How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously*: Based on the Proven Principles and Techniques of Debtors Anonymous

281 Pages·2012·1.93 MB·English

by  Jerrold Mundis

This Isn’t About Eating Cat Food and Working Harder.
It’s about getting out of debt once and for all. It’s about you getting out of debt—no
matter how long you’ve been there or how much you owe.
It’s Not About Clipping Coupons or Saving String.
It’s Not a Get-Rich Scheme or an Investment System.
It’s a clear and simple program that will enable you to free yourself from debt and to
stay free forever.
Be as skeptical as you want. But if you follow this program, you’ll still get out of debt.
These are not simply theoretical ideas. They’ve been tested and proven over the last two
and a half decades by hundreds of thousands of men and women who have already used
them to free themselves from debt and thousands more are using them right now to do
the same thing. You can too.
This program works. It’s that simple.
2012 Bantam Books eBook Edition Copyright © 1988, 2003, 2012 by Jerrold Mundis All rights
reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random
House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
This is a revised edition of a work previously published by Bantam Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., in 1988 and 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mundis, Jerrold J.
How to get out of debt, stay out of debt, and live prosperously/Jerrold Mundis.—
Bantam rev. trade pbk. ed.
p. cm.
“Based on the proven principles and techniques of Debtors Anonymous.”
eISBN: 978-0-34553479-8
1. Finance, Personal. 2. Debt. I. Debtors Anonymous. II. Title.
HG179.M855 2003
332.024′02—dc21 2002074739
www.bantamdell.com
Cover design: Beverly Leung
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
PREFACE
This Isn’t About Eating Cat Food and Working Harder
You Are Not Alone
What Debt Does to Us
Where This Program Comes From
You Don’t Have to Go One More Dollar into Debt
PART I
THE DEBT SPIRAL
1 What Is Debt?
I.O.U.
The Secured Loan
Why Secured Loans Are Not Debt
This Is It
This Is It Too
2 The Nature of Debting
Compulsive Debting
Problem Debting
Reasonable Debting
3 Warning Signs
Is It the 15th Already?
The Unopened Mail
The Unbalanced Account
The Unsent Check
Not Much Down
The Department Stores
Cash Advances
A Couple of Bucks Till Tomorrow
It’s the Adult Thing to Do
If One Is Good, Two Are Better
I Handled That, by God
Money Is a Personal Matter
The Canceled Account
Saved by the Bell
Who Knows What the Details Are?
Minimums
Next Month Is Next Month
Kite Flying
Bouncing Right Along
I Can’t Keep Track of It All
There’s Always Someone
But I Can’t Do It Alone
4 How We Get There
The Core of It
I Don’t Understand Money
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping
I’m Entitled
A Dime & a Sandwich
Look at Me, Ma, I’m on Top of the World
Money Corrupts
$200 Worth of Love, Please
Waiting for Godot
It’s All Going to Go Away
Women Can’t Handle Money
I’m a Special Case
Good People Help Others
The Organ-Grinder’s Monkey
Yeah, but I Still Want to Be a Kid
Monsters in the Dark
PART II
STOPPING THE DEBT SPIRAL COLD
5 The Concepts of Change
Right Now, You’re Perfectly All Right
You Are Not Your Bank Balance, You Are Not the Sum of Your Debts
You’re Not Living for Your Creditors
This Isn’t a Rehearsal
Feelings Aren’t Facts
Debt Is Nothing but a Temporary Situation
The Cavalry Has Arrived
You’ve Got More Than You Think
It’s Not Armageddon
There Is No Tomorrow
6 Laying the Foundation
Don’t Shoot, I Surrender
Defusing Denial
Bankruptcy Me No Bankruptcies
A Month Without Worries
One Day
7 The Heart of It
One Day at a Time
Some Practical Suggestions
8 A Tool Nearly as Good as the Wheel
The Daily Record
Noncash Expenses
The Weekly Record
The Monthly Record
An Emerging Vision
Categories
The Spending Record
Keeping the Record on Software or Online
Resistance
9 Getting Stronger
The Devil You Know
The Plastic, of Course
A Cautious Exception
The Company Card
The Debit Card
No Wild Promises
Thanks, but No Thanks
10 The Spending Plan
Bye-Bye Budget
Putting It to Work
Ex Post Facto
11 Couples and Families
Couples:
J’Accuse
Conclave
Now We Two Are Three (At Least in This Respect)
The Household Spending Plan
The Rule of Three
Summit Meeting
The Wet Tub Discussion
Families
Accord
What’s It Worth?
Swiss Family Robinson-ing It
My God, Me as Enabler?
Single-Parent Families
Co-oping
You’re Entitled
What’s Right Is Right
In Closing
Hardball and Optimism
Live and Let Live
12 Stabilizing
The Spending Plan Redux
Building a Margin
No Margin?
Moratoriums
Increasing Income
Do It Again
PART III
TURNING IT AROUND
13 A New Mode
Taking Action
To Hell with the Results
Serenity
Keep It Simple
Easy Does It
Show Up
Act As If
14 Comrades in Arms
Even the Lone Ranger Had Tonto
Debtors Anonymous
Or …
15 Through a Glass, Clearly
You Don’t Have to Do Anything
Look at That!
Fieldstripping Your Vocabulary
I Never Knew I Was This Good
What the Bacon Looks Like
PART IV
FREEDOM, PROSPERITY & ABUNDANCE
16 Getting Out
Part 1
A Full Commitment
The Ideal Repayment Plan
A Dollar a Month
Repayment Plans Aren’t Always Ideal
The Question of Interest
Insane Interest
Debt Shifting
Repayment Surplus
17 Getting Out
Part 2
Honesty
Hi, It’s Me
A Simple Business Transaction
Moratoriums and Restructuring
A Brief Word About Numbers
Consolidation Loans
Nonprofit Credit-Counseling Agencies
The Contact Log
The Reduction Record
The Liquidation Record
18 Here Lie Monsters (If You Think So)
The Customer Account Department
Collection Agencies
The IRS
It’s Not a Court of Inquisition
The Credit Rating, Or Whose Graven Image Is This?
19 Supports
HALT
P.S., Your Furnace Is Dead
“Keel the Bool”
Rainy Days
An Additional Note on Secured Loans
Briefly, on Rebuilding a Credit Record
I’ll Drink to That
20 Specialties
The Vacuum Principle
In and Out in 24 Hours
The Ideal Spending Plan
What, Precisely, Do You Want?
Targeting
The Real Stuff
Generosity
21 It’s a Big Universe
However You Understand It
22 Staying Out
Part 1
The Three Cardinal Rules
Nothing Can Make You Debt
Use This Book
Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me
How Could Anyone Do That (Now That I’m Not)?
Those Good Friends
23 Staying Out
Part 2
The Money Comes In
Commonplace Miracles
Opportunity Knocked and I Wasn’t Home
Where Is It Written That You Have to Work for Money?
Prosperity & Abundance
24 Resources & Supplementary Matters
Debtors Anonymous
Books
Online
Magazines & Newspapers
Professional Advisers
Psychotherapy
Institutions, Organizations & Corporations
A CLOSING NOTE
Dedication
Other Books by This Author