The devil you know is much better than the devil you don’t.  Make a complete list of your debts and creditors.  Some people panic at this point, as if committing this information to paper will breathe life into a dormant monster.  If you’re one of these, realize that there is nothing in this action that […]

All you have to do to begin your recovery and open the door to total freedom is avoid taking on any new debt today.  I don’t avoid debt tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.  That’s too much to think about.  I just do it today, one day at a time.  And these days, […]

Actually, respect, approval, and admiration — even friendship and love — are given much more freely to people who are confident and secure in their personal finances, who are solvent and who’ve stopped debting, than they are to those who aren’t and who haven’t.
— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of […]

Your height is a permanent condition.  So is the color of your eyes.  Your debt is not.  It’s a situation.  Situations are temporary.  A cold is a situation.  You didn’t always have it; you won’t have it forever.  Debt is nothing more than that.
— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of […]

Clarity about your money is essential.  You need to know where it’s going before you can even begin to make effective changes.  That may sound obvious, but it’s not.  Beyond the rent and a close guess on utilities, most people in debt can not tell you how much they spend each month, or on what.
— […]

Why should you [give]?  Nothing says that you should.  But developing a capacity to give helps demolish the distorted belief that you don’t have anything, that there’s so little for you that you can’t afford to give any of it away.  It mitigates the anger that springs from the old belief that life or others […]

When you practice the Vacuum Principle, you evaluate what you have, which might be anything from an old tie to a television set.  You ask:  Do I really need this?  Do I enjoy and take pleasure from it?  If the answer is no, get rid of it:  Give it away, sell it, or throw it […]

The fact that you don’t have everything you want doesn’t mean that you have nothing.  When you’ve come to focus obsessively on your debts, it’s as if a filter has been placed over your eyes, and all the things you have and all that is good in your life fade and disappear.  You no longer see anything […]

Eventually, we begin to juggle our money week to week and month to month, trying to stay on top of bills and responsibilities.  We walk a tightrope and live in apprehension of impending disaster, in fear that we’re going to run out, that we won’t have enough, that we’ll be caught in a squeeze, that […]

Actually, respect, approval, and admiration — even friendship and love — are given much more freely to people who are confident and secure in their personal finances, who are solvent and who’ve stopped debting, than they are to those who aren’t and who haven’t.
— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of […]

Your debts don’t mean anything more than that you owe some people some money.  No one has drawn up articles of condemnation against you.  You won’t be dragged through the streets in a dunce hat and pelted with garbage.  Your picture hasn’t been tacked up in post offices.  You’re not wandering weary, friendless, naked, and […]

Here is a simple but profound truth: YOU CAN NOT GET OUT OF DEBT BY BORROWING MORE MONEY.
 
No more than an alcoholic can become sober by having another drink.
— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously

All you have to do to begin your recovery and open the door to total freedom is avoid taking on any new debt today. I don’t avoid debt tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. That’s too much to think about. I just do it today, one day at a time. And these days, […]

Money itself is also neutral — neither good nor bad. You can raise a cathedral with money; you can build a death camp with money. What you do with it is up to you. You can become obsessed with acquiring money; you can become equally obsessed with avoiding it.
— Jerrold Mundis, How to Get Out […]