At colleges and universities, credit card companies and banks market cards and overdrafts to students offering treats and incentives for the student to get their own personal credit line. The clueless student with little willpower and little real understanding / regard for the consequences quickly runs an account up to the limit. While busily doing this, the student is also taking out massive school loans (thousands in the UK, tens of thousands in the US). Then once the student gets a job, her or she needs a car to commute (another loan) and a place to live (another payment) with furnishings (another loan). And before that student knows it, he's firmly chained in. He 'has' to work (the first 'I have to'). The majority of his income now goes to service debt or payments, and the shackles are now firmly in place.
More chains and shackles are added as the house, bigger / better car, and childcare 'have to's' are added.
Actually, none of these are 'have to's' and none are permanent unless you choose to make them so. Every one of these chains can be unlocked or broken. As each falls away, you become freer and freer to live the lifestyle you choose.
How to unlock / break the chains? First off, decide what you are choosing. Are you choosing your current job, the house, the debt because it is what you want or would you choose something else? If you are truly happy with where you are, having looked at all the options (and not just 'This is the best I can do with the things are'), then more power to you. That's your dream, go for it!
If you would choose something else, then perhaps it's time to get rid of those chains. Get rid of the debt, create an alternative income stream, rent out the house or sell it and get a smaller one, learn how to give your kids a better education than the one they're getting packed into a classroom with 30 others and packed off to 'developmental' activities designed to assuage our guilt for not being there and keep them busy until we get home from working all those hours (the things we put them in because we're at work and don't have time to do things like sports, music, arts with them).
We'll cover more specifics about getting rid of the debt chain here in upcoming posts, but a couple of really good get out of debt books that we learned a lot from are Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner
Get rid of the house shackle. 'But where would I live?' you ask? Well, what's your dream? Live on a canal boat, in an RV / caravan as you tour the US or Europe, move to a small holding in the country, restore a tumble down place in France or Italy. Go volunteer some place and contribute back to your fellow man. Take a year (or several) and explore the world you live in. Live where you're traveling.
Next year, we won't have a house to live in. All of our houses (we have three) will be rented out (see Smart Couples Finish Rich for exactly how to do this for yourself, we just did what the book said). We'll live on the boat as we travel to the Bahamas and then explore the East Coast of America. During that time, our assets will be working for us (as they should!), rather than us working to support our assets. When we come 'home', we'll rent for a short while (might explore the idea of house sitting?) and we'll visit with family.
By eliminating the house chain and the debt chain, the income chain and rearranging the family responsibility chain (being there rather than paying someone else to), then what's left to tie you down? Nothing, go live out your dreams!
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