The Slavery Of Debt And Lost Opportunities

I hate debt. A lot. I’ve always hated it though not as defined as I now know it. I don’t have much of it and that’s the way I like it. I’ve been thinking more and more about the little I do have and it’s become somewhat obsessive. I don’t like it and want it gone now. I’ve played with facts and figures on how long it will take to pay off and tried to figure ways to speed it up. I’ve racked my brain and laid awake at night have only hate it more. Today I’m going to talk about the evil of debt, missed opportunities and how to work out from under it.

I’ve come to realize those words more and more. Debt is slavery, it steals your time and soul. If you ask most people why they work you will get some sort of similar answer. To pay for housing (that they spend no time in) A car to get to the job and to buy food (that’s killing them). On top of that the majority hate their work. Then you add in the harder you work the more the government takes from you. This enslavement to the machine of modern life leaves us will a gaping whole in us that is filled with buying junk. It’s a viscous circle that crushes us down until we are old and broken.

Except for some student loans that I paid off  I avoided debt my entire life. I always bought cars outright for cash, the best being a Chevy caviler for $100 that ran for over four years. When I got my big promotion at work I was driving my old pickup truck the eighty mile round trip to work and it blew up. I, in a rash decision, decided to get a new car. Enter the big monthly payment and high insurance and interest rate. I’ve paid and over paid on it since the begining of 2010 and I’m finally seeing a dent in it. I owe $8,600 left on it and hope to have it paid off in a little over a year. I’d love to do it sooner. I even almost got a credit card to pay it off to not have the giant interest rate. I’m also thinking real hard about selling it and buying a car with cash. I’m tire of the debt that badly.

Why am I so anxious to be out from under the debt of the car? All the missed opportunities that come from being debt free. One of my favorite people, Paul Wheaton, just bought his land and needs people on it. If I were debt free the prospect of moving to Montana would be amazing. My friend Dave from TNGun just bought land and is offering it for someone to manage. Building a home and beginning my homesteading now would be awesome. Instead I’m stuck in my crappy apartment for another year. Another year in the machine and slavery.

For the first few years I just paid the bill and hardly noticed the amount. I was blindly paying money and had no map nor direction. Now I have a budget and a plan on paying it off. I’m still deciding if I want to hold off on my land savings and pour more into paying off the car then add that into savings or continue to do both. I’m leaning towards the car then savings. I implore anyone that has not yet become a slave to avoid it. It is far easier to walk around the bog than climb out. The absolute only exception I can justify is housing. Just barely at that buying it outright would be better but understandable to go into debt for land/ home.