As I stared into the beautiful face of our newborn, Hannah Rose, at 7:29 a.m. on Tuesday morning, tears of joy streaked down my face.
All I could think about — besides how lucky I am to be blessed with such a wonderful family — was just how beautiful life really is. Those who know me know my children are EVERYTHING to me, and I wouldn’t want to waste a single moment of it unable to take advantage of the complete happiness that being a dad brings.
Just like with anything else that travels through the depths of my mind, I thought about how the beauty of life relates to personal finance. As I did so, it occurred to me that a vast majority of people would have a hard time making the connection between beauty and personal finance. After all, more than half of all Americans are enslaved to the debt that has consumed their very lifestyle. Everything they know and believe is surrounded by the fallacious idea that debt is the answer to all that ails them.
Debt is NOT the Answer! It might be an answer but it’s not a solution. Real solutions come from a place of courage and strength and preparation, and there’s nothing about debt that exudes any of those things. Debt is easy. Almost anyone can get it in one form or another with very little effort at all.
I used to believe the lies about debt too, but it wasn’t until I faced the ugly truth that I realized all that I was missing. I thought my life was full and complete, but there was an awful lot I took for granted. As it turned out, my life was anything but full. I was an empty mess and unable to really take advantage of the beauty that surrounded me. As I staggered through life financially, it never occurred to me that the load of lies regarding “debt and success” was as big of a problem as it was.
As they say, ” You never know what you have until it’s gone”, but in this case I say, you never know what you don’t have until you remove the obstacles keeping you from having it. It was so engrained in my head that debt was the key to success and ultimate happiness that for a long time I was able to ignore how destructive it actually was. To someone missing the bigger picture the only thing it’s the key to is misery and servitude.
Debt is not a solution, it’s a shortcut to slavery! What kind of life are you living?
A Life of Bondage
A Life of Payments
A Life of Stress
Paycheck to Paycheck Living
A Life of Lost Opportunity
A Life of Overspending (interest)
A Life of Envy (wants)
Are you living a life of debt? Are you a slave?
Why live enslaved when you can exchange it all for something much greater?
A Beautiful Life of Freedom
A Beautiful Life Within Your Means
A Beautiful Life of Happiness
A Beautiful Life of Preparedness
A Beautiful Life of Golden Opportunity
A Beautiful Life of Savings
A Beautiful Life of Contentment
I can say from experience that the grass is greener on the other side. Since becoming debt free, almost EVERY aspect of our life has changed for the better, and yours can too!
Put aside the misconceptions about debt that you’ve learned from everyone around you and take a second to examine what kind of life you’re truly living. Next ask yourself if it’s the life you really want. Are you happy with what debt has given you? I have a hard time believing that anyone with debt could ever experience the beautiful life I’ve described above. Debt contradicts that life in every respect!
You have the right to live whatever life you wish. If that life consists of debt and all that implies, so be it, but today I want to challenge you to think outside of the box. I want to challenge you to raise your expectations. Life is beautiful and I don’t want you to miss any of it because you’re too busy working your butt off in order to make your minimum payments.
Sometimes staring into a sweet little face shows us more about ourselves than we could ever learn anywhere else. Life is beautiful, so stop wasting yours trapped in a cycle of encumbrance and despondency.
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Congrats to you and your family!! God bless that beautiful bundle of joy. I rejoice with you knowing that debt free is the way to be.
Thank you very much Jeanette! 🙂 We are definitely rejoicing!
Congratulations on your beautiful new daughter!
Life certainly is much more beautiful when you have freedom. 🙂
You can say that again Petunia, and thanks for the kind words! 😀
She’s beautiful man, congrats to you and your wife! And what an inspiration for a great post 🙂
Thanks Jesse! After the day I had yesterday there was no way this post wasn’t going to be published. 😀
Brad,
She is gorgeous! Congratulations!!
Thank you Sharon, WOOHOO! Life is grand! On the best high imaginable right now. There’s not one thing that could match the feeling you get when your children are born!! 😀
She is absolutely precious! Yes I agree kids give life new meaning; whether you have 1 or 18 they are a gift you never want to waste worrying about debt. Great post Brad and congratulations to your family!
