How The Banks Seduce You Into Debt

The Laptop Millionaire Newsletter
Hello Gerard,
The other day I met an English man living in Cyprus,
by the name of Andy.
Andy is in his mid-fifties, and he worked for most of
his career as a nuclear technician in the UK.
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He told me he’d saved up a bit of money throughout his
working life, and he bought a £430,000 property in
Cyprus with the idea of retiring on the island and not
having the stress of a high-pressured job anymore.
And yet when I met him he was working at five jobs,
setting up satellite TV systems, delivering Customer
Service trainings, selling at a stall on Sundays… to make
ends meet.
He used a Swiss Francs mortgage, I found out, and over
the years put in £120,000 of his own money. His monthly
payments were a manageable £950 a month.
A comfortable, fun retirement beckoned.
Fast-forward to 5 years later…
His property is now worth just £270,000.
With the recent Swiss Francs currency meltdown, his
mortgage, on the other hand, has ballooned to over
£650,000.
And his mortgage payments are now coming in at
£3,000 a month!
Another British expat I met here, Mark, has a similar story.
His property also fell in value by close to 40%, if not more..
And the bank increased the interest they were charging
him, from 2.5% to a whopping 9% — his mortgage payments
went from 1,500 euros to 4,500 a month, practically overnight.
Louis, one of my neighbours, explained to me recently that
when you take out a mortgage, for every 100 grand you borrow,
you can expect to pay 1,000 back per month, for 25 years.
I did a quick calculation, and it meant this:
When you take out a mortgage of 100,000 you end up paying
back 300,000. Not a bad deal for the bank (especially when they
create that ‘money’ out of thin air, just based on your signature
— but that’s another story…)
This is why I prefer using cash for my investments, instead of
being leveraged to the gills.
The banks in Slovakia are bombarding my wife with offers for
loans and mortgages. “Take it! It’s like free money! It’s only
2% fixed interest!”
She said, “It sounds good, no? only 2%?”
So I asked her for how long was it fixed at 2%…
…and the reply was: only 2 years. Then they can set this
price of money at practically whatever they want. That’s
how they sucker you in.
In 2003 I attended a seminar called “Wealth Mastery”, and
one of the speakers was John Cummuta, author of
“They Seduce You Into Debt”.
He said: “People are getting more and more into debt, buying
things they don’t need, egged on by the Coalition of Four:
Advertisers + Media + Credit Lenders + Merchants.
The media present us with a constant stream of glamorous
lifestyles, then advertisers make us feel insecure about what we
have, and finally Credit Lenders present us with the lure of
“free money”…
The Advertising and the Media industries co-operate. They run
the show. They’ve perfected this so much that they can sell us
anything. They know exactly how to push all our buttons.
No wonder the difference between what most people earn and
what they spend minimal if anything at all.
Eventually they get you to spend your entire income.
Then come the credit lenders… “ooouuuh…poor baby… come
over here, WE understand, WE’LL take care of you, don’t worry
about a thing…here’s a 0% for 6 months credit card.”
The Coalition is manipulating you. Driven by advertising and
popular culture, you desire to buy a big house, a new car, fancy
expensive clothes, every new convenience, toy, and fashion.
You end up wasting money trying to LOOK rich…
THE PROBLEM IS, YOU NEVER ACTUALLY BECOME RICH!”
Blogger and author Charles Hugh-Smith recently wrote:
“I personally know many immigrants to the U.S. who paid off
30-year mortgages in four years or less. How did they do it?
1. Everyone in the family 16 or older worked.
2. Everyone’s earnings went to pay off the mortgage.
3. No money was squandered on cable, dish TV, eating out,
new clothing, costly vacations, etc. Zip. zero, nada.
[…] Those who refuse debt, regardless of the sacrifice, are starving
the parasitic, exploitative machine; those with debt are feeding it.”
Make a fortune, invest in Gold and Silver, and in a few years
buy your properties cash.
(or use lease options… look out for a webinar on that topic,
coming soon… 🙂
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Quote Of The Day
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“As described in the book “The Millionaire Next Door”, most
millionaires in the US have a modest house, drive a modest
car, etc. and have simply spent less than they earn their
entire lives and invested the difference.
The Coalition has trained you to be a good “consumer”.
By the way, to “consume” means to destroy. A consumer is
nothing but a WEALTH DESTROYER.
The Coalition uses your weaknesses against you. They play
to your desire to fit in, giving in to peer pressure, “looking
the part”, keeping up with the Joneses…
Too many middle-class people try to “keep up with the Joneses”.
The problem is… the Joneses are broke. They may have the big
house, the nice car, the expensive holidays… but if you study
their financial statements, you’ll find that they own nothing,
they have no assets, and they are in debt.
Instant gratification will kill your finances. Unplanned purchases
can quickly get our expenses out of hand. Your best weapon
against this temptation is DELAY. Write down what it is you
want to purchase, then don’t act on it for a week.”
― John Cummuta
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Stats Of The Day
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“40 million Americans are now in debt because of their
university education, and on average borrowers have
four loans with a total balance of $29,000.
According to the Fed, “Student loans have the highest
delinquency rate of any form of household credit, having
surpassed credit cards in 2012.”
Since 2010, student debt has been the second largest
category of personal debt, just after a home mortgage.
The delinquency rate for student loans is now hovering
near an all-time high since they started collecting data
12 years ago.
Only 37% of total students loan balances are currently
in repayment and not delinquent.
The rest—nearly 2 out of 3—are either behind on
payments, in all-out default, or have entered some sort
of deferral program to delay making payments, with a
small percentage still in school.
It’s pretty obvious that this is a giant, unsustainable bubble.
Debt is another form of servitude. Like medieval serfs,
debt keeps people tied to jobs they dislike in places they
don’t want to be working for bosses they hate doing things
that make them feel unfulfilled.
Debt makes it very difficult to walk away and start fresh.”
Source: Simon Black, SovereignMan.com
“Total balance of Swiss Francs denominated mortgage loans
in Poland stood at PLN131 bn at the end of November which
corresponds to 22% of retail lending, and some 8% of Polish GDP.
Total balance of SFr denominated loans in Hungary stood at
HUF3.9 tr at the end of November, which corresponds to
26% of total lending.”
Source: ZeroHedge.com
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Latest News
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To Your Success,
Mark Anastasi
C.E.O, Inspired Seminars
Author of the New York Times bestseller ‘The Laptop Millionaire’
The Laptop Millionaire