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Financial
Enemy No. 1 The plan outlined by financial expert Stacy Johnson in his new book ``Life or Debt'' just might help millions of Americans keep the debt-reduction resolutions they made earlier this year. Johnson's so-called one-week plan appears to be foolproof because it is grounded in the ancient, unassailable wisdom that the only way to save money is to not spend it. That may sound like a tautology, but it isn't. What he really is saying is that you can't save by purchasing something you don't really need just because the seller advertises it as having been marked down. ``What I'm trying to say here is that the single best way to save money is to develop a new reality and a new attitude to go with it,'' he writes. ``Decide what really makes you happy, what you're willing to trade your life for -- but if you're about to pull out your wallet for anything that isn't truly important to your happiness, put your wallet away. ''By doing that, writes the creator of the TV news show ``Money Talks,'' you will both save a ton of money and put yourself ``in control of your life. ''When Johnson speaks of regaining control of your life, he is following up on his premise that when you are in debt, you owe the hours, days and years of work required to pay it off. In other words, money is time. You owe your creditors time that you could devote to your leisure or creative activity if you did not have to work to pay off that debt. For that reason Johnson considers the credit card public financial enemy No. 1. The former accountant and stockbroker prescribes cutting up all your credit cards as a necessary step to financial freedom. If you do not prefer to carry around cash, he advises using a debit card. In railing against credit cards and the enslaving interest with which they bind their users, Johnson compares that form of plastic to the plastic gambling chips used in Las Vegas casinos. ``Why do casinos use chips instead of real money?'' he asks. ``Because they know that you're much more likely to wager pieces of plastic than `real' money. In many ways, credit cards are like that. It's a fact that you're going to spend more money by exchanging plastic for stuff than you would if you were paying cash.'' |