Tightening Your Bootstraps:: 104 Tips to Kick Your Debt to the Curb Now!

By Dr. Karen S. Ratliff

The purpose of this book is to provide tips towards debt-free living. Tightening Your Bootstraps: 104 Tips to Kick Your Debt to the Curb Now! identifies how to save, spend, invest, and pay-off debt. Being able to identify self-control, speaking circumstances into existence, and facing the fear of debt, are discovered throughout this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452089201

Dr. Karen S. Ratliff

Dr. Karen Ratliff grew up on the south side of Chicago. Dr. Ratliff experienced being in debt and used the tips she describes in Tightening Your Bootstraps, resulting in a huge decrease in debt. Dr. Ratliff paid off $15,000 of debt in less than three months by making a plan of implementation, saving money, using wisdom in spending, and bringing in extra income. Dr. Ratliff is a certified life coach and openly accepted the challenge of coaching, encouraging, and motivating others through their life and financial goals.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1:

Overcome Your Fears

The answer, maybe, is going out and doing rather than waiting. If you wait, life will probably pass you by. But if you go out & do the things you want to, take the risks you fear, you may just find that everything slots into place.

—Rob E. Geraghty

Tip #1: Face Your Fears.

Have you ever run away from your fears and they become stronger and greater? Running away only leads to more stress and time wasted. Face your fears today and overcome them. If you don’t overcome your fears, they will eventually overtake you. The first step to overcoming your fear is to identify what you are afraid of.

If you have this book in your hands, you are probably looking for tips that will help you to decrease the amount of debt you are carrying, increase the amount of money you have saved, and create and implement a working budget. The very first tip that I recommend is for you to face the fear of being in debt head-on. Realize that the debt is present and you have the tools and strategies needed to decrease it. If you are afraid of being in so much debt that you will lose everything later, make sure you learn everything you can on how to spend, save, and balance your budget now. This book will start you off with tips that will guide you on ways to decrease your debt.

Tip #2: Enforce Discipline.

Another useful tip to decrease your debt is to discipline yourself. You need discipline to stay out of the stores, put your credit cards away, and stick to a plan. It is easy to pick up a credit or debit card and go buy a new pair of shoes that you don’t need. Figure out the reason(s) behind your spending