How to Reduce Debt: Finding Inspiration from the Movies
Cover of Confessions of a Shopaholic
Getting a job and earning your first salary makes you feel like a million bucks. Suddenly, you have spending power and the euphoria makes you splash on items you were never able to afford on your own before. When your mad shopping spree ends, you become sober enough to realize that you had just burned a hole through your wallet and the next payday is still two weeks away. After being a one-day millionaire, you have to live a hand-to-mouth existence, often forced to borrow from others until payday comes. When your next paycheck finally arrives, you now have debts to pay, leading you to borrow again. Thus, begins the seemingly endless cycle of debt.
Reducing debt isn’t easy especially when there are so many temptations around. But if you keep a firm and steady mindset about wanting to debt-free, it’s doable. If you’re not convinced, you can take inspiration from these movies.
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Based on a novel by Sophie Kinsella, this film follows Rebecca “Becky” Bloomwood, a shopping addict and journalist who ends up working for a magazine, Successful Savings. Ironically, she is in debt, a cycle she has difficulty breaking free from as she continues to shop for things she doesn’t really need. A public confrontation with her debt collector leads her to be fired from her job and she begins to take action to pay off her debts. With the help of her family and friends, she was able to auction off most of her clothes, shoes and other possessions, earning her enough to pay back what she owed the bank.
Some of the things we can learn from Becky is to learn to be content with what we have. You don’t have to buy new things every time you get paid. Always set aside money for savings and learn to know the difference between wants and needs. Wants are things you can do without. Needs are the basic things you need to survive.
Abacus and Sword
A couple of years back, I was able to watch this movie through a Japanese film fest and I thought it was a movie that would resonate with any family that is struggling through our present economic recession.
To give you an idea of what this movie is about, here is the description taken from Asianwiki:
Set during the Meiji Restoration period of Edo era Japan, Naoyuki (Masato Sakai) belongs to the 8th generation of the Inoyama family, a wealthy family known for finance & accounting. He is also a gifted mathematician and uses the abacus with extreme skills. Naoyuki works under the declining Kaga domain. Because of this, Naoyuki and his wife Koma (Yukie Nakama) suffer hardships as their stature and wealth dissipates.
The first time I read the synopsis of this film, I thought this was going to be a serious story. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had subtle humor sprinkled all throughout. Another thing that struck a chord was how the family actually worked together to gradually pay off their debts. It was heartbreaking to see them lose their favorite things–like a beautiful kimono that had sentimental value–all so they could earn extra money to survive day-by-day. Each family member had his or her own sacrifice. They had to scrimp on food and find resourceful ways to supplement their meager income. In the end, you can’t help but cheer with the family when they finally paid off their last debt. What made this pivotal moment more bittersweet was that the main character was able to tell his mother that they were finally debt-free just before she breathed her last.
Although I like both movies above, I found the second movie to be more touching especially because solving a debt problem became a sort of family project. In the present day, however, I believe that having life insurance would really help out if your family has outstanding debts. I believe it would wise to consult a term life insurance company and invest in a plan should a parent suddenly pass away due to an accident or disease. This way, the family won’t have to shoulder the burden of paying off loans and they will have sufficient support until they are able to stand on their own feet again.
About the Author
Based in San Diego California, Tiffany Matthews is a professional writer with over 5 years of writing experience. She also blogs about travel, fashion, and anything under the sun at wordbaristas.com, a group blog that she shares with her good friends. In her free time, she likes to travel, read books, and watch movies. You can find her on Twitter as @TiffyCat87.
Share this:
Category: Debt
