over and over again – financing everything from cars to education to furniture – all those monthly payments add up and chip away at your ability to save. Chip, chip, chip. Month after month after month. After a while, instead of working to live, you’re working just to pay back debt.
“Racking up consumer debt is the fastest way to destroy your income and the ability to build wealth that comes with it. But it’s not just the debt itself that hurts. It’s the fact that you don’t realize how much your debt is really costing you.”
There’s nothing fun about schlepping away 40 hours a week so you can turn around and hand over your money to somebody else. But, when that money is yours to keep, everything becomes a lotmore exciting.
Instead of getting your paycheck and thinking about all the things you need to pay with it, you start dreaming about all the things you can do with the money. Rather than thinking, “Well, this needs to go toward the car payment,” your thoughts change to, “I’m going to use this money for a trip to Mexico.” You stop seeing life as a series of “must-dos” and start looking at all the possibilities life presents.
It’s an incredibly freeing feeling, and it’s one you can experience by following the ideas in this book.
By protecting your paycheck, you protect your life.
Using the Golden Rule to Build Real Wealth
Perhaps you’ve heard this one before. It’s called the “Golden Rule”…but it might not be the rule you’re thinking about. Here’s how it goes:
TRUTH #4: He who has the gold makes the rules.
Growing up in your parents’ house meant you had to follow their rules. Since your employer controls your paycheck, you have to play by their rules. When you owe money to a lender, you guessed it, the lender makes the rules.
Think about this for a minute: Right now, you’re trading your time – your life – to make money. But, when you’re in debt, part of every paycheck you bring home literally belongs to somebody else. Every. Single. Month. That means you’re giving up part of your life to somebody else. You’re not just trading your life for money, you’re trading your life for debt. You owe, so you give up control.
That’s not all. Borrowing money isn’t free. Lenders don’t just loan you money out of the kindness of their hearts. You’re not just using your life to pay back the sticker price of those items you financed – you’re using it to pay interest, too. Debt costs you more and more, often without you even realizing it, killing you softly with each monthly payment.
When you’re debt-free, you get to choose how you spend your paycheck. You have the ability to take risks and live life on your own terms. You are in control of your money and your life.
Get out of debt. Make your own rules. Become “the man with the gold.”
9 Specific Reasons Debt Sucks
Greg and I have grown to hate debt so much that we could list thousands of reasons you should avoid it like the plague.
Here are some of the most important.
•Debt is the enemy of income. Your paycheck is the most important wealth building tool you have. When you’re forced to pay off debt each month, part of your income – sometimes even most of it – is already spoken for. Debt hacks your paycheck to pieces, and with it your ability to build wealth.
•Debt makes it hard to get ahead. Debt effectively decreases your income, making it that much harder to make financial progress. When you’re shelling out thousands of dollars to creditors each month, it’s pretty freakin’ tough to look past tomorrow’s bills. And when you’re living paycheck to paycheck, things like saving for retirement, college, or even a vacation get put on the back burner.
•Debt decreases your options. When you have bills to pay and mouths to feed, big financial risks – like quitting your job to start your dream business – don’t look too attractive. And the more bills you have, the less likely you’ll be able to take some risks in life. Debt forces you to become a wage slave and destroys your ability to make decisions for yourself. This voluntary purge of your freedom comes at a cost – mentally, emotionally, and monetarily.
•Debt stresses you out. Being in debt is downright stressful, especially when you fall behind. Is it any wonder that so many of us walk around depressed, stressed, and angry? Even if you don’t have debt collectors harassing you, all that debt hanging around your neck is enough to make you want to crawl into a hole and hide.
•Debt makes you give up control. He who has the gold makes the rules. When you owe somebody else, you have to play by their rules. They are in control, not you.
•Debt forces you to work longer and harder. Got a giant car payment to worry about? How about a mortgage to pay? When you’re in debt, you have to keep feeding the beast – and you’re paying more than the sticker price in the form of interest. That means working harder and longer just so you can turn around and give your money to somebody else. Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?
•Debt hides the true cost. Debt is a sneaky little devil. It weasels its way in, delaying the pain of a purchase until later. It masks itself, so you don’t even realize the true cost of what you’ve just bought. Accruing more and more debt starts to feel normal… until you can’t even distinguish the damage it’s doing to your money, your life, and your dreams.
•Debt is a cycle that keeps building on itself. Debt never gets better. It only gets worse. The free money is addictive, but it’s only hiding the financial pain. The more you use it, the more you need, and the worse it gets. The only way out of it, the only way to heal your finances, is to pay it off.
•Debt makes everything more expensive. You didn’t think all this “free money” was actually free, did you? Lenders are in the business of making money, and they do it by charging you interest, month after month. Whenever you finance a purchase, you’re going to pay more for it in the long run – sometimes a lot more.
What Can You Do Now?
That’s all fine and good, you think, and maybe you wish you’d realized it sooner. But, you’re already in debt – so what should you do now?
We’ve come to the first step in our journey to debt freedom:
We need to recognize that we have a problem.
Yes, we are addicted to debt.
We know it’s hard to admit, but it’s the truth… and it’s the first step to recovery.
To really drive home this point, we need to assess the situation, understand the damage we’re dealing with, and fully acknowledge the problem. Here’s how.
First, bust out all of your bills and stack them into a pile. Now, take out the bills for your monthly living expenses – such as electric and gas utilities, insurance, childcare, cable, internet, and phone bills – and set them aside.
You should now have a pile of bills for items you financed. These might include credit card bills, your mortgage, car payments, furniture financing or store credit card bills, student loans, and other debts. Add up the total balance owed on each bill – not the minimum monthly payment, but the outstanding balance or remaining principal on each loan. This is the total amount of debt you owe. Grab a sheet of paper and write it down.
Next,
