Want to Eliminate Stress? Pay Off Some Debt!

My mission here is to get you into a healthier lifestyle, looking better, feeling better, etc. I’ve got many tricks up my sleeve to get you going with this. I just don’t talk about exercise and eating here. I talk about anything that can help you.  Today I want to teach you how to de-stress, or at least one way to de-stress. We all know that stress is a major contributor to body deterioration and disease.

Stress is a silent killer.

There are many causes of stress in our lives. One of the major stressors that I will discuss today has to do with finances, and it is called debt.  As far as I am concerned, debt is a dirty word. Debt seems to be the American way these days. It is not unusual at all for many of us to owe ten thousand dollars on a credit card, thirty thousand on a car, eighty thousand on student loans, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on a mortgage.

When you owe money, you have people looking over their shoulders at you, waiting for their payments. God forbid you have a situation where you are in-between jobs or out of work, these people that you owe money to don’t seem to care. They still want their money and they will take drastic measures, even ruining your life to get what they are owed.

Does this sound like fun? Is this a comfortable feeling? Waking up every morning wondering what’s going to happen if you don’t make all of your payments? I don’t think so. I think it’s stressful as hell. Remember, stress quietly eats away at your body.

That’s why recently I had a goal to become debt free. And I did it. I’m not saying it was easy. I had to plan it out. But last year, I paid off my house in full, which was the last remaining debt that I had. Right now I do not owe anyone a penny. And I plan to keep it that way.

When you have no debt, your entire life changes. You don’t wake up in the morning wondering who you owe money to and what will happen if the bills do not get paid. It’s an incredible feeling knowing that if I lose my income that no one can take my house away. I own it. I control every decision that goes into it. I don’t need any permission from any bank when it comes to doing anything with my house! Or anything else.

Also, I have found that since I have been debt free, I can give more money to people and charities that can use the help. All my life I have heard people saying that when you give more, you will get more. Do you know what I used to say to that? I said B.S. How can I possibly “give” when I don’t have enough money for myself? But let me go on record by saying I am finding this giving thing to be true. When you give money, money comes back to you double or triple. Or even more! I am not sure if it’s karma, but it does work.

Listen. I believe that no matter how bad financially you think things are in your life right now, you owe it to yourself to come up with a plan to become debt free. It does not have to be tomorrow. Or next year. But you need to do it. Do it a little bit at a time with baby steps and you will get the job done.

I don’t have room here to go into all of the details, but I will tell you the first step. You need to live BELOW YOUR MEANS and pocket the difference. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you make. Living below your means is crucial. If you are spending more that you make, you can never be debt free! It is not mathematically possible.

Once you begin living below your means, take the extra money that you now have each month and figure out how to begin paying off your debts. Again, how you do this varies with each of your financial situations. We will get into this later. My goal for you today is to get into the mindset that you will eventually be debt free. Sooner rather than later. Because once you do this, you will lose all of the stress that comes with debt, bills, and the banks controlling your life. Again, I have been on both sides and THIS SIDE is much better!

Now I know what you are saying right now. You are saying this sounds wonderful but in “my” situation, I just can’t do this right now. If you find yourself saying that, you will NEVER accomplish this. Trust me. Get that negativity out of your system right now. I don’t want to hear the excuses. Excuses are easy to make. You are smart. You can do this.

Stress causes illness and other bad things. Getting out of debt is the number one way to get rid of the stress which is eating away at your body. Because after all, we all want to have the healthiest body possible, right? If you are overwhelmed, just take baby steps. Because ANY step that gets you closer to becoming debt free is better than no step!

I am not a financial planner and have no desire to be. But I do know enough to help you all on a basic level. There is no need to complicate this. I will write more on this topic later. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at rundrdave@gmail.com.

Talk to you soon.