Can debt free make life stress free?
Posted July 14, 2015Life is hard enough as it is but having to deal with debt along with raising your children will make life that much more stressful, on all of you! I had over $32,000 in credit card debt and that is not counting the other debt I had to deal with. Debt made my life much harder than what I could handle sometimes. To tell you the truth, I had nobody to blame except for myself but as soon as I started taking accountability for my situation and actually started making sacrifices by making smarter decisions with my spending, I started seeing real changes in my financial situation and also experienced a lot less stress as time went by.
I want to share with you 3 things to help you reduce your stress by reducing your debt.
1. Change Your Viewpoint
Many times we rationalize to ourselves when we don’t make the best decisions, especially when it comes to debt. The first realization is that there is no such thing as good debt. I am not saying that all debt is bad, but having debt will make your life more stressful. The sad truth is that we cannot totally escape all stress. Buying a house, paying for an education, or starting a business are a few examples of debt that aren’t bad but understand until those debts are paid off, you are adding risk to your financial health. Any debt you acquire for any other reasons (big screen TV, those new pair of designer shoes, that thing you really want but don’t really need) is bad debt and your life will be less stressful if you can just say no!
2. You need a spending plan
If you can spend less money than you earn each month, chances are you can live debt free. For many people, they have more month, than they have money and that is because most people do not make a plan for how they are going to spend their money. Discretionary expenses are usually the biggest culprit and what throws most people off their spending plan. Discretionary expenses are the things that you can do without. I am not saying you can’t spend money on things you can do without, but you must set boundaries in order to not overspend. For example family vacation. My family and I do not NEED a family vacation at the beach for a week, but we make a plan on how we are going to pay for it before we go. That might mean we have to eat out less throughout the year, make sacrifices with how many tv channels we subscribe to, or whatever little sacrifices we make throughout the year in order to set aside that money into a special account that we use to pay for our vacation instead of using a credit card.
3. The best defense is a strong offense
It is not a matter of if, it is only a matter of when some unexpected expense will occur and if you haven’t been building up your savings each month, most likely you will have no choice but to rely on a credit card to get through that financial difficulty. By allocating some of your money each month to savings can be one of your best defenses against emergencies. Make savings automatic and soon you won’t even miss it. I set my savings up like a bill pay, and each month, money is drafted out of my checking account to another financial institution.
Honestly, even if you are debt free that won’t mean your life will be stress free but I do believe by having less debt your life, you will have less stress in your life. The results of less stress is less bickering, better health, and most importantly a stronger relationship with your children because you won’t be worrying (stressing) about your finances as much.
Steve Repak, CFP®
Financial Literacy Speaker and the Author of “Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic Training For Your Money”
http://nicoleodell.com/2015/07/debt-f…
posted by Steve Repak
on October, 30
Source: Good Reads