Debt Free Looks Like What?
by Myrna Giesbrecht

Description: Thoughts on what a life free from debt might look like.

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If you were debt free, what would you look like?

What does anyone who is debt free look like? If you think about it for a minute you're not likely to come up with a list of body types and characteristics but a list of material possessions. We've been conditioned from the "fairy tale" stage to believe that if you wear a crown, live in the castle on the hill and drive around in a horse drawn carriage, you don't have money worries. 

Why is that? In today's society, the opposite is more likely to be true. Because someone has a high paying job, drives a new car and lives in an upper scale neighborhood, does not mean that they are debt free (or even rich).

Most of us are living with a false belief, a false paradigm. We've been trained to think that having material possessions equals lots of money and lots of money in turn equals freedom from debt when it is totally possible that possessions equals loans equals debt. It's a new way of looking at things. When you walk down the street and see that fancy high-end car in someone's driveway instead of thinking, "Boy, he must be loaded!" you might start thinking, "I wonder how much he owes on that baby?" When that change occurs, there's a certain satisfaction, almost righteous pride, in driving an average car you own outright versus one the bank owns more of.

The abdication of our right to choose has caused us as a society to move over the course of one generation from a people who lived well and within their means to a people who live beyond their means and are both financially and emotionally stressed. We've allowed continuous advertising to determine for us what quality of life is, what we must do, where we must live, what we must wear and what we must drive if we are to be successful and acceptable. We've been brainwashed to believe that who we are and our value as a human being is directly equal to the sum total of all our possessions whether or not we own them outright or borrowed the money to get them. 

With the belief that more is better, we have wholeheartedly supported the financiers who created the loans, overdrafts, credit cards, lines of credit and payment plans that make that lifestyle attainable--but not livable. Once in debt, we realize that we have signed our own ticket to financial hell and we begin to question the thought process that got us there. 

If you signed the ticket in, you can also sign the ticket out. You can be debt free. What does it take? That leads back to the original question. What does anyone who is debt free look like? If you look at their personal characteristics rather than their material possessions, you will find enviable traits including conscious choice, high emotional intelligence and established priority structures--all ingredients of critical thinking, a skill that can be learned and developed. 

We're not talking about having blue eyes here! It isn't a case of you were born with thinking skills or you weren't.  They're learned as a result of consequences, of maturity, and of choice. For example, a small child learns quite quickly that "hot" hurts. After that, whenever they are told that the plate, the stove, the fireplace, or whatever is hot, they don't touch it. It makes sense, seems almost natural and yet this thinking process takes a nose-dive in adolescence and seems never to recover in the majority of the population. 

We become driven by our emotions, wants and desires. We believe we have a right to have it all now. We act quickly, defend our position to the death, refuse to consider alternatives and spend, spend, spend without thought of consequences. We don't realize that while our physical bodies mature naturally, our thinking processes may need help.

That's why statements like "one day sale" and "no money down, no interest and no payments until..." work on us. Advertising tells us that if we want to be successful, we must buy this particular product yet once our emotions drive us to go to the store to buy it, when we get there we find we don't have enough money. But, that's okay because there is a great payment plan available and for a low monthly payment of so many dollars per month, if we'll just sign here, it'll be delivered later this afternoon. Instant gratification! The underlying subliminal message is "and then you'll really be a somebody".

This example illustrates poor thinking skills. These kinds of decisions are impulsive and irrational. To develop good thinking skills, you must learn to analyze your options. For every action, there is a reaction. In the time between something happening to you and you reacting to it, you have a choice. 

Unconscious choices are impulsive; conscious choices are deliberate and well thought out. In terms of being debt free, your actions and spending decisions should be based on well established goals over the long term and not immediate wants. The desire to accommodate immediate wants is, in most cases, the reason a debt problem exists in the first place. 

Advertising, peer pressure and the unrealistic expectations of others lose their impact once you begin making decisions utilizing good thinking skills. Instead of opting into payment plans, you may decide to pay yourself each month until you save up enough to make the purchase. You may decide that the desire for this product is a result of advertising and not a real need, therefore you don't want it after all. 

Whatever you decide, the process of arriving at that decision should weigh the pro's and con's of the purchase, the impact it will have on both your financial and emotional situations and the value of it towards attaining your long term goals. If you don't need it, why buy it. 

Reprinted with permission.

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