THE CRUSHING RESULTS OF BAD DEBT

Lack of information around the scourge of debt has led to countless misery and destruction of lives. Lives have been destroyed and put on hold. I used to be one of those.

Before you start pointing out that there is good debt, let me ask you a question, if I may.

How many people do you know who have really fantastic debt? And, mind you, I am not talking about businesses and the like.

And can you recall acquaintances with destructive debt?

From the two questions, I hope I have highlighted a major point here. And that is… Anyway, before I reveal that, permit me to illustrate why debt is the monster it currently is.
 

The Necessity of Debt

Let’s be honest. We cannot live without some debt in our lives, can we? Unless we can live without decent housing, cars etc. Maybe we can, if we somehow win the lottery or get a cash lump sum, like inheritance. But how many people would actually be in that position?

So, bottom line is that we need some debt to live relatively comfortable lives. But then this is good, right? Well, let’s see.

Debt Gone Wrong

When we can no longer distinguish between needs and wants, we end up abusing the facility of debt. We end up over indebted. Ultimately, we end up being abused by our own creation i.e. DEBT.

Oh, by the way, if you don’t know what the difference between a need and a want is, here’s the answer.

A need is something you cannot live without e.g. water, air, and food. And a want would be, well, everything else.

When was the last time you wrestled yourself into buying something you need as opposed to the one you want? The fact that you have to do this is an indication that needs and wants are treated the same way. Somehow, there is no distinction between two. And this is where things go wrong.

Fortunately, there is a solution.

The Solution

Debt is addictive, by its nature. When it comes to it, you can start off wanting a dress and end up buying ten.

To go about helping yourself to overcome it, here’s a step by step solution.

1.   Treat Debt Like an Addiction: I am not going to go into detail with the actual process of addiction treatment. That is neither the purpose nor the place of this article to elaborate on such. Nonetheless, like an addiction, don’t think you can do it alone. Get expert help.

2.   Do an analysis of all your debt to assess its extent: Get to grips with it. Understand it thoroughly. A good starting point could be shutting off all debt avenues like credit cards, store cards etc. After that, you can proceed to the next step, which is…

3.   Devise a Recovery Plan: Depending on the nature of your particular debt situation, you might need some assistance here. But if you are determined, you can still do-it-yourself. Start planning on paying off the smallest debt you have and then the second smallest and so on. The point is that you have to reduce your debt one way or another.

4.   Implementation: After all the above steps, all you need to do is act. This step happens to be the hardest. It is all good and well to analyze and plan but the implementation is all important. Follow through on your plans.

What can help you to go ahead, despite all challenges, would be your vision of how it will feel like once you have dealt with your debt. You can imagine the improvement in your quality of life. This alone should motivate you to go ahead.

CONCLUSION

In the beginning of this article I mentioned something about good debt, didn’t I? Yes, I did and you know what? There is no good debt. I feel this good debt thing has been used by people or institutions that would benefit by you taking debt with the mistaken belief that it is all good.

In my opinion, there are only two kinds of debt and those are: 

NECESSARY DEBT and UNNECESSARY DEBT.

With the subject like debt, you have to be careful. Think and remove emotions when considering buying something on credit.

To your debt-free and stress-free life!