What I Wish I'd Known Earlier – Debt

Video Transcript

I think for most of us as we've gotten older, we've all learned something that we wish we would have known when we were younger to help us avoid some of the mistakes and headaches that we caused ourselves. For me, there are a lot of things around money that I wish I would have understood better at a younger age.

So today, I want to share with you one of those things that I wish I knew or at least understood about the way we all interact with money that completely shifted my perspective on all of this. Because I think sometimes, we tend to feel like a failure, right? Like we're doing something wrong because can't spend money like our friends, or the people we work with, or our neighbors. Like we must be doing something wrong or have missed a step or something because I can't seem to spend like these people are spending.

But what I found as I've gotten older is that a lot more people than you think are dealing with debt. In a report from Experian, they found that last year the average American had a balance of about $6,500 on a credit card. And so that just goes to prove that there are a lot of people carrying credit card debt. Because, remember, that's the average. There are people with less, but there are also people with much more than that amount, as well. And when you're trying to live a life that is financially responsible and you're trying to avoid debt, it's definitely going to limit how you spend.

That's why I think it's so important to try if you can, and I know it's difficult, but to focus on the things that you want to build for your life and find out what's important to you. Because if not, it is so easy to get tempted by everyone else you see around you who's doing these really great things, going on these nice trips, buying nice cars. But without ever knowing the full story of how much money they're actually spending, or how much debt they're taking on.

And so, for me, once I realized this, it helped remove so much of that financial stress and pressure that I was putting on myself. And it also allowed me to realize that you know what, I'm okay giving up a few things here and there if it means that I can avoid the cost of taking on more debt.