Debt Free Lifestyle
Debt Free Lifestyle Trying to create a debt free lifestyle can be a real challenge. It has taken Jane and I nearly 20 years to come up with our own formula. We have finally achieved a debt free lifestyle, and we are sure that you can too.
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Creating a debt free lifestyle is the goal of many North Americans today. Debt has become a part of everyday life; some would say an inescapable part of our daily lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The cost of debt on our lives and our everyday freedom is staggering. What is the real cost of debt on our lives?
Needs and Wants for your debt free lifestyle
You have to be honest at this point and ask yourself some hard questions about living a debt free lifestyle. Do you honestly want to be out of debt? Or are you addicted to new cars, a better home every 5 years and every imaginable convenience in that home?
When Jane and I were first married we had the good fortune to read a book by Helen and Scott Nearing that shaped the way we viewed debt. They had a plan for getting out of and staying out of debt. The first issue they dealt with was that everything they needed would be paid for with cash- no credit. Good lesson, and for the most part we listened. Jane had a particularly hard time with this.
Next, they purchased only those items that they really needed, and only after careful shopping revealed the best price. A debt free lifestyle is not easy to achieve.
The Wage Slave economy and your debt free lifestyle
Scott Nearing, a former economist, also was dead set against what he called the ‘wage slave’ economy, that kept people tied to the city and for the most part debt. Jane and I found this out the hard way over many years. It all boiled down to needs and wants though. Did we really need that brand new car? Or did we just want it? The answer revealed a lot to us. We didn’t need it, but we bought it anyways. It was a dumb move. Five years of $321 a month payments and we vowed that never again would we borrow money. It tied us to a job (wage slave!) for years. And it hurt our life. Our debt free lifestyle became our biggest priority at that time.
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A Simpler Life for a Debt Free Lifestyle
A debt free lifestyle in the year 2008 and beyond calls for attention to details, but mostly it calls for reducing your wants and living a simpler life. What price would you put on fresh vegetables grown in your own organic garden picked on a Tuesday afternoon in August, when the rest of the world is at the office? Freedom is a great thing to have. Being free to come and go as you please knowing that you don’t owe one cent to anyone on the planet is a great feeling. But it comes at a price. Your debt free lifestyle will come at a price.
The price you pay for a debt free lifestyle
You are probably thinking of some massive price tag, or years spent saving money to achieve a debt free lifestyle. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real question is what can you live without? That place in the country will be cheaper, but you can’t just walk to the corner store to rent a movie, or buy a bag of milk. You can have 20 acres for the price of a city lot if you want it though. And all of that space leads to many possibilities. Grow a garden to feed yourself, keep some chickens for meat or eggs or both. There is also time for hunting and fishing to provide for your family.
The simpler life is not for everyone. In many ways it could be though. If we all slowed down and made time for the things that we really feel are important, instead of just doing them on the weekend, the world would be a much better place.
Noise and strife would be replaced with contentment and a purpose for your life. Cherish that debt free lifestyle as it is the key to ongoing happiness.