Why am I in debt? How come I have no money left? Why is this getting worse the more money I make?
After years of being in debt in my early 20’s, these are some of the questions I asked myself. Once i came to my senses, I quickly found out the reasons why this was happening and quickly got to work to turn myself around. So below I have comprised 5 reasons why i was in debt and show you some of the answers I found for myself. The first stage to getting out of debt is knowing why you are there in the first place.
Did I Have A Poor Financial Education?
Growing up was pretty straight forward in my household. Get good grades at school, go on to university and get a good job. But during that time, no-one from my parents to teachers did they ever talk to me about finances. Isn’t that crazy? 21 years of my life and no talk of credit cards, overdrafts, fixed savings accounts, stocks, index funds. Now, you can play the blame game but did they even know any of this stuff themselves? I very much doubt it. So this is the first step to realising that it’s not your fault. It is now though after, reading this to not find out for yourself.
Is It Who I Hang Around With?
The quickest way to lose your money is hanging around with people who earn more money than you. You then feel you have to compete with their standards of spending. This is what I call ego spending. I did this for over a year and I was wondering why I have no money saved? Why am I getting overdraft charges again?
The reason is, I’m buying cocktails (mojito) and beers most nights, fancy dinners, takeaways and catching Uber’s everywhere. Then there’s the trips around the UK and abroad and a PRET or Starbucks every morning. Now all this stuff is great but if at the end of the month you’re in debt because of it – is it worth it? The answer is NO, NO, NO! This is not financially smart and not a Future Mindset.
Is It My Expensive Tastes?
The rich and famous have all the nice stuff from cars to houses. I think there is something in all of us that wants a bit of that. This is normal and fine. What’s not fine is taking out a flashy car on finance that puts you more into debt. Buying the £200 suit that puts you into more debt. Buying presents for everyone that puts you into more debt. These are all cool things to do and buy, but it’s not worth you putting yourself into DEBT because of it – as these feelings are fleeting where being out of control with your finances is a lasting pain.
Do I Spend More Than I Earn?
This is the most black and white of them all. For example, If you earn £3000 a month and then you end up spending £3001 a month you have now made a loss. I was this person for a while. I had high expenses and the money i had left over was being spent on meals out, travelling, and anything else i could spend it on. It didn’t matter how hard i worked that month, the numbers didn’t care. That’s why it’s so important after your break-even you are being smart with your money, either investing to make more or saving for something of value. Isn’t that the whole reason most people work in the first place? To make money? No one is out there trying to make less money and go into debt.
Have I Ever Done A Money Report?
When you don’t check on your finances it’s always destined to go badly. Just like a relationship, when you never talk to each other it’s destined for failure. However, when you do talk, you find all your answers to fix your problems. (That’s why i asked myself 5 reasons why i’m in debt.)
i found my answers by checking my in-goings and outgoings. In-goings was for my age at a really good pay but my outgoings were atrocious. On there were phone bills over £100 because I was on the wrong plan. There were electric bills sky-high because I was on a standard tariff and over £400 of take-outs for the month. This was a defining factor of why debt was creeping up on me and getting out of control. If you’re not reviewing your cash flow its destined to go out of control.
Conclusion
When people think finances, they think complicated. I’m not smart enough, it’s too hard etc, but this is far from the truth. It’s mainly a lack of understanding and lack of pressure you’re willing to put on the issue to make the change. We all have a threshold of when we can take no more. Mine was being over £6000 in debt and feeling miserable for it. This is how i came up with the 5 questions of the reasons why i’m in debt.
So the question is, have you had enough of debt controlling your daily life? Do you want to be in control of your finances? Well, the first thing to do is admit that you have a problem and are ready to find the solution. If you wish to do that. Then stay with Future Mindset as we are here to guide you to a better future. A future that you’re in control of. By knowing the reasons why you’re in debt is the first step to get out of debt. These are my top 5 tips, what’s yours?