Many people wrongfully assume that debt is created by people going out and spending their wages or earnings on consumer goods they are unable to pay off, or getting involved in an unsustainable mortgage contract that was dim-wittedly signed. However, debt is usually due to the desire to have shelter, even though income has dried up. There is no greater tragedy, in this regard, than someone falling ill and being able to support themselves.

Unlike redundancy, physical and mental illnesses can leave you unable to do the job you worked hard to get, and this will only get worse if recovery is slow or not even possible at all. The added stress of trying to keep up with debt payments often only makes people worse, especially if their quality of living is also dropping as pennies are scraped together to meet basic amenities.

Many people have found that the best way to counteract this problem is to sell their house fast, as this is the best way to release equity if it is already owned by them. It’s hardly a surprise, given the amount of money that may be necessary to succeed in getting past the issues that ill health can present.

After all, high debt burdens impact on so many areas of life, and these can incur costs of their own. For example, if you’re ill, you may not be able to physically, mentally or emotionally cope with the speed that income drops – particularly if you’re sleeping or resting for a large part of the time. As health further deteriorates, it becomes harder to sort your finances out, especially when you need to pay for respite care or similar.

You may also have to pay for transport, or meet prescriptions or alternative medicines that are necessary to dig you out of the deepening hole. You may even need to invest in a carer, or private treatment to speed up a possible return to work, but you may have to foot some of the costs. Particularly if your job is a very physical one, it may take even longer to return to fitness levels before an illness came about.

Whatever you decide to do, consider your options and don’t get too attached to things you own, especially your house – it may just be your ticket to an escape from the problems you face!

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Ed: This was written on a train. Three weeks ago. On the way *to* Chicago. Not exactly timely, and now completely outdated, but whatever.

Leading up to the Financial bloggers Conference in Chicago last week two weeks ago three weeks ago, I had been reading quite a bit about introversion and how to handle it with inherently social events. One person who has been inadvertently helping me with this lately is Jana Fadness, with her own posts about introversion and, well, clubbing.

When I finally found a roommate in Paula @ Afford Anything, she noted that she has gotten to know a good many people just from riding the train, and suggested I do the same. Being one to myself, however, this is easier said than done. However, much like the conference itself, I vowed to be as open to others as possible. Not that it necessarily makes the experience more enjoyable for me (not really), but for the sake of getting everything out of the experience as I can.

Crazy as it may sound, it can really come in handy. I know that to anyone else, such things will seem obvious, but for an analytical person like myself who happens to be bucking the norm, it’s quite interesting.

The trip to Chicago involves a four hour layover in Pittsburgh, which is nothing short of exciting. The train station looks more like a bus station, and with only one television, you’re really left to your own for entertainment. So, how did I end up on the other side of the river, at Joe’s Crab Shack? Pick two random people walking by your seat as everyone is emptying the train, and mention to them the lack of anything to do for the next four hours.

Boom. Dynamite. It goes.

But now, for the flip side, and I swear, this totally isn’t my fault. The next train through had assigned seating, and I just so happened to end up across the aisle from the couple I went out to eat with. And right next to me? Smexy quasi-hipster girl, who I may or may not have been creeping on from a distance at the station. The first thing I did was make my sociability known to the car, because that’s generally a good idea, right? Didn’t work. Just now, nine hours after I sat down next to her, I heard the first words out of her mouth all night – “excuse me” as she got up and left.

It makes for a slightly akward situation. It also makes it very difficult for me to charge my phone. But, honestly, it may be that she’s just like me, and I can’t really fault her for that, now can I?

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This post comes from a guest blogger, Mike, who is the creator of CreditCardForum, a site for deals and reviews. He’s struggled with massive credit card debt himself, which he discusses below.

I did a search for creative ways to pay off credit card debt and everything I saw was very vanilla advice. Everyone seems to be giving the same boring tips like spending less, getting a side job, and other common sense approaches you probably already thought of. I’m going to go out on a limb here and bet you are looking for more creative ways than that, right? Well here are three extreme methods.

