The Trillion Dollar question- How to break decision paralysis.
If you listen to any American economic news for very long the trillion Dollars question will come up – in fact it is the 17 trillion dollar question (and growing). What is the United States going to do with the sovereign debt it has and continues to accumulate? It is more than the elephant in the room because the question is too important not to ask. People are asking the question, but there seems to be no answers. When there is no clear answer, nothing is done, something I call decision paralysis. When there are too many voices giving directions, even obvious decisions are difficult to make.
Why is the US debt important to you and all Canadians? Simply put we can look south and see where we are headed. In this case it is not a place that we want to follow our southern cousins.
Right now (according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation) the Canadian federal government is adding $58 million a day to our debt. By 2015-16, the debt is slated to hit $614 billion 1.
There is something you can do, let me help you break the paralysis.
First narrow your field of focus to the thing you can affect, you can deal with the debt in your own life! Do it and do it with gusto and intensity! Create a plan to get totally debt free (yes including your mortgage) Share it with a trusted friend and then implement it!
As Mahatma Ghandi once said “Be the change you want to see!”
Here are 6 decisions you can make to answer the trillion dollar question
- Decide to create extra room in your monthly spending
- Decide to create an Emergency cushion of $1000-2000 cash
- Decide to pay off all debt as quickly as possible, sell stuff, negotiate with creditor for lower interest rate, snowball debt, whatever the strategy work it out for you and “just do it”
- Decide to fully fund your Emergency cushion – 3-6 months expenses in savings –
- Decide to pay off the mortgage
- Decide how much is enough to live on and get the extra working for the good of others! (maybe pay someone else’s debt)
Now that you have clarity just check the boxes till you get to a decision you have not made yet, decide to do the next step and be free!
How does this help when the numbers are so high?
Here are two examples, first a visual representation of the US debt problem of 116.5 Trillion. Note this video is from 2010 and the unfunded liabilities has risen to 200 trillion in 2013 (3 minutes)
The second is a parody on what the prevailing attitude is in regards to debt and the confusion that surrounds it – This couple has serious decision paralysis.