I am currently editing the Upside Down Property Manual to accompany the Pay Off Your Mortgage Challenge and as part of the Manual I recount on certain aspects of my own Pay Off Your Mortgage Challenge with some surprising consequences.
When you read stories about people being in debt, becoming debt free, or indeed people who have been overweight and found a successful way to be slim, fit and healthy images immediately spring to mind about those people, where they live, what they do for a living and ultimately what they did to put the wrong right again.
Without wishing to spoil the story for anyone who chooses to read the manual, you may be a little bit surprised where my “starting point was starting from.” In the original Press Release of my story, you will find a photo me “cutting up credit cards” with a backdrop of a conservatory over looking a large driveway and countryside. The credit cards were not mine, they were the journalists (cash cards actually because he had given up credit cards too), and just to show appearances can be deceiving and you should never judge anyone, the journalist spends the winter in California with his daughter and family every year.
The reason I mention this at this point is because I am sending a warning salvo to the people often referred to as “the middle classes.” We are currently seeing huge rises in the “middle classes” seeking debt help for the first time and I know exactly how they got there, because my “starting point” was as a “middle class” home owner.
When I began to challenge what is commonly perceived to be “the right way” in society, i.e. You go to school, get good grades, get a job with prospects, work your way up the housing ladder ( with a mortgage ), drive a nice car ( on finance ) and take holidays ( on credit cards ), I was already leading the lifestyle that most people aspire to have.
The biggest challenge about the Pay Off Your Mortgage Challenge is to be able to “empty your cup” and clear your mind of everything you think you know, and start raising your financial IQ by reading great advice from people like Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump and Harv Eker to name just a few.
If you ever get the chance to play the Robert Kiyosaki game, Cashflow 101 then you will realise quite quickly that it is FAR easier to get out the Rat Race as a janitor than it is as an airline pilot.