#1. Peddle credit cards to pay off your own debt

Let’s be honest… the credit card industry is a total cash cow. Lately they haven’t been doing the best because of all the people flaking on payments but more often than not, they are making money hand over fist. Why not get a piece of the action for yourself?

After getting in a severe car accident when I was 18, I was left with some big medical bills that I had to pile on plastic. In fact “big” would be an understatement because we’re talking monstrous, colossal, debt that’s the size of Mount Everest. Because it consumed my life I eventually started a forum dedicated to credit cards and shortly thereafter, I realized that the forum could be used to make money advertising cards. That income could then be used to pay down my credit card debt faster!

You can do the same thing I did. Just pick out a sweet domain (like Debt Sucks Blog!) and then start blogging about credit cards. You won’t make money right away but if you put a lot of effort into it, down the road it will pay off. For example, write a Chase Slate review and they will pay for each person that is approved through your link. Now in all honesty the Chase Slate card doesn’t pay much, but you can make some nice money with higher end offers, like the Citi Dividend World MasterCard. Not all banks participate but most of the big ones like Citibank, Bank of America, Chase, Capital One (like many, Jake hasn’t had the best experience with Capital One), American Express, and Discover pay affiliates to market their cards. This is how I paid off my insane credit card debt and if it could work for someone as technically challenged as me, I’m pretty sure anyone can pull it off!

#2. Risk your life to raise funds

For liability purposes I should probably be clear that what follows is “for entertainment purposes” only and I by no means advocate someone actually doing these things!

A couple months ago you might have read the story about the 17 year old Chinese boy who sold his kidney to buy an iPad. Allegedly, this boy named Zheng searched online for a buyer to sell his kidney. How much did he get? 22,000 yuan which works out to be around $3,400 USD. So if you want to risk your life and permanently jeopardize your health to chip away at your MasterCard debt by a couple thousand, then just head on over the China!

Now for some less controversial ways to put your life on the line, you may be able to raise a few bucks by being a guinea pig for the pharmaceutical industry. I actually contemplated this myself a few years ago but the payouts I were seeing were lousy. Basically when you added up the gas + time it would take to drive back and forth to the facility, I could make more money working minimum wage (which I did).

#3. Become a surrogate mother

This one is solely for the ladies out there who are struggling with debt. Best of all, not only could it help you, but it could help a mother who is medically unable to have children on her own.

To be completely honest with you, I don’t know a great deal about how the process works but did read up a bit on it so I could write this. Apparently you can earn up to $25,000 and maybe more. The money is placed in an escrow account and paid out to you in increments over the course of the process. Best of all, I think by law your employer will have to give you some time off once you get further along.

Of course there are a ton of drawbacks to consider with this. First of all, someone’s life is being placed in your hands so this really requires some major responsibility. That includes no smoking, no drinking, etc. Then of course there is the time and discomfort, not to mention what that puts your body through. In short, this is a major sacrifice! The way I look at it is that unless your #1 motivation is helping out the couple to become parents, this option is definitely not for you! Only do it if your heart it is in.

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From September 2 to October 6, my net worth increased an average of $41.16 per day, or $1,234.84 overall, to -$32,766.10. This is a 3.77% increase, and results in a projected zero net worth on 5/16/2014.

Things and stuff of note

September was my best non-triple non-bonus income month so far this year, and those two fat checks carried me through this net worth update like a champ. I really needed that, especially with the Financial Bloggers Conference having happened, which was… expensive. My writeup on that is coming soon, and will likely be a vlog. Haven’t even unpacked yet.

While one good month isn’t enough to bring my various short and long term goals back in line, it did bump my zero net worth date two weeks closer, and reduced my magic number to $1,151.65 (previously $1,162.37).

While this month would’ve been a couple hundred better had I not gone to FinCon, it looks like my presence there and the connections I made will soon pay for the whole trip already. Not only is that pretty fucking amazing in itself, that also means sustained increased income. Long term.

While loops are annoying. Then again, I don’t code anymore. Sidebars updated.

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