Debt-Reduction/Elimination
The ONE Law You Should Break
by
Leo Quinn
There is a law all smart people break.
Parkinson's law.
Parkinson's law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for
its completion." It was first coined by C. Northcote Parkinson in the book
Parkinson's Law: The Pursuit of Progress.
A common derivation of that is "expenses rise to meet your level of income." Has
that happened to you? It happened to me in 1991 and I'm particularly aware that
it could happen to me again in 2005.
In 1991 I took my BS in finance and started a carpet cleaning business...like
most finance majors, of course! I learned the business for a couple months and
was earning a whopping $200-$300 per week working for someone else.
When I left that company and went out on my own, the ad I used FLOODED me with
business. I had 15 calls by 10:30AM the day the small ad first ran. The
answering service told me every "little old lady in Saratoga was calling".
So almost immediately I went from making $200-$300 a week to making upwards of
$1000 per week. WOW...23 years old and making that much money WORKING FOR MYSELF
was great fun...had a great boss!
I don't remember what I spent all the money on other than one of those
nationwide pagers but my spending rose dramatically. But guess what? At $7.95
per room for carpet cleaning it doesn't take a math major to figure out I was
working very hard to earn $1000 a week. So, of course I got tired and lazy and
slowed down. My income level dropped to some level probably near $500 per week
but my lifestyle didn't and you can figure out the rest.
If, while earning $1000 per week I was living like I made $400-$500 per week I
would have been sitting pretty... or whatever the male equivalent of sitting
pretty is! :>)
Recently in a workshop I had a woman relate her story. Her husband had been out
of work because of injury for about a year. They had been living on only her
income for that time. Before his injury they had been living on two incomes and
usually had just enough money to meet all their expenses.
The injury had her worried. How could they do it on one income?
Somehow, THEY MADE IT. All the bills were paid on time. They didn't take any
drastic measures like canceling the cable or pulling apart the 2-ply toilet
tissue to get 2 rolls out of every one.
This gal was amazed and tremendously EXCITED because her husband was going back
to work soon and she was going to be able to put a large chunk of one entire
income toward eliminating all their debt using my program.
(Do you have it yet?) Two thousand dollars a month put under your mattress or
towards paying off a debt is $24,000 per year or $120,000 after 5 years.
This family was forced to break Parkinson's law and you see how it dramatically
improved their lives. The silver lining in the cloud.
Don't be forced to break the law...do it voluntarily starting today. If you are
a two-income household pretend that one of the incomes is now gone. If you are a
one-income household advertise for a wealthy widow or widower and then pretend
that your income was slashed in half.
Keep track of every penny you spend...write it down...put it in your Quicken,
Microsoft Money or any spreadsheet program...just get it on paper so you can see
it.
Be brutal about it and I'll bet you can live on half of what you now make. Take
the "missing" half and pile it on your debt. (you know which debt don't you?)
Break Parkinson's law and you'll never be sorry!
About the Author:
Leo J. Quinn, Jr. is a financial educator from the Albany, NY area. For the last
eight years he has been stunning audiences by showing them that paying off their
highest interest rates debts first and/or paying extra on more than one debt is
often the SLOWEST way to get rid of those debts. He has a
special offer
for Momscape readers here.
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