Thanks you Suzanne! Debt is such a downer and I plan to continue to scream as loud as I can to convince as many people of that as possible! 😀
Great pictures of the newest edition to your family, Brad! The pictures are a great reminder of what is important in life. Not cars, or big screen TVs, or fancy houses. All the best to you and your whole family!
Amen Travis! The important things in life are better than anything a credit card could ever buy. 😀
CONGRATS my friend!!! SO exciting!!! And slick way to tie it to finance, haha…. that’s awesome. Say hi to the family for me – miss you guys 🙂
Exciting. Miraculous. Inspirational. Spell-binding. Absolutely Beautiful!! 😀 The high I’m on right now could never be outdone.
Glad you liked the article brother! 😀 Can’t wait to see you in October man! Be well and travel safe! 😀
Congrats! Great article as well – I really liked this portion:
Real solutions come from a place of courage and strength and preparation, and there’s nothing about debt that exudes any of those things
Well put!
Congrats on the beautiful baby girl!
I got a little misty eyed reading this…life is beautiful and so tremendously precious. I stay out of debt for many of these same reasons- I want to be free for the ones I love. If a family member needed me, I’d be able to help them without being shackled down in debt. When I meet my future husband-to-be I want to make sure the decisions I make today don’t negatively impact our life together or that he’d have to live with MY debt that I acquired having fun without thinking of the future.
Congrats on the beautiful bundle of joy and best of luck to you and your family! So happy for you!
Exactly Shannyn. As a society, we have become accustomed to taking that “beautiful and tremendously precious life” for granted, tarnishing it by using what can be a powerful resource for good (our income), and instead end up becoming the victim of paycheck to paycheck living and debt servitude.
If you have 2 items that are exactly the same, but have different costs, you would undoubtedly choose the cheaper of the two right? But for some reason people agree to pay more for everything they buy, right down to the Starbucks coffee, by using credit cards and spending more than they make. The results are and never will be sustainable so why is it so easy for people to ignore that they are spending so much of their life and money trying to pay for these things, when they could have spent much less and never had to worry about owing someone else their every paycheck? I did it for a long time!! I look back and think about just how illogical that was. It just doesn’t make sense!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and thanks for the good wishes. We are really enjoying our growing family! 😀
Congratulations on your little girl! She is beautiful!
Thank you Crystal! 😀
I just want to hug and kiss her repeatedly, is that wrong? 😉
“Why Waste it Shackled with Debt?”–I think because it’s become sort of normal. It starts with student loans, a car loan is added, then a mortgage. When you reach that point that you have all three you’re basically locked onto the debt treadmill–unless you do something radical.
For a lot of years we’ve been encouraged to go into debt to “keep the economy running”. That drove the housing market for years, and people began thinking that if a little bit of house with a little bit of debt is a good thing, then a bigger house with a bigger mortgage (oh yes, gotta get that tax deduction!) is even better.
It’s an evolutionary process, and unless we’re aware of it, the default choice will be to roll with it. But you’re so right, live is so much richer and more beautiful without debt.
It definitely has become normal that’s for sure. I love the way you talk man. “unless you do something radical!” Funny how something that makes so much sense can also be considered radical. Live on less than you make is so radical. LOL My wife and I did some pretty radical things when we were getting out of debt and we don’t regret a single sacrifice that many around us considered radical. Rockin comment Kevin! thank you!
Congratulations! Your daughter is beautiful! Also, thanks for writing this post. I totally agree that when we are in debt we are actually slaves until we have paid our debts entirely. Who wants to be a slave? A life of debt is definitely not appealing to me and I definitely agree that living within your means is the only way to go if you want to be free.
Right on Pam! I can’t even begin to name off all of the reasons becoming debt free has been the best thing we have ever done! Our options have opened up and we are able to manage our family in a way we’ve never been able to before. For one, if we were in debt our kids would have to be in daycare and we wouldn’t be able to homeschool our 5 year old. I also wouldn’t be able to work from home as I have been able to since paying it all off. 🙂 Debt freedom is true freedom from stress, heartache, and the struggles that accompany the bondage that debt brings. Thank you for your comment! 🙂