Being Debt-Free Can Cost You More Than You Think

Living a debt-free lifestyle is not a bad life goal. In fact, we’re advocates for living debt-free and enjoying every second of it. However, once you pay off that debt and you no longer owe anyone any money for anything other than your monthly phone bill or your insurance, you might find yourself in a bit of a problem. You see, being debt-free is amazing, but it can get you into some trouble when you do not manage your life as well as you should. Sometimes being debt-free means you end up with problems that you cannot fathom thanks to your lack of debt. Here are a few ways being debt-free might cost you in other ways.

Potential for more debt

When you are debt-free and not allowing yourself to have any fun, you might end up becoming even more indebted than ever before. Denying yourself vacations and things you want in life as a way of not spending any money can cause you issues. You can be debt free and save without becoming so cheap that you end up going crazy and over-indulging at some point. When you take the time to ensure there is always room for your fun in your budget, you minimize your risk of having a really bad day and letting it all go by running up that credit card debt again.

Missed job opportunities

Listen, if you can get away with not having a car payment, there is no reason you should have one. However, if you don’t have a car and refuse to get one by financing and you haven’t the money to buy one outright, you might miss opportunities. For example, deciding you’d rather be debt-free as far as a car payment than accepting that dream job that pays really well and requires you have a vehicle to get you to and from work is a terrible idea. Sometimes debt is necessary – and then you work hard to pay it off.

Inability to buy a home

So you decided growing up that you were never going into debt. That’s great. So you never applied for a credit card, paid cash for your car and you never pay for anything with credit. Now you’re old enough to have your dream job, you’ve saved up enough for a down payment on a home and you want to buy; but you have no credit history, so no banks will approve you for a mortgage. You have to create a credit history if you want to be able to incur good debt (a home) at any point in life.

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