saying no to debt

“Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.”
— Nathan W. Morris

In today’s world filled with tempting deals and gadgets, both online and offline, we are so blinded by the shiny objects around us that we stop caring about the amount of money we are spending.

If you are someone who has accrued consumer debt and are desperate to pay it off, I highly recommend reading Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover and following his Baby Steps.

A step-by-step approach and a solid WHY power is key to winning with money. You must cultivate the habit of being patient and making delayed gratification a priority. It may seem painful in the short term, but staying disciplined will immensely pay off in the long run.

Here are some reasons why debt is bad for us and our lives in general:

When we accrue debt, all our extra money goes into paying off the balances. In this way, it stops us from experiencing things we’d really like to do.
It is costly. Although it may seem like a good quick fix, in the long run, we end up paying way more than we had expected.
Debt takes a long time to get paid off and is not easy to get rid of.
We’re not in control of our own money and we feel helpless.
It impedes our ability to travel around, explore new places and cultures, and gather new experiences.
It can be a big contributor to stress and depression, hence negatively affecting our mental and emotional well-being.
It strains our relationships with our spouse, friends, and family members.

There is no knight in shining armor who will come to your rescue. We have to seek solutions ourselves, and it all starts with changing ourselves first. Here are some effective tools and strategies that can help you in paying off debt:

Reading books and educating yourself on personal finance management.
Tracking your expenses.
Making a budget and sticking to it – this is a game changer!
Having an emergency fund, which will be your safety net for unexpected expenses.
Cutting up your credit cards.
Using cash whenever you can.
Switching to the mindset of abundance.

PS: My eBook Becoming a Karma Yogi is now available as a PDF download. (Reading time: <30 minutes.) Enjoy!