The bondage of debt

The following is a guest post from Kevin who writes for 20smoney.com

The Debilitating Bondage of Debt

Debt is ruining the lives of many individuals today. As a whole, our society has bought into an idea that borrowing from the future to live today is a sound financial strategy. Unfortunately, the bills are coming due and for many, these bills are unable to be paid.

The problem with debt is that it puts someone into bondage. I don’t believe that this type of bondage and this type of lifestyle is what God desires for us. I do believe that we’re not intended to be slaves of debt.

The bondage that debt inflicts prevents us from enjoying many freedoms. The main one is the freedom to allocate the fruits of your labor towards appropriate areas. These areas might be: your needs, charity and tithing, saving for retirement, and yes, your lifestyle.

Our money is God’s money

I believe that we are to be responsible with our money because in reality our money is God’s money. We are stewards of it. Using our money to pay interest on debt we have incurred is not the proper use of God’s money. While a mortgage can be a useful tool in providing shelter for oneself, an excessive mortgage to fund an excessively large home can definitely be characterized more as greed than a useful tool.

I believe we should be responsible with our money, keeping our lifestyle within the limits of our income. The responsibility can also include tithing and giving to the church. Giving is a very useful tool with regards to keeping your heart in check when it comes to money. As the Bible says, you cannot serve both God and money. Giving your money away is a very tangible way to keep yourself in check according to this principle taught in Matthew 6:24.

Living a reasonable and responsible lifestyle and consistently giving should not be two burdens that we are tasked with. They are two freedoms that we have the pleasure of living out. These freedoms are to be enjoyed! These freedoms will keep us away from the bondage of debt. Ask yourself how much better off would countless individuals be if they were to follow these two ideas with regards to their money? How many people would happily choose to go back in time and give away 10% of their money if it meant helping them avoid the desperate debt hole in which they find themselves in today?

The last point I wish to make regarding debt is that we need to understand the differences between assets and liabilities. Being responsible means to invest in assets that will pay us a return or pay interest. When we incur debt, we pay someone else interest and we become their asset.

Financial freedom is a fantastic goal for everyone. I don’t recommend pursuing investing, excellence in money management and other financial pursuits for the sake of accumulating nicer and nicer things over time. I do, however, recommend these pursuits in order to achieve financial independence and financial freedom. Financial freedom removes stress, it adds to your quality of life much more than a nicer car or home, and it allows you to live more closely to how God desires us to live.

It is my hope and prayer that more and more people use the resources of this blog and other financial blogs to eliminate debt in their lives and escape the bondage that it brings to their lives. Fewer things would improve an individual’s life more and in the process, make our country and society stronger than to have millions of individuals embrace the idea of financial freedom.