13. Debt is not the devil

In this episode we talk all things:

• You are conditioned to believe that debt is bad, it's not.

• Debt is simply paying something off over time rather than up front.

• Debt is a choice and sometimes it's a necessity.

• Your energetic levels of debt and why you can fall straight back into it, even once it's paid off.

• You can become accustomed to certain levels of debt, but here is when it could be a problem.

• You don't need to choose between saving, paying down debt, or investing, you can do all three and here is why .

• An exercise to review your debt and highlight any money blocks you have through behavioural spending patterns.

• A tool you can use to make any financial decisions to ensure you stay in alignment and on track for your big vision.

• Your past financial decisions do not shape you financial future, it is a choice.

• Money should be supporting the life you want to life.

• The list you should start creating.

• How systems around your money will become your best friend.

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• View Transcript Here

  Welcome to the money mindset hub podcast. I'm your host, Carla Townsend, and money mindset and success coach on a mission to normalize feminine wealth through empowering the minds of fierce females in business, you're in the right place, if you are a female who wants to become a vibrational match to attract more wealth, freedom and abundance, but you just keep getting stuck, or there's something amiss. There's something blocking you from attracting that desired level of success and reaching your highest potential. So I'll be talking all things money mindset, energetics of money manifestation law of attraction, CEO mindset, and much, much more. Because the world needs more kind hearted women like you with deep pockets. So let's get started.

