette Joy Fisher & Rintu Basu are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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