Get Out Of Debt!

Summary: There are so many reasons to get out of debt its not even funny! I want to take a few minutes and several paragraphs to cover some of the bigger ones and hopefully help a few people along the way. The reasons that I will cover include the economics of being in debt and the mental and physical slavery of debt. First, however, I want to talk about the different kinds of monetary debt. First there are no interest loans which are the best possible kind (if there is a good kind...

There are so many reasons to get out of debt its not even funny! I want to take a few minutes and several paragraphs to cover some of the bigger ones and hopefully help a few people along the way. The reasons that I will cover include the economics of being in debt and the mental and physical slavery of debt. First, however, I want to talk about the different kinds of monetary debt. First there are no interest loans which are the best possible kind (if there is a good kind) but depending on the other costs involved may not be worth the savings in financing charges. Second there are the low cost loans that are made even lower by the tax benefits that you may receive from paying interest on these loans (even allowing you the chance to get out of debt). You must be disciplined here but these types of loans can actually allow you to "make money" using the borrowed money. The third type that is by far the worst type is the credit card loans which are typically high interest and are usually not used to pay for smart buys. These will be discussed in more detail in the paragraphs below. The first type is a good way to get out of debt especially if given in a contractual relationship buy a source that has no emotional attachment. The trouble is that it is rare to find this kind of loan publicly and so family and friends are generally the source. Let me ask the most important question right now and then answer it. Is the money and the thing you are buying with the money worth the huge costs of the broken relationship that results in over 50% of these situations? NOOOOOO! Be VERY cautious about going into a financial partnership with someone that is close to you. The second type mainly include school and house loans. There are tax benefits to these types of debt and the product that you receive is the type that tends to appreciate rather than depreciate. Often these loans are of the low interest types and are set so that people will get out of debt for these loans. Typically these are the only type that I would recommend. The third type is credit cards. Credit card companies DO NOT want people to get out of debt which means that you should stay clear of them especially considering the astronomical finance charges that come with them. People are buried financially every day because they cannot control the feeling of power they have with credit card spending. The only people that should use these are people that are VERY disciplined with money and can pay off the balance every month. In these cases a credit card is actually very convenient and with the new cards that offer cash back can be wise. This applies to a very small minority of people, so in general stay away from them.