Monday, August 27, 2007

Get Out Of The Trap...now!

“If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!” That aphorism should be inculcated in the minds of every credit card holder who collectively amassed about $800 billion in debt . Some financial analysts have tagged it appropriately as a “debt trap”. Are you one of those victims?

Finding ways to pay these bills can be worrisome. When you have a long list of unpaid credit card bills, this can put a lot of pressure to yourself. We think of ways of how to pay the bills or we ignore them and give more priority on our other expenses. Then comes another sets of bills, and another... and these bills have piled up in front of you. You again think of other means to pay the generating interest of your credit card that now has become overdue. To pay the bills, you apply for a new loan from another credit card company --- until you find yourself trapped in the debt cycle. Needless to say, being in financial trouble can be stressful. So how do you manage it?

It is perfectly normal to experience stress. Being under emotional distress is a normal human reaction. it just simply happens to most of us. But there are people who seem to handle stress quite gracefully and some can't get rid of it. A study of stress was done to a group of executives and it showed that top executives have shown lower stress signs while low and middle level executives show many stress symptoms such as high blood pressure, gastritis and tension. According to the research, probably the main reason is that the top executives have learned how to handle the pressure without letting eat them up. But, you don't have to be an executive to manage stress, it can be learned by even ordinary people like us, most especially big time or multiple credit card holders.

When we use our credit cards, we tend to be carefree and not realize how the interest rise up if we can not pay it on a timely manner. When the overdue bills come raking in, and we do not have money to pay for it, then the “danger alarm” begins to activate in our brain. Stress is like the alarm that was turned on during a “dreadful” situation. To beat the stress, we somehow must learn how to manage stress.

So, how do you learn stress management? There are two things that must be learned according to experts; learn to do various relaxation techniques and learn not to put the “danger alarm” on in your life.

Relaxation methods such as deep breathing, visualization or muscular relaxation. There are numerous books available related to relaxation techniques. The net is also an easy access to get information on these methods. Try these methods and see which works better for you. These techniques can easily be learned and gets better results.


However, learning not to put the “danger alarm” on in your credit card life can be a heavy task. If you can stop from unnecessary window shopping, then you might as well be going on the first steps of turning off that alarm. Change your lifestyle, buy things that are important and as much as possible do not buy something that you can't pay full come billing time. If you are tempted to buy something that is too expensive that will maximize your credit limit, learn to say no or alarm signals might turn on in due time.
Bottom line is be a responsible consumer. If you feel the urge to use those tempting credit cards and is beyond your limits, scram!, or you might be burned alive in the kitchen.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When someone is dealing with money troubles it is easy to lose control and end up creating more debt while trying to pay off existing debt! If someone finds themselves in a situation were they are living outside their means they should get some advise from professionals who can help them with their problems and assist in implementing a debt consolidation programme.

shannon said...

i can't stand being in credit card debt. now that credit card processing is everywhere, i feel so out of the loop and unsafe for emergency purposes because i don't have a credit card. the trap is strangling...