Living on the Edge

Most personal finance blogs and articles focus on getting out of debt so that you have the freedom to put your dollars towards what really matters to you.  For some, it is buying a nice house in the right neighbourhood.  For others, it is starting and providing for a family.  There are many lofty and admirable goals that can be achieved once you are freed from the risk of a large debt load, and the burden of large interest payments each month.


But what if you went into debt in the first place to conquer those lofty goals?  In my case, I put myself and my family in over half a million dollars worth of debt to get us where we are today.  Yes, some of that money was spent on frivolous things, but it also bought us the house we have always wanted, in what we think is the perfect area, a roomy and reliable van to move us around, everything our children have needed, a top-notch home theatre, and more.  Do I regret making these purchases?  No--they have built the foundation for a truly fulfilling life, filled with what is important to me.  Do I regret accumulating this much debt?  Yes, of course.


You may ask whether I would make the same decisions again if I had the opportunity to do it all again.  This is hard to say.  On one hand, if I had the knowledge and experience I do now, after living with this incredible debt load for some time, that would definitely changes my mind about some of the less "vital" purchases.  On the other hand, I feel that by getting ourselves into our ultimate home, and by starting our family earlier, even before we could really afford to, we have had so many life-defining experiences that we would have been denied for quite a number of years.

From a purely logical point of view, debt is bad, and should be avoided at almost all costs.  But we do not live in a purely logical world: emotion is what defines our humanity, and drives our decisions.  Of course, emotion can drive us to extremes, where we end up going completely over the financial cliff, with devastating results.  You may think that I am teetering on the edge of that cliff right now, and you may be right.  But I prefer to see myself as standing firmly next to that cliff, standing strong and steady, and getting ready to start backing away from it.

I would never advise someone to get into extreme debt to finance their dreams, and then deal with the consequences.  That, however, is what I have done, and am doing.  Stopping myself from toppling over the edge has taken some significant changes in our lives, and even more changes will be needed to start us backing away.  Yes, with all the changes we have made, we are now no longer accumulating new debt, but we aren't able t pay much of it off, either.  But one step at a time: until you have a solid footing under you, it is impossible to start taking steps in the right direction.