  0:46

  Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. So today when we're talking about how debt is not the devil, so I know debt has this negative stigma about it, and a lot of us, we choose to have a big goal in life as being not the big goal. But one of the goals is to be completely debt free, which is amazing. But at the same time, it often is correlated with a feeling of guilt or shame for having so much debt, or being in debt or maybe past bad decisions, and getting in unnecessary debt. But the thing that I want to just highlight here is debt isn't a bad thing, it's not always a bad thing, the reasons why you get into debt, or what we need to look at, you know, like, first off, the reason you got into debt might be because you know, you didn't have 600 plus $1,000 to buy your home, you know, so of course that debt was necessary, and it's good debt, it's an, it's an asset that's only going to appreciate. So it's good debt, you know, maybe your car completely shut itself, and you needed to get a new one, and you didn't have 3040 50 grand sitting there to pay for it outright. And you needed to get that because it's essential for you to be able to get around again, it doesn't necessary debt. The thing here is when debt isn't so great is when it's in, it's being used in misalignment, you know, so the reason that you're getting into debt is actually not in aligned with how you want to spend your money in the first place. So maybe you're getting into debt, because you actually struggle with saving money or living within your means. And maybe it's shiny object syndrome, maybe it's to impress people, you know, there's lots of different reasons, you know, maybe when you grew up you went without, and so now that you're older, you're like, Well, I can just get a loan for anything I want, which is the truth. So then you can have all the new things at anytime you want. It's just a way that we're conditioned to believe, right? So debt, whether you view it as good or bad, it is just a way that we're conditioned. So in financial counseling, one of the main reasons that people reach out for help is because of debt. And again, debt isn't the problem. It's the reason behind it spending out of alignment, it's the root cause as to why you're energetically accustomed to being in such levels of debt constantly. And that's what we need to break apart. It's very common for when people are in certain levels of debt, once they do actually get out of debt. Because they're so energetically accustomed to having that certain amount of debt, they often end up straight back in it. For whatever reason, there's always a reason why people feel comfortable, it's just a level of comfort, you could just be energetically accustomed to having, say $50,000 debt, you know, you're always paying off around about $50,000. You know, even once you get rid of it, all of a sudden you strike back up to $50,000 debt. That's what I mean by being energetically accustomed to having no those level levels of debt, because we instantly make those decisions that put us straight back into debt. So another way of looking at it is debt is simply just the choice to pay something off over a long period of time. There's also nothing wrong with doing that. Maybe you actually have the money sitting there. And you could buy it out, right, but it is better for you, and your goals and your dreams and your vision and your life and whatever's coming up that you pay it off. So for example, for us, so when I was pregnant with our eldest who's now four, we upgraded our car and we bought a demo from a dealership. So previously, before that, I had like this little manual hatchback, which was fantastic, but I was such a Lazy, Lazy driver, like lazy manual driver. And anyway, it was just we wanted something that was just a little bit safer, more smoother to drive with the new bonds. So we decided, alright, let's go get a new car. And when we bought it, we could have paid for it with cash, but we made the choice to pay it off. So instead of saying goodbye to like a huge chunk of money when we're going into having a new baby, the first time we're having a new baby. We wanted to be as financially supported and empowered by having all of that money available to us. Instead of going You know, we can't be in debt, you know, it's a bad thing being in debt. And the thing is, the end result by doing that by putting the car on a loan, paying it off, and making sure we had all those funds available to us, when we brought our daughter into the world, it meant that maternity leave was filled with joy and pleasure. And it wasn't stressful, because money wasn't an issue. And we could pay off the car in our own time as we felt comfortable, because, you know, because you're never going to know what happens when a baby comes into the world. So it's always good to be extra prepared. So instead of us taking five years to pay it off, we paid off the car in less than two. So we paid it off as quick as possible that was comfortable for us, because at the same time, we will also saving to buy a house. And that's something else I want to touch on here. A lot of people think that you need to just do focus on one thing. So you've either got to focus on paying off debt, or saving money. But you can do all at the same time. And investing money, I should add that into like investing your money and making it work for you, I don't believe you need to pick one or the other, I believe that you can save money, pay off debt and invest money all at the same time. It just you set up systems. So it's super, super simple. And like that's what we've done for many years. And we just keep refining it and getting better. And it obviously changes as our life changes. And the more kids that we've had, obviously. So the moral of the story is like, you don't need to beat yourself up about being in debt. Because sometimes it is a necessity, sometimes it is a need. And sometimes it is the smartest choice. But when it does feel icky for you, then that's when you know that there's something you need to deep dive further into, I grew up a lot of the time believing that if you could pay for it in cash, you got to pay for it in cash. However, you don't want to leave yourself short, okay, you don't want to leave yourself short. And then leave yourself in a stressful situation because he was so desperate on not having any loans that you put yourself in a position where now you know, life throws hazards curveballs. And now you've got no money to support you, you know, maybe it's a loss of job or you know, something that there's always something. So right now, I want you to be really honest with yourself, I want you to have a look at all of the debt that you do you currently have. And ask yourself, was that unnecessary? Was that essential? Do I constantly have that kind of debt, for instance, maybe it's credit card debt, credit cards are extremely easy to rack up huge amounts of debt. And a lot of people trip up when they don't have systems in place to pay it off, before the fees come in, or their limit, their limit on their credit card is beyond what that actually earn in the month. That's another thing. So have a look at all the sorts of debt that you have and ask yourself where they're necessary or where they just, I literally wasn't patient enough. Because that's another thing I do fully believe in patience. I do believe in timing, I do believe in