Debt Management As a Spiritual Exercise
Contributed by Alix Mcmurray
Debt Management As a Spiritual Exercise
The price of living in a cashless society is to face the inevitability of debt management. If you are currently paying more than the monthly minimums due on your credit card, then you are at least partially embracing the lesson of debt management without much kicking and screaming. But if the concept of debt management summons up images of living on Spam and taking the bus to work, you are either financially blessed or in for a surprise -- or both.
You Can't Outrun the Inevitability of Debt Management
Debt management is a discipline practiced willingly by some and only under duress by others, yet it is inevitable that everyone will be obliged to practice it at one point or another. There are a host of pro-active and retroactive (rehabilitative) methods for debt management -- from putting yourself on self-imposed house-arrest on the weekends to filing for bankruptcy. And there is no more humbling experience than to "wake up" to a pile of unpaid bills after the credit party is over.
Debt Management is Merely Practical Humility
There are many self-evident truths about modern Western culture, one of which is its doctrine that ascent is good. That is, ascension through the attainment of "more" and "better" is not only desirable but expected. If you don't want a more muscular physique, a fancier car, a larger television, or a faster Internet provider, then you are likely to be looked at as a bit of an oddball.
But there is a very dangerous side to this ascension culture when it mixes with a cashless culture: how do you get these "more" and "better" (and tangible! ) things, but by purchasing them? And if the urgency of having them exceeds the earned ability to pay for them, the answer most people come to, is: "Charge it! "
