Jonahan.com

Two years ago I was easily $15,000 in debt. Credit cards, a car loan and my school loan had me living paycheck to paycheck without a thought that I could ever eliminate the debt.

 

Aside from a home mortgage, which I'm taking steps to refinance and pay off quicker, I have zero debt. Zero. $0. Nothing, zip, zilch nada, and let me tell you, it sure is nice.

 

You can breath easier, save money quicker, and do almost anything you want to do. Of course this is a lifestyle change and you have to want to change.

 

For many people, it'll take hitting rock bottom before waking up and striving for a better way of life. We've been taught that credit cards are a way of life, that you'll *always* have a car payment.

 

Complete B.S., of course, but if you've never been taught any different, how do you know? One good thing about the recent recession is that it's been a wake-up call, a clarion to many of us to kill off that debt and live within our means.

 

So how do you do this? How do you change your life to one of financial success?

 

Obviously, you've got to want it. Focus and hard work are required, but it's well worth it. 

 

After all, the alternative is being in debt your entire life. What if you work your whole life and, upon reaching retirement age, find that your Social Security payment isn't enough to live on. By that time, the cost of living has gone up and inflation has skyrocketed - but the Social Security payments never went up with them.

 

Picture being 70 years old and having to keep working because you never had extra money to put away for retirement.

 

This is why debt is a cancer. It never allows you to live the life you want. It must be cut out and attacked like the cancer it is.

 

I'll focus more on how to do this in later articles, but for now wanted to focus on why debt is so bad ... as well as how great it is to be free of it.

 

To turn this around and leave you with some positives: 2010 has been my first debt-free year and I've already managed a great deal of savings. I still scrimp and save and rarely go to restaurants to accomplish this, but the point is that I have a  savings fund, a paid-for car, a budget and a healthy outlook. I've been able to afford a few things I feel are essential, like a rifle for sick animals that come around our house fairly often (and for self-defense as well). 

 

I have plans to hit a certain amount of savings by the end of 2010 and then will focus on some mutual funds and retirement accounts (a Roth IRA), perhaps even fund a Health Savings Account (HSA). (This is all the more funny because a year ago I couldn't have told you what an IRA or HSA was.)

 

I'm thinking about doing things I really want to, like maybe get a camper or vacation to see friends and family around the country. I can afford to do this now - without having to charge it to a credit card.

 

Not trying to brag here, just to make a point that you can have this if you decide to roll up your sleeves and get out of debt. Anything you want is before you if decide to work for it. And it's really not all that hard!

 

So, do you want it?