The Money for Life Wikizine

Americans are trapped in a dysfunctional financial model that incessantly chants its mantra: “You can have everything you need and anything you want as long as you have enough credit!” You can have the sixty inch flat panel TV from the... [more]

Americans are trapped in a dysfunctional financial model that incessantly chants its mantra: “You can have everything you need and anything you want as long as you have enough credit!” You can have the sixty inch flat panel TV from the big box store, the new SUV, the dream vacation, the lavish “it-only-happens-once-in-a-lifetime” wedding, the upscale home in the hottest new neighborhood, a perfect retirement, and on and on and on…
To this way of thinking “I can afford it” really means you have enough income to make the payments – including huge amounts of interest. It whispers that you only get to use the things you “buy”; that you really don’t own them. But, it shouts that just “having” them proves your wealth and worth. This model is designed to make others wealthy at your expense. It makes bad decisions feel good.
This model is called the Debt Paradigm.
And, when some life event decimates your income and Debt Paradigm decisions dump you into a dungeon of despair, some “credit repair” guy slithers from the shadows to show you a way out of the darkness of the dungeon of debt and back into the “light” of this failed model - so you can do it all over again.

There is a better way. This wikizine is dedicated to bringing the light of common sense to the business of building and maintaining a personal economy that lets you look forward with confidence so you don't have to look backward with regret.