making decisions, especially when it comes to putting yourself in debt or spending a hell of a lot of money is reframing the situation and asking yourself whether or not that's going to get you closer to your desires. Because if it is, then fantastic. And if it's not, then it's not worth it. So something I got one of my clients to do was to work out their net worth. And then if they wanted to make financial decisions like this, you know, whether it was to go buy a new car that maybe they didn't really need, but they kind of just wanted, I'd ask them to we'll run it again, like run your net worth again. Because if you want to create financial freedom, then your net worth should always be increasing. So if you can run the numbers and say like if I go into this much debt for car, and obviously, you know, my view on cars is they're a depreciating asset. So anything that's a depreciating asset is not worth like investing that much money into you know, unless you've got a massive amount of funds, right? Unless it's like, Alright, cool, I can do that cars are depreciating, you never get your money back on cars, you will always lose money, houses, you know, shares, all those sorts of different things. Typically, it only going to go up. So it's an appreciating asset. So what I used to get my clients to do was to figure out their net worth. So your net worth is something you want to keep increasing. Because if you want financial freedom, it's a really good gauge as to how you're actually going. And when they go to make a big financial decision and whether they to buy a new car that maybe they didn't necessarily need. They just kind of wanted. I'd get them to run the figures again, as if they had that car and had that debt and see, is your net worth still increasing by doing that or is it going backwards and then that way you can use a decision Choose whether or not it's really something you want to do. Like, is that decision going to take you further away from your goals? Or bring you closer? How is it going to make you feel? Are you doing it for the right reasons is buying that thing or getting into debt for that thing, or that reason? Is that in alignment with you, not anybody else. And if you do care about what other people think, and you care about having the flashiest car, or I don't know, having the biggest house or wearing the nicest clothes all the time, and you think that other people will be judging you. If you don't, then that's on you. Because the reality is the meanings that you attached to those thoughts that you have, are your responsibility to own. So the moral of the story is, sometimes you need to do it, sometimes you need to do it. Other times you don't. I also just wanted to touch on hear that your past financial decisions are not going to shape the rest of your financial future, you can choose to change it. So maybe you've made really shitty decisions in the past, maybe you've constantly racked up credit card debt, and maybe you're just like drowning in debt at the moment. Just remember that you can choose in this very instant to change that, to change those patterns of behavior by questioning why do I keep doing this to myself? Why am I energetically accustomed to being this level of debt? Why can I not save money? Do you allow yourself to even have like a cooling off period, for instance, maybe it is something that you you've been watching for a really long time, and you've thought that's what I want, I really want that. And that's fine, I definitely think you should be able to spend money on yourself right money is to be enjoyed. It's to be experienced, it's it's not something that should stop you from living your life. If anything, it should aid the life that you wanted to live, reviewed those thoughts, and give yourself a cooling off period before you go in, rack up all those things in your cart? And then just quickly check out because it's a sale? Like, are you doing it? Because it's just a sale? Are you buying all those things? Because it's just a sale? Or do you genuinely want those things and having you're on on for a while, like give yourself a cooling off period. Or maybe keep a running list of things that you actually want to buy and invest in. Even for business? You know, maybe there's systems that you're weighing up with, maybe there's a course or a mastermind or coach or something that you've been, you've kept your eye on. And you've been waiting to see, like, rather than make the rash decision all of a sudden to just jump all in and pay for it. There's so much out there. So is it really aligned? Does it resonate? Is it a how Yes? Or is it a no? And again, you've probably heard me bang on about this enough. But my golden rule in life is if it's not a how, yes, it's a no. And you will know ask yourself, Do I really want to do this? Do I really want to buy this? And you will know your instant reaction is either yes or no. So anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling on. But that's kind of just like what I wanted to touch on today. Because a lot of the time like we gave debt, the power over us. And we think that that's going to shape our financial future. And you know, that debt is just debt is evil, and we can never get out of it. And the only way to be happy is if you have no debt. And the fact of the matter is that that isn't the case, it's just depending on what that debt does for you. And what it means to you and why you keep getting in that sort of debt. Because you know, a lot of the time debt is a great thing. You know, investing in those, those masterminds or courses, or coaches or whatever it might be, your return on investment will be tenfold what you actually paid. And that's when it's amazing. Or maybe you've got so much equity in your current home that you're like, Oh, well, I can use that to then get another one that then adds to my net worth and my wealth and all that sort of thing. There's lots of different ways to make money. And it doesn't always necessarily have to result in debt. But sometimes it does, and that doesn't matter. It's just provided that it is in alignment with what you want to do and what you want to achieve in life. And anyway,

  14:01

  I'll stop it there. I hope that that was helpful. I hope you don't feel any shame or guilt. Now going forward when it does come to debt, set up a system have a system make it simple to pay it off, make it easy, make it automated. I am not the queen of automation when it comes to everything finance. So everything of ours is automated, so I don't need to look at it. I don't need to manually pay bills, I don't need to manually transfer money to savings, I don't need to manually pay down debt. It just does it it's all automated so that again especially if you're a busy woman and you're trying to do all the things set up automations and then you have like no reason not to, you know save or pay down debt or whatever it is just set it all up so you can literally set and forget and then focus on what you need to do in life and you will always get your your debt paid off. But before you go get into it. Yeah, ask yourself those questions. Thanks for listening to this weekend. Episode I hope you enjoyed it and if so, please subscribe to the podcast and join our mailing list at money mindset hub.com. Until next time, remember, everything you desire and deserve is just on the other side of your own resistance. So take that next step.