We could debate the pro’s and con’s of utilising personal debt but if you are reading this you have probably already realised that debt is not the answer to a happy life. Whilst debt can allow you to have the things today that you can’t really afford, you are trading these things for your freedom and your future. This article will give you six reasons why living debt free is awesome.
Never too late
Debt is about making the future you live with less so you can have more today. What if you made a different decision, a decision that you make do with less today so that the future you could have much, much more? Having more instantly is a natural tendency for many, but knowing that this is at the expense of a much brighter future, is this really a motivating vision for your life? The answer hopefully is no.
After reading this article please let me know if you are convinced that living debt free is awesome by commenting below. Please subscribe if you would like to be notified of new articles as soon as these become available!
Here are six reasons you should consider changing your attitude to debt and never borrowing money again.
Table of Contents
1. Your Income Is Your Biggest Wealth Creation Tool
Think how rapidly your life would change if you didn’t have debt repayments to make each month. When your income is your own you can accumulate wealth very quickly and sustainably. Debt is incredibly destructive to wealth creation due to the power of compounding.
Think of it this way if you borrow $10,000 on a credit card today and pay on average $1,000 in interest each year you are taking $1,000 out of your home and handing it to the bank annually! Over many years the destructive impact of even small debt can be huge on your ability to accumulate personal wealth.
Add in on top that besides interest any money borrowed needs to be repaid itself and it becomes clear debt makes it almost impossible to get ahead financially.
When you borrow money you are putting yourself on the back foot and severely restricting your ability to accumulate wealth. Wealth is essentially the cumulative difference between your income and outgoing which is one reason why living debt free is awesome.
Foe example if your income is $5,000 a month and your outgoing are only $2,500 you will accumulate $2,500 of wealth each month. As you start to save and invest the effect is exponential as you start to earn money on money in the form of interest, dividends and investment growth.
2. Debt Free Stress Free
Repeated studies have shown that worries about personal debt are one of the biggest causes of stress, depression, divorce and even suicide.
Consumer Debt is at Record Levels
Being debt free doesn’t mean you are stress free, but it does remove one of the biggest causes of worry and anxiety from your life. Being debt free turns an unexpected bill from a disaster to an inconvenience and just makes life so much better. This peace of mind is the second reason why living debt free is awesome.
Debt can heavily restrict your ability to deal with changes in your personal circumstances and unexpected costs especially as being debt free allows you to save money for these eventualities.
3. Debt Free Live Free
Debt can inhibit your ability to change things you don’t like in your life because you are no longer working for you but to repay money you owe to someone else. So if you want to go back to college, change your career or travel every thought goes through the filter of how does this affect your ability to repay debt?
It is a huge relief and extremely empowering when debt is removed from your life as you now have so much more freedom to live and to make the decisions you want to make, rather than live a life focused on debt.
Repaying debt is quite literally regaining your freedom to live a life you want to live and is our third reason why living debt free is awesome.
The financial author Dave Ramsey has written some excellent material around living debt free, to learn more I would highly recommend his book the total money makeover – View on Amazon.
4. Invest & Retire Early
The forth reason why living debt free is awesome is it helps you to invest more and retire early. Being debt free enables you to maximise your retirement planning and potentially retire much earlier than you could of done with debt. As covered in point one your income is your best wealth creation tool and being debt free enables you to utilise this tool to maximum effect.
The effect of investing more and sooner for retirement has an exponential effect due to the power of positive compounding and could see you enjoy a much more prosperous retirement much sooner. Compounding is your best friend when you are working to accumulate wealth due to the compounding effect of interest on interest.
5. Health and Wealth Go Hand in Hand
If you are reading all of this and thinking that’s all great but “I am not money motivated” consider this, the average life expectancy for a man living in Kensington, London and for a man living in Glasgow are a decade apart! Both cities are in the UK but one is one of the richest and the other one of the poorest.
Spend time with people you Love
Your level of wealth can have a huge impact on your health as wealth gives you freedom to work less if you want to, seek the best health care and live an all-round healthier life. What’s even better is wealth allows you to do this for the people you love and treasure as well – this is the number one reason why living debt free is awesome. Health and happiness are greatest gifts you can give to your children and living debt free helps you to achieve this.
6. Indulge Without Guilt
One of the things I love the most about living debt free is being able to treat myself and my family without worrying about it. Being debt free doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want or you wouldn’t be debt free for very long, but it does mean you can spend your money on you and not feel bad.
When I got debt free and had saved a significant sum of money, I decided to treat myself to a luxury watch. That was several years ago and as a look at the watch now I still feel the same pride and remember how great it was to be able to do something special for me without fear, guilt or regret.
Spending your own money is so much more rewarding than spending someone else’s. Knowing that you have not sold your future to have something means you can truly enjoy indulging which is my final reason why living debt free is awesome.
Conclusion
That’s my six reasons why living debt free is awesome! Let me know if you are convinced by commenting below and subscribe if you want to be notified of new articles as soon these become available!
I hope you found the information in this article useful. You may also like How to Achieve Anything.
Good Luck and Thanks for Reading!
