Eliminate Debt: You Need To Know About Going “Cash Only”

If you want to reduce the debt that you are dealing with in your life, there are various ways that you can do this task. Here’s how you can reduce debt by going “cash only”. This is just one of a number of debt elimination secrets you can use to get on top of your finances, eliminate all your debts and wipe your financial slate clean.
Eliminate Debt Secret #1 Going “Cash Only”
One way that you can drastically reduce debt that you have is by using cash to pay for your purchases.
If you want to reduce the debt that you are dealing with in your life, there are various ways that you can do this. You are in debt because of credit you got so it makes sense to eliminate further use of credit to get you out of trouble. While it can be challenging to get on top of debt, the first thing to consider is changing the habits that resulted in you getting into debt in the first place. It will be worth the effort in the long run. Here’s how you can reduce debt by going “cash only”.

Cold, Hard-Cash
Using cash to pay is an excellent habit to develop to get on top of your debts. The average U.S. household spends $1.22 for every $1.00 it earns. If you continue to use credit (credit cards, personal loans etc.,) all the time, you will build up more and more debt. As the debt piles up, you can begin to lose control, fall behind on your monthly payments and this ultimately creates massive financial stress and strain.
So, instead of reaching for your credit card the next time you want to make a purchase, stop for a second and think about paying for it in cold, hard cash. This way you start buying only what you can afford with the cash you have. The basic principle is that you set a monthly expenditure budget and withdraw the cash amount required for your purchases. So, for example if your net monthly income is $2,000 I first recommend you automatically save 10% of this amount i.e. $200. You might think you can’t save 10% but I bet you can. If 10% is a stretch at first, save 5% for the first few months and step up to 10%. Now, supposing your essential expenses e.g. mortgage, rent, insurance, utilities, food and clothing etc. comes to $1,000 per month, that leaves you with $800 left for disposable income or what I call “stuff” (eating out, movies, entertainment etc). I call it stuff because its stuff you don’t need but you want. Anyway, I recommend you withdraw $200 in cash at the start of every week from your bank account and force yourself to live within this budget, paying for everything in cash.
If you start using cash only, I guarantee you’ll find it much more difficult to part with cold hard cash than whip out a credit card! Now, this will mean making do with less but you will quickly adapt to living within your ACTUAL financial means. Making small sacrifices in unnecessary expenditure will get you back on the road to disciplined money management and help avoid financial peril.
Finally, if you are comfortably getting by with your new budget of $800/month and actually have a bit left over, you may want to pay off more on personal loans or credit cards that have high interest rates so that you can accelerate debt elimination.
Whilst curtailing your spending might not sound like much fun, it’s a helluva lot more fun than mounting debts and financial ruin. Going “cash only” works...try it out for a month to start with. You will spend less, save more and eliminate debt faster.