No Easy Way Out

I’ve heard people give all kinds of reasons why they have to swipe a credit card for something or take out a loan for something:

1 – ‘I have to have a car to get work.’

2 – ‘My kids need the internet for school.’

3 – ‘I’m pregnant and we need a new mattress for my back.’

And I’ve responded:

1 – ‘Have you looked into riding the bus, moving closer to work so you can walk or bike, or finding a job close to where you live?’

2 – ‘Is there a public library nearby? Maybe you all can use the library all month and on one special day a month go to the local Starbucks for treats and internet?’

3 – ‘Have you all tried looking up back exercises and stretches for pregnant women?  What about polling friends, family, and social media to see if anyone has an extra mattress they can part with?’

On the surface the needs sound legitimate and it can then be easy to justify unnecessary spending.  The challenge for many people in the alternatives that I offer is the changes in habits and beliefs that are involved with implementing those suggestions.  When people find out that I paid off $60,000 of debt over 3 years while in the military, they’re hoping that there was some easy to implement secret that was involved.  

They don’t realize that I didn’t have a car for the first 18-24 months that I was in the Army.  

They don’t realize that I didn’t go on vacation or buy new clothes.

They don’t realize that I lived on base in barracks for 4 out of the 5 and a half years that I was in the Army.  Some of that time was in old buildings that didn’t have AC in the summertime and where there were community bathrooms/showers on each floor.  Can you imagine a bunch of single teenage/20-something guys who have signed up to go through some of the Army’s most difficult training living in a building together?  It is rowdy and disgusting at times.  But it was free.

I went through my military training and I paid off debt.

Plain and simple, part of ending up in debt is just being weak.  To get out of debt, you must become strong.  You have to start changing the way you think and when the pressure of life comes you have to develop the mental stamina to stay the course.  There’s no easy way out of debt.  Just time and execution.