Allen Carr's Get Out of Debt Now

All you have to do is read this book and follow all the instructions.

THE THREE ESSENTIALS

If you charted the emotional wellbeing of the spoilt child on a graph, it would look the same as the graph for an addict, like this:

there’s something unique about their own situation that only they can resolve.
This book is the best friend you could have to help you solve your debt problem. It will not judge you or embarrass you. It will not put pressure on you to undergo painful measures. However, it will help you to understand every aspect of your predicament and enable you to follow a tried and tested method that will lead you out of debt.
You are not alone and your debt problem is not a consequence of your personality. Regardless of your background and current circumstances, this book will help you escape the suffering of debt: the daily fear of financial demands that you cannot meet; the nagging loss of self-confidence; the enforced secrecy and dishonesty; the anger and defensiveness.
In order to get out of debt, you need first of all to take on board the exact nature of the problem and then to follow an effective method to resolve it.
This book will enable you to do both things by applying to your debt problem the most successful system ever designed for overcoming addiction.

cigarette. The reality is that the next cigarette will simply introduce more nicotine into the body, guaranteeing that, when that nicotine leaves, the smoker will again become uptight and feel the urge for another cigarette. Non-smokers do not have this problem.
Smokers, therefore, smoke in order to feel like non-smokers
The same mechanism is at work when it comes to over-spending. The illusion is that over-spending makes you feel good. In fact, all it’s doing is giving you a momentary taste of how someone without debt feels all the time. While you’re over-spending, you manage to block from your mind the fact that you can’t afford what you’re buying, and so for that brief moment you feel the sense of freedom and confidence that someone who is not in debt feels all the time. However, that boost soon wears off and you’re left feeling miserable again and guilty that now you’re in even more debt. However, because you think the only thing that can make you feel better is to spend, you go and spend more.

calculate the amount you can repay to your store card like this:
200 x 4.2/100 = £8.40.
Your sheet may look something like this.
Creditor
Amount owed
% of total debt
Repayments
Car loan
£6,400
22.5%
£45.00
Bank loan
£5,000
17.5%
£35.00
Builder
£3,200
11.3%
£22.50
Credit card 1
£3,000
10.5%
£21.10
Credit card 2
£2,800
9.8%
£19.60
Overdraft
£2,500
8.8%
£17.60

Plan, in which case you can enter this amount for Debt Repayment. However, it’s more likely that you’ve had to squeeze the figures to make them fit and you’re struggling to see where you’re going to find any money for repayments.
Ask yourself a question: how important is £1 to me? Which of your non-essential outgoings would be sabotaged if you reduced planned spending by £1 or more? Perhaps you feel that some have no margin left in them. Your fares for getting to work, for example. But what if you walked or cycled at least occasionally or part of the way? How much could you save? Remember, it all adds up.
Go through all your non-essentials and reduce their planned spending by as much as you can. Now add up how much you’ve saved and put that figure in the box for Debt Repayment.
Now go back to your Debt Record. Add up all your debts and write the total at the bottom of the right-hand column. Now calculate each individual debt as a percentage of this total. Here’s the formula:
Individual debt divided by total debt, multiplied by 100
For example, say my total debt amounts to £28,500, of which I owe £1,200 on a store card. I would calculate the store’s percentage thus:
1,200 / 28,500 = 0.042
0.042 x 100 = 4.2
So the store’s share of my debts would be 4.2%.
Apply this calculation to all your individual debts. If you find the mathematics confusing, get a friend who understands it to help you. Make a third column to the right of the money owed column and write the percentages in here. If you add them all up, they should come to 100.
Now make a fourth column and head it ‘Repayment’. For each debt, calculate the relevant percentage of the amount you have made available for Debt Repayment on your financial plan, and write this in the Repayment column on your Debt Register.
For example, if you’ve made available £200 per month, you can cal

Tax
£2,400
8.4%
£16.80
Loan from dad
£2,000
7.0%
£14.00
Store card
£1,200
4.2%
£8.40
TOTAL
£28,500
100.0%
£200.00
Please note that these figures don’t include monthly interest (see essential payments). This table is just an example of how someone could reduce their debts – your repayments could be higher or lower depending on your circumstances
FROM SMALL ACORNS…
If your sheet does look like this, you’re probably thinking, ‘At £200 a month I’m never going to pay off my £28,500 debt.’ But as you continue to follow your plan, you’ll find that your debt decreases faster and faster. Remember, before you got out of the debt trap you weren’t paying off your debts at all; you were adding to them. The fact that you’re repaying anything marks a major turnaround in the way you control your finances.
You are now in control

As soon as you have your Debt Repayment Plan ready, start contacting your creditors. The human touch is very powerful in this situation, so use methods that show the real person behind the debt as much as possible. Ask to come in and see them, at least for the first contact. Remember the salesman’s technique and use it in your favour: when you make a proposition to someone in person, they find it harder to say no. It’s easier to say no over the phone, and easier still in writing. So plan your approach accordingly.
Keep calm and draw strength from your knowledge of the subject. Remember, they will not be used to people in your situation coming to them on their own initiative. They will be surprised and, though they may not show it, impressed.
Their first reaction may well be to stick to the usual line and refuse your proposal. This is where the human touch comes into its own. Use the facts you have gathered to paint an accurate picture of your situation for them. Explain that you have had a serious debt problem and are on a programme of debt repayment. Show them how you plan to do it and explain how your repayments have been divided fairly between all your creditors.
As your arguments build up in front of them, theirs will fall away. Imagine if someone told you the Earth was round and you thought it was flat. Then they showed that if you sailed to the west and kept going, you arrived back where you started, from the east. Then they showed you a photograph of Earth taken from space. And finally they put you in a rocket and orbited the Earth so you could see it for yourself. By the end of all that you would have no choice but to accept the fact that the Earth is round.
This is the approach you need to take with your creditors. Present them with all the evidence until they have to accept that your proposal is the only viable one. If the first person you speak to refuses to see reason, it may be because they don’t have the authority to go against company policy. Ask to speak to their manager, politely and calmly, until you come