Self Help Debt Reduction? Are you afraid of your big bad bills? You need not be because you can learn self help debt reduction that will take the fear out of managing your debt. Paying bills is never really much fun but thanks to the Internet, the majority of your bills can be paid online saving you a lot of time and effort. Even though these online services make bill paying a lot less painful it is still hard to part with your money. Why not turn the dreaded chore of bill paying into a self help debt reduction kind of online game?
This is not as crazy as you might think it is. To accomplish this you will first need to make a spreadsheet of your debt and your assets. Be sure to include any loans that you may have like your mortgage or car loan and then your checking account and savings balances. To turn all this into a game you can enjoy you will assign different names to your accounts. For instance,the money in your savings becomes your life energy and the checking accounts are your magic and weapons.
Each month you need to decide how much money will be set aside for savings as part of your self help debt reduction program. If you manage to meet this goal each month then you will maintain a healthy ego but if you miss your savings goal you will suffer illness or injury until you find enough extra money to ‘heal yourself’. Level one of your game will be a savings balance of $1000. Each $1000 you save earns you the right to advance to the next level up in your personal finance game. Reaching level ten means you have earned the right to a special treat like buying something you have wanted but is not a necessity.
The idea in all this is to take the fear or the drudgery out of your debt reduction strategies and concentrate on something that might seem fun rather than an overwhelming task. You might want to take these kinds of debt reduction programs even further by making each bill have its own game identity and take the concept as far as you wish but mainly you will want to look at your finances as something that is a fun challenge rather than a daunting task.
If you want to use this game idea as part of your self help debt reduction strategy you might want to get your spouse or a member of your family involved and let them help you reduce your debt by becoming a part of your game strategy. You may be surprised how fast you can vanquish your financial foes and progress to high savings levels when you have a team working on your game with you.
What a great article. I’ve had a game for 8 years and never looked at it quite that way. I have fun, but your incite has opened up new ways to make it even more entertaining.
I read your blog all the time and I just thought I’d say keep up the terrific work!
You have done agood job on the blog mate, i wish mine was as popular
Good article on your site, too.