Debt is a nasty word and one which tends to send a chill down the back of our neck when it’s mentioned.

Previous generations were trained at a young age to view debt as something that shouldn’t be accumulated, fearful advise to stop us from overspending what we don’t have, old influences from our parents to keep us out of debt, as insurance we didn’t have to rely on them.

But the truth is most of us have been in arrears more than once, that is a fact. We learn the hard way how to be good with money, often because of a large purchase that we should have thought twice about, the stress wasn’t worth it.

Our lessons with money is a part of our growing up process.

Our first visa card lands in the mail and we rush out to buy what we don’t realize we will have to pay for when the bill comes in.

Reality checks in realizing the interest we pay on our purchases, temporarily borrowing money with plastic have a huge amount of teaching for us.

But there is more to debt than money, credit cards, loans and lines of credit, there is also personal debt as well, and this is a topic we seldom think about or take note of.

Our indebtedness to people tends to defy the law of gravity, in other words, the amount of granted favours we give to the people in our lives, floats far too much of our time.

A family member offers to give us a helping hand, we accept, often not giving a thought to the debt that we are about to occur.

Favours always end up costing us something.

Whether it be family or a close friend, a neighbour or a co-worker, once you offer up your time, you are unconsciously piggy banking a favour back.

Most of us would say, ‘no, that’s not true, I don’t expect anything back’, but that is not the case. When you, in turn, need a hand with something, who are you going to think of first to come to the rescue? Yes, the person that you offered your service to just weeks before.

I suppose where I am attempting to bring your attention, is next time someone offers their time to help you out, think about the debt and if you will truly be willing to pay it back, unconditionally, perhaps you would you be better off staying out of debt and doing the job yourself!

Much love

Annanda