Fear follows debt, like a shadow follows you.
- People in debt are afraid of the caller on the phone.
- They are afraid of the process server.
- They are afraid of the truth getting out.
Yet, they fear bankruptcy more, apparently.
They seem to fear that life as they know it will end if they file bankruptcy.
Well, at some level, the miserable life of living in debt; sleepless nights; having no financial reserves will end if they file bankruptcy.
But they have cultivated a fear of bankruptcy that is stronger than the fear they live with now.
Most fear is self generated
It’s easy to fall into the trap that filing bankruptcy represents defeat, as a personal failure.
My view: most bankruptcy these days is driven by job loss, ill health, and divorce.
Some fear public exposure.
They imagine those around them standing in judgment on their life choices.
Yet which of us chooses illness, accident, or unemployment?
The failure I see is the unwillingness to utilize an effective and legal means to become economically stable.
Why no fear of penniless old age
Living on Social Security alone seems to me something worthy of fear.
Almost every client who’s struggling to repay credit cards, now at 29% interest, is skimping on saving for retirement.
They have no emergency reserves. If they have a job, there’s no pension attached. They have little or nothing set aside to augment Social Security.
Yet fear of bankruptcy keeps them paying monthly on debt they can never repay.
My last post talked about the institutional purveyors of this fear.
I’m on this soapbox and don’t want to step down til I make some headway on this issue.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Be fearless. Better yet, be solvent.
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How stress actually makes you stupid
Image © Tinx
