Why debt is so dangerous

Why debt is so dangerous


* Debt presumes on the future. When people commit themselves to payments over a period of time, they are presuming that there will be no pay reductions, no loss of job, and no unexpected expenses. That is an improbable assumption (see Proverbs 27:1).

* Debt lowers future standards of living. Money that is borrowed today must be repaid over time along with interest, which means that those things purchased with credit will cost more “tomorrow” than they did today. Therefore, the standard of living will have to be adjusted to compensate for the added expense.

* Debt focuses on façade decisions rather than real-life decisions. Debt encourages people to make decisions based on whether they can afford a monthly payment, rather than on whether they can afford the total cost (purchase price, operational expenses, and finance charges) of the item. Debt makes it too easy to say yes to low monthly payments while ignoring the real cost of items.
* Debt leaves people at the mercy of the power of compound interest. If consumers pay the minimum monthly payment on a $1,000 debt at 19.8 percent rate of interest and never charge anything else on that account, it will take eight (8) years to pay back the $1,000 and they will pay $2,023 for the privilege of charging $1,000. In some cases, items charged on nationally accepted bank credit cards can cost upwards to eight times the original purchase price of the item by the time the bill is paid off.