You might be in debt.
It’s seems stressful. It’s seems agonizing. It’s seems soul sucking.
You might see it as something that has a great purpose with a great future.                       Â
But at the end of the day, the bill is due.
With that said, you wanna how much debt is bad? Like really, do you wanna know?
Ok, here it is:
All of it.
Even the last single penny.
Yep, you heard that right.
How does working every day to the rest of your life like a slave sound?
Well guess what? That’s what will happen if you don’t fix this.
Do you really want to go through the variation of parameters with all of that refinancing, dealing with bankers who don’t give a damn about you, and fighting bills left and right that can make the whole process look like this?
And do you really want to go through a series of unfortunate events that can make getting to the end of the bill look like this?
Or do you want to to do what it takes to get to this point:
2 + 2 = 4
If so, than this post is for you. And if you’re thinking about taking out a loan but you haven’t yet, you are at the right place at the right time because you’re gonna find out why that’s a BAD idea!
Now before the reasons, let me acknowledge that I can only speak from my experience and observations and you must make the correct decisions for you. Additionally, I am only 21 years old and I do not have a lot of life experience compared to MOST people, but I am 110% confident that this is the no BS opinion and the fundamental truth for the rest of your life. In fact, I am so certain about this that this blog post will save the rest of your life from similar stuff to what you saw in that crazy math there that a lot of your friends are gonna have to do. So let’s begin!
1. You can’t build on the future; you can only focus on getting out of the hot seat
When you have all of those payments, you are gonna feel the fire for real. In fact, you probably have experienced it already like “Oh my god, I’ve got the car payment today and I need the cash now! AAAHHHHHH!!!!
And all that you think about is stress and that your life is on the brink of collapse like the building is on fire! You see, with those debt payments, there is no time for creativity, no time for building your skills to grow your income, no time for going to sleep, and no time for any kickass fun.
I’ll give you a great example. My father always complained that “I HAVE NO MONEY!” and “You and me, are poor.” and “I gotta go bet on the jockey to make money!”
You might be wondering “Is this guy crazy?”
Let’s take a look under the hood: He had multiple credit card payments that were overdue, he had student loans still unpaid for his bachelor’s and 2 master’s degrees, he bought a car that he could not afford and STILL missed the payments and still at 58 years old selling furniture at the frontline, he complains that “Dude, I have to work. I’m broke. Can’t you see that I’m in a bad situation here? I have to go make MONEY!”
Seriously, do you wanna be doing that at 58?! Really? Working like a dog at 58 on something that you don’t own nor control? Be honest with yourself, if your gonna be working at 58, it’s gonna be on something that you’re passionate about and that is making you BIG MONEY, NOT silly payments that my dad still has to pay up to this day, even though I think that you could use some common sense to not go to the race track and bet on horses to make money 🙂
Now you might be saying “Ok yeah, I see that reckless spending is bad, but what if I actually need a car and I can’t afford it now? I have to take out a loan right?”
Well, on the surface it seems like a good idea, but in reality,
2. You Are Depending on Chance Instead of Yourself
Yep, that’s right! When you take out those loans for whatever reason, now you’re in a position where you must rely on someone else for your income and the possibility that if they fire you, the reality that you won’t have anything else to make the payments!
What do you do then? Bankruptcy? That’ll limit you in the future. Scramble? Yeah, you’re gonna have to explode faster than Usain Bolt to find any work because you have to eat on top of these bills. And those skills that will give you financial confidence in the future, those will have to be put on hold as well since you are on the clock and you have to finish the test on time.
Or else:
You don’t want that, even though you might want the thing inside the bag 🙂
And now with that, let’s go to reason 3.
3. You Can Know that Nobody Owns You but YOU
Yeah you heard that right! Talk about true independence! No financial obligations to anybody. The power to decide your future, build your future, shape your future, construct your future, and actually go somewhere. That’s the real benefit of not having debt is! You can make everything that you want work for you (even though you still have to do what’s in demand and learn skills to pay the bills and have a whole lot of change at your disposal, but you get to chart your course for the long run).
But just think about it for a second: Given some time to really get stabilized of course, no bosses, no mortgage, no dealing with bankers, no alarm clocks in the long run, no more crazy people to deal with, no bombarding phone calls, and less obligations.
Just peace of mind and the ability to do what you want and build the life that you want. You can be as wealthy as you want to be, as educated as you want to be, you can eventually be able to walk the dog at the beach all day, and you can eventually go to your favorite places without worrying about the bill for the trip. How awesome does that sound?
And it starts with being debt free all the time.
Listen here: You might be tempted to take out that car loan or that house loan or that student loan to do what you want to do, but always remember this:
Debt is slavery.
Read that again and stick it on a mirror or someplace where you’ll easily access it.
Do you want to be a slave or do you want to be a free man or woman who says “I owe nothing to no one and the world cannot stop me from doing what I want to do! YEAH!”
I think the answer is pretty self explanatory.
And hey, you might have an old tale or two at your disposal later on down the road and use it to put more money in your pocket and fund your freedom even more 🙂
What to Do Now
There’s this gentleman on YouTube who is recognized as the authority on getting rid of debt and I happen to agree with that assertion because I know that he is honest and he is extremely grounded on what he believes and says.
The gentleman’s name is Dave Ramsey and he does these podcasts where people go on his show and they talk mainly about their money problems, specifically with debt, and then he kind of pokes fun at them for being, well, pretty stupid.
Take a listen to some of his podcasts, I’ll post a link here to one of the videos and you’ll soon be convinced that debt is a REALLY BAD IDEA. You’ll be surprised that some high earners go into crazy debt for no particular reason! But even if it makes sense, just don’t do it. You’ll write to thank me.
And if you are still not convinced, read this and tell me that you are not convinced now.
And if you wanna thank me, please do leave a comment and pledge to no debt. You’ll have your soul for life. Have a great day!
Until next time,
This is Chief Islander Evan signing of
Evan Cruz
Evan Cruz is the founder of Join the Island, the website committed to helping young adults become massively productive and reach their full potential.
He has been featured on Vox, OnlineU, and UpJourney. He has also a cited human relations expert and college expert.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering.
Read more about Evan and Join the Island here.