What Real Freedom from Debt Feels Like

There is a lot of financial advice in the world that can be overwhelming and difficult to apply to your situation. It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you’re buried under debt and obligations that feel like you cannot breathe. It is also hard to make some of the choices necessary to keep focused on paying down that debt when other opportunities seem to come up. I consider it similar to dieting and achieving good health. If it were easy we wouldn’t have the obesity problem we do in this country. We also wouldn’t have people buried under debt from health needs and emotional circumstances. We wouldn’t have the debt crisis we see in our nation today.

I don’t think socialism is the answer to these problems. Giving up our freedom to have someone else make choices that are right for a common good doesn’t feel right to me. What if you are not common? What if you want or need something different? What if you like living your own life without being questioned about it? There maybe isn’t one good answer that fits everyone or every situation. We are all different and have different needs in our life. I think that’s the point where we lose the ability to say socialism is the right answer for our country. Regardless of your political party perspective I think these larger questions are something all of us need to sit deeply with and determine if long term that really is the right answer or if we’re just caught up in emotion. Seeking temporary relief sometimes drives us to consequences we cannot undo later.

That’s the funny thing about debt and money is it’s interlocking relationship to our emotions. We sometimes struggle with balancing the emotional aspects of a purchase that leads to debt with the rational side of ourselves that says there might be a different way. Then when we are in debt we are emotionally drained from the burden of how we overcome that circumstance. A circumstance of our own making but at that point we are desperate for relief and willing to forego more of our freedom to get it. The problem though started well before that debt. It started when we signed away our freedom to take on that debt at the beginning.

As I hear the news of all the people talking about their student debts I have to wonder where it all stems from. Are we not teaching our children about money decisions or are you not giving them solid examples? Are we giving them bad advice because we also struggle with making those same decisions? Maybe these are truly extraordinary circumstances but that can’t be true for everyone. In my own opinion this seems to be a root problem of us not living in alignment with nature and instead following society should, must and have to pressures. It is also indicative of our own unwillingness or admission that we were irresponsible.

Yes that made me gulp deep too.

We are all guilty of following what’s popular or what people think we should be doing. Going to great schools, getting married, having kids, and on and on. We all want to fit in and not be seen as the weird person who is different. Yet the ramifications are we are going into debt we cannot be responsible for and more importantly we are silencing who we are inside. We are missing out evolving and being us in own uniqueness and beauty on top of living in a way that is unnatural. Sometimes we have to make different choices in what is right for us and that means changing our college plans or the type and size of our home or what type of car we buy. That decision is monetary as much as it is emotional but the thing that ties emotions and money together is listening to what is right for us not someone else. It directly means forgetting what people may think and buying an off-label item that is affordable in our budget. I believe doing anything else robs us of our joy in life and leaves us with regrets in the long run. I believe joy is best experienced and found when we live in natural alignment to our true selves and needs.