Other Debt Like Obligations and How to Eliminate Them

When people think of debt, most will immediately think about credit card debt, unsecured personal loans. In previous articles, I have always stated that I think that my mortgage is such a burden. But the more I think about it, there are so many other obligations in our lives that these feel kinda like having debt to me.

Property Taxes – As long as you own your property, you will always have to pay property taxes. This is one tax and payment you can never get rid of unless you do not own your home. But then, you have to always pay rent!

Long term care insurance – every one of us needs to hedge against the risk of having to need long term care. But once you get your long term care insurance policy when you are in your late 50s or 60s, it becomes another obligation. That is one of the “unexpected expenses” when someone reaches retirement age.

Health Insurance – how do we get away from this one?

Life Insurance Policies – if you have term insurance, your payments will stop once the term ends. Just pray that you will have saved enough so that you will not reach anymore insurance. But insurance policy is another one of those expenses that we have to live with.

Auto/Home Insurance Policies – Yes, you will always need this as long as you have a home and car, you will have to bear with these payments.

How to eliminate some of these expenses?

1. Pay up your policy for your life insurance – Yes, you do not have to paying premiums forever. You can structure your policy such that the policy will be paid up after a certain number of years. Your premiums will obviously be slightly higher.

2. Pay up your long term card insurance policy – Yes, you can actually structure your long term care policy such that your policy is paid up after say ten years.

3.Pay off your mortgage – every one will eventually do that, but you can speed up the process by paying more a month towards principal payments.

4. As far as auto insurance, home insurance and property taxes, you cannot really get away with it. It’s just like expenses to put food on your table. Sometimes, it seems like you keep paying taxes for your own life!