BREAK AWAY FROM DEBT, BREAKTHROUGH FOR WEALTH

TEN PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEBT-FREE LIFESTYLE

The author advances these principles: (1) Your Calling in God’s Economy, (2) The One Thing You Must Do, (3) End a Deadly Practice, (4) What To Do with Debt, (5) A Proven Way out of Poverty, (6) Plan your Children’s Future, (7) Cultivating the Winning Attitude, (8) Make your Money Make more Money, (9) Learn the Secret Formula, and (10) How be Debt-Free Forever.

“God’s Economy,” according to Liuson, recognizes God as Owner of all, “and He has appointed us to take care of His creation… to administer every resource and every blessing.” The advantage of being an administrator is, when a really big problem comes, the owner comes to the rescue.

The “One-Thing-You-Must-Do” Principle gives the wisest but rarely practiced advice: Have a budget, instead of yielding to impulse spending. “Easy?” Use an envelope for every essential or non-essential expense.

He has this witty advice with a warning: “When you shop for food, you’ll spend only the money found in that envelope. When it runs out, that means you should stop buying food.” It’s like saying, stop breathing!

One or no credit card at all. What’s the “deadly practice” mentioned in Principle 3? It’s the ubiquitous, powerful, addictive credit card! What’s Liuson’s advice: “Cut your credit card into pieces, “if necessary,” he quickly adds. Then he tells a heartbreaking story of a Nestor, who has eight credit cards, and piled up half a million of debt in the principal alone!

He relents about credit cards, and dishes out four tips in using these cards: (1) Get one credit card only, (2) Never recklessly charge to your credit card all purchases that you can pay with cash, (3) Pay the total bill on time, and (4) Don’t be greedy for points (or be seduced by points).

And what’s the secret formula in Principle 10? Liuson volunteers the “10:20:70 Formula.” It is a shorthand to “Tithe” 10 percent, save 20 percent, spend 70 percent. He advances the concept of tithing (10 percent of income) as mentioned in Genesis 14:18 of the Scriptures – believed by Christian faiths.

Debt-Free Forever?

And he cities a policy among Cityland founders that every stockholders should be a “tither.” He attributes the continuing growth and expansion of this condominium builder, to giving the tenth to God’s work – meaning, in a Church, a chapel, or any of God’s “storehouses.”

So becoming “debt-free” is an attainable goal after all. Even the poorest of the poor can achieve such a feat. And then move on realizing wealth, creating wealth – and “honoring God with our wealth.”

As I said earlier, this is a different guide to getting out of the present – day bondage – financial debt. And evangelical leader as he is, Liuson advises readers to be debt – free forever. He just leaves these thoughts to ponder: “What good would it do to live free from financial debt in this life only to find out that we have an unsettled debt to pay in the afterlife?”

After reading this book, living up to the 10 principles of a debt-free lifestyle, one realizes that the issue of debt has material and spiritual dimensions. And it is necessary to settle both dimensions soonest. As one author puts it, not Liuson, “Nothing is settled until it is settled right.”