I like this proverb quite a bit. I don’t think people realize the situation they are in when they owe money.
You have this thing hanging over you and everything you do. A pet elephant that needs to be fed.
I have made a decision to live debt free. Not only do I not carry credit card debt (paid off every month), I aggressively paid off my house.
All large purchases are saved for in advance. We did a huge backyard renovation including a pool, but only did that once I had saved the money to pay for it.
Same goes for our car. We only get a new one when my car fund has grown enough to pay for a new car (sort of like a reverse lease).
That’s basically how I treat everything, a reverse loan or lease. The goal is set, monthly payments made to the fund, and then once we reach it we’ll do it. Same goes for vacations and my arcade for that matter.
Why? Because I answer to no one. My life could change on a dime. I could be poor again, and still live in a nice house and sit at my pool in the back that I make no payments for. I can’t tell you the satisfaction I feel looking around and knowing I own everything here. This isn’t false wealth.
I realize part of this is fueled by my “catastrophic thinking” where I plan for worst-case scenarios, and that can be unhealthy and I’m working on that, but at the same time I can literally handle any outcome. I also have put a freeze on my Lifestyle Creep, living the best life without chasing “more”.
In light of the debt problems our society has, and how screwed people are if everything doesn’t go exactly as it needs to go, I think in this case my catastrophic planning around having zero debt and no one to lord over me is a pretty decent way to live.
Every business I’ve started was started with the cash I had in my pocket, and nothing else. The growth was restricted by what I could do with the resources I had. I’m grateful for when things turned, I had no debt to service, and things really took off. I realize there is other thinking on this matter, but this allows a very peaceful and stress-free life. I wouldn’t do it any other way.
Hello Chris. My name is Andrew, just finished reading your book. Congratulations! Glad you found the time to complete the book and could share it with everyone. I can really relate to “the borrower” I paid off my house 2 years ago and my commercial building for my business in January and I finally feel free. I sleep better at night! I will never go back into debt again. Really good information on your website that I can relate with. This maybe email 1 of many :-). I am surprised our paths have never crossed over the years I was friends with Duarte (trypnotic) and Brad D. I use to dj under the name dj flatline. I Thru the first rave at rpm Dec 13, 1995 wow that was a lot of work. I can’t believe you could put together 44 events, 1 event was more than enough for me. My first rave was the mud rave nitrous 012. I still listen to the music from 1989 to 1999 daily. Don’t want to make this a really long email for you to read. Just want to say thanks for writing the book it was really well done and nice to read about the behind the scenes aspects of the Toronto rave scene.
Hi Andrew, welcome to the blog and thanks for your comments! I’m really glad to hear you read and enjoyed my book. Yep, those names Brad D and Trypnotic go way back.
As for the blog article, congrats on becoming debt free. I know not everyone is into that, but for me I enjoy life that much more and can take more risks because of it. Thanks and see you around.