What does the Bible say about debt?

What does the Bible say about debt?

77% of Americans carry some form of consumer debt. Consumer debt includes things like a mortgage on a house, a car loan, credit card debt, student loans, and others. If debt is so normal in our society, why does having it stress us out?

While having debt may be considered normal, I wouldn’t classify it as a good (or a bad) thing. Our culture and mindset about debt is a direct result of our instant gratification oriented society, which has created an unhealthy “buy now, pay later” attitude about almost everything we do and have in our life.

Proverbs 22:7 reads: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” When you owe someone a debt, every penny you make and every hour you work belongs to that other person until the debt is settled. If you want to avoid the stresses associated with being in debt, you need to get out of debt!

The average amount of debt the American household has is around $101,000!!! Regardless of the amount of debt you have, it is possible to get out of it. My agency is dedicated to teaching the financial principles that will aid you in doing just that! Here is a quick crash course on managing and getting out of your debt:

1. Acknowledgment is the first step to recovery. Recognize how deep (or shallow) your debt hole is and resolve to overcome this obstacle.
2. Muster up all the self-control you can, cuz you’re gonna need it!
3. Make a budget. You need to account for every penny you make and how it’s spent.
4. Once you make the budget, you need to separate it into wants and needs. Any payments going towards a want (Netflix, weekly eating out, etc) needs to be cut out so that money can go towards paying off your debts.
5. Next we’re going to tackle the debt. You’re going to pick a method to use depending on the kinds of debt you have: the debt snowball or the debt avalanche.
6. Once you pay the debt off, the last step is to stay out of debt by employing healthy financial practices!

Here’s a quick summary of how the snowball and avalanche works:

Debt snowball: endorsed by Dave Ramsey.
1. Organize your debts from the smallest debt to the largest debt.
2. Pay the minimum payments on all of the debts during this entire process.
3. Begin paying every extra cent you can find, towards the smallest debt, to pay it off as quickly as possible.
4. Once the smallest debt is paid off, you will take the minimum payment + the extra payment you had been making, and apply it to the minimum payment of the second smallest debt.
5. This method creates an ever increasing payment onto the larger debts, enabling you to pay them off faster than if you just kept paying the minimum payments on them all separately.
6. Continue this method until you pay down all of the debts.

The avalanche method: Use the same steps as listed above for the debt snowball, but pay down debts by paying off the highest interest debt first, in order with the lowest interest debt last.

I will make future videos that go into more detail about managing debt, creating a budget, the avalanche and snowball methods, and more! For now, I hope this helps you get started on your debt free journey!

#debt #daveramsey #debtsnowball #debtavalanche #budgeting #biblicalfinances #christian #praisegod #financialeducation #financialliteracy #wealthmindset #moneymindset #sahm #wfh #dogmom

Resources:
https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/debt/average-american-debt-statistics

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/debt/average-american-debt