South Africans Are The World’s Biggest Borrowers: See Tips To Escape Debt

Perhaps you’ve read or heard somewhere that South Africans are the world’s biggest borrowers. Another unpleasant news huh? Well, regardless of our distaste of being a bringer of sad news, we’ll, as necessity demands acquaint you with detailed albeit a brief tale of how South Africans earned the undesirable ‘crown’ as the world’s biggest borrowers.

A report tagged ‘Global Findex database’ issued by the world bank stated that only 12% out of the 70% South Africans that own accounts with financial institutions borrowed from them. 71.2% of South Africans borrowed from relatives and friends whereas 18.4% borrowed from informal private lenders. As the report emphasizes that some of these borrowers borrowed from more than one category of lenders, it crowned South Africans as the world’s biggest borrowers when it revealed that 86% of the South African population borrowed money.

Certainly, the figure is outrageous and alarming. It virtually said, “All South Africans Are In-debt”. Peradventure, you are among these 86% borrowers; we hence, implore you to yield to the desire of escaping the claws of being in debt as we explore the top 5 major tips of clawing out of debt. Prior to that, the following are ways to identify the critical stage of being in debt.

  • You’re always troubled when you remember the money you owe;
  • You always carry over some of your payments to the next month;
  • You borrow to pay what you borrowed;
  • You owe more than you own and;
  •  Skip certain payments in order to make other payments.

Based on the foregoing, here are the 5 major tips that will help you get out of debts.

Top 5 Tips On How To Escape From Being In-Debt

STEP 1: Start With The Most Expensive Debts

step 1Expensive debts refer to such with the highest interest rate. It is as well logical that such debts oftentimes involve a larger amount of money. As such, debtors tend to shy away from such debts as paying them usually imply being left with no money. Well, you may dislike this but settling the more expensive debts first enables one to stand a better position of escaping debts.

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STEP 2: Plan A Budget And Stick To It

Step 2Most South Africans cannot account for how they spent their income. To them, their earnings are quite decent but they usually find themselves desperately in need of cash before the next income arrives. And as such, they eventually patronize a lender only to realize that they are more in debt than they were the previous time they checked their debt status. Discipline is the solution to this money problem. Draft a budget and stick to it.

STEP 3: Don’t Ever Buy What You Can’t Afford

The adage ‘cut your coat according to your cloth’ explains step 3 better. You’re simply crucifying yourself on the cross of debt when you buy what you cannot afford. Mind you, afford as used does not only imply you do not have the money for paying. It equally infers that you should avoid buying such things that will require you to let go of a larger amount of the money you own.

STEP 4: Map-Out A Payment Schedule With Those You Owe

step 4Always remember that you can report any of your creditors that threatens and harasses you to the law. The point here is; you do not have to hide from them or allow them to intimidate you. Instead, contact them for a dialogue and work-out with them a comfortable schedule on how you’ll pay them.

STEP 5: Dualize Your Source Of Income

step5

The idea is to avoid having only a single way of earning income. There are many ways to achieve this. You can work on another job, start-up a business or just engage in any legal activity that will ensure more inflow of income. The probability of your spending increasing as you experience an additional inflow of income is high. So, you have to strictly observe ‘STEP 2’ when you achieve ‘STEP 5’.

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Nedu Raymond
Nedu Raymond
An advocate of closed-back headphones, horror movies, and dark humor; Raymond believes Peter Griffin and Stan Smith should be real people. Outside of having to write, edit, and work on other forms of content, he may keep up with the EPL or listen to everything Eminem and Jon Bellion.

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