…is like a garden of roses: it feels good, affords opportunities and is not without its problems.
Don’t be alarmed, please; I have not gone entirely off the rails three months after we paid off our large debt in record time.
I will not go as far as telling you that I miss the debt or the large consolidation loan. But over the last couple of months, I have been coasting, feeling a bit like gravity has weakened, and there isn’t much left to hold me focused.
I get up in the morning, brush my teeth and…start being busy rather than be the usual productive, focused self I got to know during the last three-four years. I conquered two of my BIG goals – we are finished paying off the debt, and I am a full professor.
To snap out of this spell of being busy, not productive, consuming, not producing and waiting rather than doing, I decided to do two things. First, to tell you about the things I really enjoy about being debt-free and second, to share the need to refocus.
Thinking about it, there are three things I really love about being debt-free, and these are that beauty is back in my life, I have freedom, and we can build wealth.
Becoming debt-free is about beauty
Beauty – be it in buying a bunch of flowers, looking at art or taking to the hills – was something I didn’t have when we were in debt or later when we were paying it aggressively: our money didn’t stretch far enough for that.
Not having consumer debt means we can have small luxuries that make life colourful and full of beauty and excitement.
Being debt-free gives freedom
Don’t know about you, but I found that when I had debt my life choices were rather limited. Since we have rid ourselves of our consumer debt, there are many more opportunities, for instance:
- I have always travelled a lot for work; now either John and our son can join me once the work is done or we can travel more for pleasure.
- When we were paying off the debt I did races but these were mainly in the UK. Now I am thinking about doing some sweet runs in South Africa, like the Comrades Marathon (reminder: no I am not mad).
- Walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage and generally achieving the five life ambitions I’ve been harbouring for some time stopped being a dream; I’m moving to a plan.
But the primary freedom that not having consumer debt gave me is the possibility to give up my job is I get really vexed by it – we’ll not only survive, but we may also thrive.
Debt freedom is about building wealth
Strictly speaking, paying off debt is building wealth as well. Psychologically, however, it makes a big difference whether your ‘negatives’ are getting smaller or your ‘positives’ are getting larger. It is a bit like the difference between climbing out of a hole and climbing a peak.
We have started building an investment fund. For the time being, this is in Nutmeg ISAs: not very imaginative, I know, but Nutmeg ISAs are projected to give much better interest than ‘vanilla’ ISAs with a bank, and these are tax-free.
It is very satisfying to see how the fund grows – both because we put money in regularly and because of interest. Hopefully, by March 2014 this fund will be large enough to get us into the ‘big deals’.
At the same time, as I already mentioned, my focus has been shot since we’ve paid off the debt. It seems that for me avoiding pain is a stronger motivator than anticipating pleasure and fulfilment and
I find paying off debt much easier than building up savings and investments.
(You can calculate whether you can become debt free.)
It seems the time for working out some clear, short and medium-term goals has come. But I’ll tell you more about that on Thursday.
I have very little debt (small mortgage & car loan). I put my saving and investing on automatic. I treat them the same by putting them on automatic.
@Krant: We have been developing a cascading system – I would’t wish to leave investing on authomatic and probably will have to explain why in a different post.
I would definitely be into the travel like you mention. It is a priority for me both while paying off student debt as well as once it is paid off.
@Greg: Travel enriches one so much that it can be counted as a very good investment.
Fingers crossed on the professorship! I hope you get it.
@Pauline: Thanks!
We are counting down the days with you hon…. but in our family you are already referred to as The Professor. We have faith.
And consider putting the investments on “automatic” – research bears out that this is the most effective strategy by far (although schedule an occasional reminder to make you revisit and revise your contributions)
Holding everything here for you
@Elaine: This is how it works in the ‘accumulation phase’. We have been learning, though.
I would definitely be in to the travelling. We have such a desire to do it and there is just so much to see in this world. Thankfully all we have left is our mortgage.
@John: Go for it! I do a lot of it for work but would love to do it properly – staying places. The first place we will spend time in will be South America and at least nine months.
Interesting psychological consideration–I’m experiencing many of the same sentiments as a younger professional with long term debt down the road.
@Mike: Go after the debt with all you have, Mike; being debt free feels great.
Thanks for sharing the sweet benefits of being debt-free. I also appreciate your transparent observation that the motivation to save hasn’t been as strong as the motivation to eliminate debt. I’m a few months away from being debt free, and thanks to your article I’m going to try to set up some automatic savings systems. Great post!
I just paid off my credit card debt and it feels awesome! So freeing! I still have more debt though, so still need to be focused and keep my eyes on the prize.