‘Accounting for a Better Life’ is a book in which John Passmore proposes a new, simplified and fun approach, to home and personal bookkeeping and accounting.

The new methods, based on what he calls, domestic well-being accounting, enable people to gain control of their personal and domestic, financial affairs. The system provides the necessary visibility so that users will know exactly what their money is being spent on, and how well balanced their spending is, in relation to its distribution.

The balance is across basic domestic needs and responsibilities, discretionary spending on holidays, leisure and entertainment, and provision for future well-being. Knowing about the current and past spending patterns, users can determine where and by how much, changes might be needed. Budgeting and associated feedback, facilitate the monitoring of such financial planning.

The author believes the new methods have the potential to be adopted as a formal, sub-discipline of business accounting, eventually perhaps, with suitable certificates and diplomas for those who learn how to use it successfully.

With such recognition, the motivation for appropriate investment from industry and the state becomes real, so that domestic accounting, its further calibration and an associated training infrastructure, can all be further developed and refined.

He proposes that in time, such methods should become an established part of the school curriculum. Through this, youngsters will be able to achieve the best possible foundation to accept and take on the financial responsibilities that are associated with success, in modern life.

In the prevailing UK situation, of a very severe debt crisis, the new approach, almost in passing, provides the required visibility on the state of a family’s financial affairs, to provide warnings of potential difficulties so that the necessary defensive actions can be taken, to prevent falling into the debt trap. For those already experiencing some debt, the new methods provide the necessary visibility on their finances to facilitate the required planning and control, required to best manage debt recovery.

If people realized the extent and value of the average, domestic, cash turnover, in the course of a lifetime, it seems amazing that serious, financial management is not already, demanded. If an equivalent, small business, with similar turnover was not effectively managed, the owners would probably have shareholders, accountants and Company House, knocking on their doors.

Accounting has traditionally been thought of as a rather boring, difficult and tedious activity by most people. It is also recognized as somewhat of a challenge, in considering the length of training required to achieve professional status, as a Chartered Accountant, or similar.

Having started to manage his own accounts at home, soon after the arrival of the PC, in the late eighties, John Passmore tried to adapt the traditional, business-oriented way of using accounts, with all the usual, end-of-period reports. He uses commonly available, general purpose software, an accounting package (Microsoft Money) and a spreadsheet package. He has adapted the maturity of double entry accounting and has also had to ensure his methods could cope with multiple currencies in use, whilst working overseas for thirty years.

Although it was basically satisfactory, in so far as it produced the overall figures on net worth, John realized two things; first, the traditional business focus and motivation on profits and shareholders’ value, understandably, had little relevance to the domestic situation, and second; there was no visibility on the nature of the bulk of the day-to-day, domestic income and expenditure. In addition, the terminology and the overall style of business accounting, he found, not at all conducive to successfully and easily running accounts, for a home environment.

Over a decade, John Passmore has gradually evolved a new approach to personal and domestic accounting. At a fundamental level, he has made everything much easier to understand and use. This was achieved by a range of simple techniques, such as rigorous naming conventions and a simplified version of the so-called, accounting equations. More importantly, he introduced a new focus for home and personal accounting, which he calls, domestic well-being. Essentially, domestic well-being, or DWB, provides a hierarchical structure for defining and recording, the increases and decreases, making up day-to-day, domestic financial activity.
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Individuals in debt who wish to make use of the services of a debt management firm should do research before committing themselves. An unscrupulous debt management firm can harm a debtor’s interests in many ways, so make sure to keep the following 4 things in mind before hiring a debt management firm:

1. Avoid any agency that calls you by phone or sends you spam: Most debt management firms advertise in the yellow pages or on the Web, but do not over-aggressively solicit clients. Therefore, there is a good chance any company which does so is not on the level. Debt management companies that follow a cold calling policy or send unsolicited emails will usually not be able to provide any solid references. Most of these companies do not even keep a reserve fund, which serves as a guarantee for the debtor that his creditors will be paid.

2. Non-profit agencies do not necessarily offer better service: First, not all non-profit debt management firms offer their services free; some firms charge up to 15% of the debt amount. Being a non-profit organization does not make a debt management firm a better and more efficient service provider than those that charge for the services. In fact, companies charging for their service are under an obligation to free their clients of debt as efficiently as possible because they are making a profit from their work and their profitability is directly linked to their credibility and reputation in the market.
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Arrears are a stressor. The stressor can eight break you or make you take action to resolve the problem. When it comes to debt, most people struggle, grind and fail to see a way out, but the fact is, there is always a way out of debt.

To find a way out of debt, the debtor be ordered sit down and calculate his budget, expenses, debts owed, etc. Once all computations are compassed, the debtor can move to eliminate debts owed.

To eliminate debt, you do not need a lawyer as most people feel they do. Rather, you need a guide that helps you to learn how to write your own letter to creditors, scrapbook agencies and credit bureaus. What most people do not realize, is that creditors would rather work with you than submit your rundown to collection agencies or to the three credit bureaus. The creditors would opt for that you give them a call and make payment arrangements. In most instances, creditors will write your debt off, weaken your arrears, and afford you to make small payments toward getting out of debt.
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Owe money to the bank, bills getting way too high to handle, borrowed off friends who now want to repaid? Any of this sound familiar? If so, you are wrapped in a debt chain, and this article will give you some pointers as to break the chain and become debt-free. All it takes is a firm commitment to change your habits.

Debt is defined as something, normally monetary, that we owe somebody else. It doesn’t always have to mean money, but in this article, we will focus on financial debt.

One of the best ways to reduce financial debt is to consolidate bills. If you have two or three cell phones all on different plans, put them all onto the one plan and take the savings. Pick the best plan for your needs and put everything under it.
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