At any one time in this country (Australia) We are we either in flood, fire or drought. In America it would be hurricanes, blizzards,tornadoes or forest fires…

Similar extremes exist with  our own personal debt/income ratios at any given point in the economic cycle of our respective countries.Take the recent news in Australia for instance, the household debt for each adult in the country stands at $74.000. This figure multiplied by the number of adults Australia wide  now is equivalent to our gross domestic product… (Now that is something scary for the average joe)

At one end of the never ending debate are the economists that preach Doom & Disaster (and rightly so)

They say that this issue is a time bomb with a very short fuse, get sick,lose your job or face increasing interest rate hikes and  the struggle to keep your head above water finally loses out to repossesion bankruptcy etc…then you, and the whole economy is in  dire straits.

At the other end of the spectrum other economists are happily telling us not to worry, that most of the debt is in household mortgages that re held by wealthier families, able to weather increased rate hikes and other inconvenient changes to their bottom line.

from listening to both sides of the camp, it is hard to know who is right… Is there a debt crisis? Should we even be worried? Maybe its best to leave it to them to battle it out in their little cocoons in the sky. But back in our day to day world of credit cards, home mortgage repayments and the ever present electricity and gas bills, we know things a little differently. Too much debt can be a bad thing, ( a very bad thing in some cases) Whether its our personal debt or the country as a whole, something has to give ( either we learn to rein in  and reduce the debt or save and earn more to pay it out) The above figures should be seen as a red warning light to do this very thing, We do as a collective, need to step back and have a really good think  about whether we are in control of our financial lives or not… To find out more on how to not only reduce your debt levels but to increase your wealth at the same time , read more here

The following post will conclude this little saga on Debt and Stress