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Oprah’s “The Debt Diet” series offers good Financial Help to Get out of Debt

February 26th, 2006

Oprah’s “The Debt Diet” series offers good Financial Help to Get out of Debt

$100 Bill

Oprah has just aired part 2 of the 3 show special called “The Debt Diet”. This show offered advice on how families are struggling with debt because of poor management on spending. The 3^rd in the series will air on ABC on March 10^th.

It was good to watch the process that the professional money managers used to approach the debt consolidation. What each family did was determine there monthly bills and expenses. When looking at the totals for their expenses they found that there were a lot of hidden expenses.

One family over spent on TV and cable bills. They also wanted the best for their children and had a nicer upright piano. The financial planner wanted it gone. They settled for a smaller upright. The big screen TV went back. They couldn’t give up their cable but they downsized to a cheaper plan.

Another family had spent roughly $13,000 a year on things like eating out and frivolous purchases. They had a soft spot for their children, who doesn’t? But it points out the reality that even though we want to help our young adult children, the parents are also in a financial crunch. The daughter was not being responsible because her parents took care of the problems for her. She got a parking boot ticket of $80 for parking in a no parking area, the daughter probably would have been more careful if she knew she would be responsible for the ticket. The parents were working on how to get the money together and it caused a lot of stress on the other family members. I think this hits home for many people because too many times we want to help our children and do the best for them even if it gets us so far in debt that we get into trouble.

What was done in the last family was to cut up the credit and debit cards and live on cash only. With every one having a budget and everyone writing on an envelope what they spent it on. It wasn’t easy for this family. But I don’t think it is a journey anyone wants to go on. But I have a feeling after a while doing this there financial situation will improve and they will feel a big relief.

You can visit Oprah’s website for more information on the financial planners and their books. This series points out the reality of being in control of your finances and not being out of control. This series have also taught us how to budget by forcing yourself to pay cash for everything. This series reinforce the idea that there is a good chance that your financial crunch is due to lack of budgeting. You can check out our website for more debt and finance articles.