I don’t believe in debt and neither should you! Debt is the worst thing you can have. It robs you of many things. In the ’70’s, I received an almost full scholarship to attend a private college in California. Even though I did well my first semester, I was extremely homesick. I gave up my scholarship and instead went to our local University.
Not knowing that I might have been able to apply for the same type of scholarship as the one I’d given up, I applied for a grant and received it. It did not cover all my costs, so I worked two part-time jobs, and operated a wedding photography business. Upon graduation, I did NOT have any student loan debt!
American Express offered me a credit card and I took it. I made a commitment to never charge more than I could pay-off when the bill came. My motto was then and it is to this date, “I don’t believe in debt.” I have a degree in Finance by the way.
I am not going to tell you that I never had a car loan or that I never had a credit card balance because that would not be true. I can tell you that my credit card balance only went into the next month and were paid-off that month. This has only happened about five times in the 50+ plus years God has allowed me to be on this earth. I’ve had about ten cars and had loans for eight. Two of the cars were used cars for which I paid cash.
Having debt deprives you of many things. It deprives you of peace of mind, sleep, giving, and happiness. You might be reading this and saying, “Yeah, but I do have debt, so what do I do?” The answer is to stop using plastic. Cut-up your cards and use cash to pay your bills. Don’t use your ATM card to pay for anything. “Pay” your expenses on paper first. This means make a budget/spending plan. Allocate the money to each expense. Place the cash for each item in separate envelopes. Use the money in each envelope to pay that expense and nothing else. If you run out of money in that envelope, do not take money out of another envelope. When it’s gone, it’s gone. Record every cent you spend on a small notebook. Note the amount you spend, the date, the item, and the vendor. As you pay your monthly bills, record those on your notebook. This will help you when you make your budget. The other benefit is that you won’t spend as much because you won’t want to write it down.
For more details on getting out of debt, follow the advise on the debt post, and download one of the budget forms in the download section.
Remember God wants us to be good stewards of His money. He wants us to use our surplus to help others.
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