How Debt Can Mess Up Your Future

Do you have debt? If you do, you're not alone. Many people(myself included) struggle with debt these days. It can happen for many reasons, like spending too much, having an emergency, earning too little, or managing money poorly. But whatever the reason may be, debt can suck big time.

One of the most serious aspects of it is that it can affect your life in a not so good way which could lead to unwanted future consequences when not dealt with soon enough. This thing we call debt and being an integral part of finance is a double-edged sword. A sword with one of its sharp edges pointing at the future, trying to mess it up when used incorrectly.

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Credit Score And Reputation

Debt can stain one's reputation and bring down their credit score. A credit score is a number that shows how good you are with money based on your credit history and behavior. It is used by lenders, employers, insurers, and others to see how reliable or not reliable you are with money.

A high credit score unlocks good financial service benefits. Likewise, a low credit score decreases one's access to financial services both in quality and quantity. Debt can lower your credit score by making you use too much credit, pay late or not at all. Or even get into trouble with collectors who want their money back.

Reputation on the other hand, is how others see you based on your actions and character. Unlike businesses, It is used by friends, family, colleagues and others to see how trustworthy and respectable
you are.

With reputation, debt can make you lose respect or honesty in the eyes of others who may think
you are bad or dishonest with money. Which sometimes can be not true. On the same breath, this can also lead to fights and arguments, bad feelings, or mistrust with others who are involved in or affected by your debt situation.

That's why it's a great advice to try as much as possible to not bring money into personal relationships. The dynamics of trust can go from 100 to 0 real quick. I think bringing money into personal relationships is almost impossible. Instead, we could try to minimise its implications through effective communication when the situation arises.

When left unresolved, both low credit score and poor reputation are present problems that create a ripple effect that stunts one's financial growth in the future.

Chasing Dreams And Learning New Things

Chasing dreams and learning new things are awesome. Most of us look forward to them. However, having debt puts a sort of barrier between ourselves and the things we want to pursue. Figuratively, debt is like a chain that limits our movement. Or a cloud that follows us everywhere we go.

Learning new things helps us get more knowledgeable and possibly have more fun in life. Learning to become a painter(an artist) and painting being a hobby of yours can bring more fun to the experience.

Learning other ways to make money and then making more money can give you the ability to have more fun through traveling the world and experiencing different parts of it.

But debt can make it hard or impossible to afford learning new things. Both monetarily and non-monetarily. Monetarily, you don't have the funds to learn new things. Non-monetarily is being stressed out and losing focus on the process of learning new things.

Imagine tuning into a lecture about the 'theory of colors' with a maxed out credit card(s) and -20K in your bank account. You're there but you're also not there. I start to worry when I'm knee deep into debt.

With chasing dreams, options and choices are limited with debt. For example, what kind of work you can do or where you can work. Also, it prevents you from capitalizing on opportunities and taking risks that may cost money or require investment.

In Closing

Getting out of debt is a work in progress. Perhaps, knowing how it could affect us in the future is a great way to speed up the progress.

Many know the how's of getting out of debt. Which are earning more and spending less. Earning more pays off the debt and spending less prevents from accumulating more debt. It is the why that's a bit not clear.


Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.