Before even getting into these three things that you really need to avoid if you are in debt to someone, here’s a little piece of pre-advice: Don’t land yourself in debt. It sounds kind of easy, but their debts can pile up quicker than you think.
Whether it’s credit card debt, student debt, loan debt, medical debt, gambling debt, you never know when you’re going to end up with some or how significant of a problem it’s going to become for you in the future.
A huge chunk of people out there owe money and in some cases it’s unavoidable. But beyond all of those more official kinds of debt, there are also those out there who just owe money to their friends and family.
I would like to get up on a soapbox and say that you should never borrow money from friends or family because it can put a strain on relationships or whatever, but the fact is that if someone close is willing to help you out of a financial situation that has gotten pretty dire, then you should just let them do it.
The best thing to do if this becomes the case is to just effectively manage your own behavior in terms of financial habits until you have it paid back. Here’s a couple of things that you should never do when you owe money.
1. Spend Carelessly
I know that this is super obvious but you’d be shocked at how frivolously people spend even when they know that they owe money. It’s like that big red button phenomenon. You know when there’s a big red button that says ‘DON’T PRESS’ which makes it super tempting to press?
Maybe that’s a phenomenon that I just made up but it makes sense doesn’t it? When you know you shouldn’t do something you are for some reason just very psychologically compelled to do it.
But you’re not doing yourself any favors. Even if you have a set weekly or monthly repayment on this particular debt and you have some leftover that you think you can just spend, resist that urge and put some extra into your repayment.
Forget about unnecessary luxuries and fancy things until you’ve repaid what you owe. The sooner it goes away, the better, so make it your financial priority and don’t go throwing away your cash.
2. Avoid Extra Work
If you have the opportunity to take on some part-time job that will allow you to earn a little bit of money on the side, just do it. Once again, you’re trying to eliminate debt as quickly as possible and this will speed things up a lot.
The gist of this point is to just not be lazy. Unless, of course you’ve got a very demanding day job that just leaves you exhausted by the end of it, you should seriously consider taking up something else up.
Think of your debts as urgent necessities. They’re basically financial burdens, anything that you can do to soften that burden is a step in the right direction. And look it doesn’t have to be something huge and it doesn’t have to be one consistent thing.
Any work is going to benefit your cause. If it’s a small thing that lasts a couple of evenings and doesn’t seem like much, take it on anyway. It will help you pay things back quicker but also improve your credit.
3. Ignore Your Debtor
If money were prayers, this would be a cardinal sin. Outrageous analogies aside, you absolutely must not ignore the people you owe money to. It’s essential to keep a consistent communication going when it comes to money.
If they ask you a question, answer it promptly. If they want to know how you’re getting on with the money you owe them or if you’ve missed a repayment for some reason (a really good reason preferably), tell them what’s going on and be honest about it.
What’s going to happen if you ignore your debtor or you lie to them or something, then not only are you building up mistrust between you and people who might very well be family or friends, but you are also building bad habits for yourself.
If you get yourself into the mindset that it’s okay for you not to have consistent and effective communication with those you owe money to, then you are more likely to do it again in the future.
Let me reiterate this because I do feel that it’s important: Do everything in your power not to owe people money. Life will be easier, but if it happens it happens and it’s not the end of the world, as long as you are smart about how you deal with it.
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