Lots of us have debt of some kind – be it a credit card, store card, a loan of some sort or even just a mortgage.
Most of us will be able to manage the debt we have and can make the monthly payments each month with no real concerns but should we be satisfied by that? Shouldn’t the real goal always be to become completely debt free?
But at what cost, what would you give up in to become debt free?
The reason I’m asking is because I saw someone online the other day asking for advice as she was beginning to struggle a bit making her credit card repayments and the first thing that everyone said was that she needed to get rid of Sky because it was a non-essential. I get that, I really do – she needs to free up some money and if she can, cancelling Sky would save a chunk each month that would help her make her repayments.
But then someone else responded to say that they personally wouldn’t cancel Sky because it was their only treat. This person (who probably didn’t realise that they were about to get shot down in flames bless them) explained that they didn’t go out often, didn’t smoke, didn’t drink and rarely treated themselves to very much so she felt Sky was her ‘treat’.
I found some of the responses that this poor person got to be really rude to be honest and it ended up taking all of the attention away from the person who had initially asked for help. Apparently Sky is a big old waste of money and anyone who has any debt at all should not be paying for anything that isn’t essential – in fact lots of people suggested doing away with the TV altogether and just watching catch up as you don’t need a licence for that (don’t quote me on that but the aggressive responders seemed convinced ;-)).
But here’s the thing, I have Sky tooand I won’t be giving it up anytime soon because, whilst I’d always recommend to anyone that if they’re struggling to get rid of anything non-essential and I would clearly agree that the quicker you can pay off debt the better, I also believe that if you’re managing your debt and not struggling with repayments then why shouldn’t you have some non essentials.
Some people will choose to give up everything they can and pay their debt back quicker which is great but some people will choose to have a few treats which is great too. Everyone’s different!
So, I won’t give up Sky TV, fun days out with the kids and my mobile phone.
What about you – what won’t you give up?
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