DEBT - the state of owing
money
Debt: - What is it!
An action, state of
mind, or object one has an obligation to
perform for another, adopt toward another, or give to another.
The state or condition of owing something to
another.
I am in your debt.
Money that one person or entity owes
or is required to pay to another, generally as a result of a loan or other
financial transaction.
(source – iwise.com)
DEBT and how to stay
out of it
1. Have
many sources of income.
2. Have
healthy spending habits.
3. Spend
less then you earn.
4. Save
5. Invest
6. Have
a written budget
7. Create
an Emergency Fund (6 times your monthly salary/income).
8. Stay
away from Credit Cards
If one has to get into DEBTS then only
two kinds qualify as being worthwhile.
One a debt
that helps you create an asset. For example you buy a house and pay
Installments for it. The value of property is expected to go up over time and
hence it is considered an asset.
Second Knowledge
is also an asset. Since a good
education, acquired skills and knowledge acquired at work or by reading helps
in enhancing ones mental horizons and giving new skills which in turn can be
used for making money (asset), we can consider getting into debt for acquiring
knowledge as also a pardonable offence.
For creating an asset – Like buying a house
For enhancing your Knowledge – Taking an
education loan for enhancing your skills.
So an Asset is – Anything that brings money to you.
A Liability is – Anything that takes money away from you.
A few
Quotes
“Rather go to bed without
dinner than to rise in Debt”
– Benjamin Franklin
“Some debts are fun
when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring
them.”
-Ogden Nash
“What can be added to
the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear
conscience?”
-Adam Smith
“It is the debtor
that is ruined by hard times.”
-Rutherford B. Hayes
“We all think we’re
going to get out of debt.”
-Louie Anderson
“Interest on debts
grow without rain.”
-Yiddish Proverb
“The only man who
sticks closer to you in adversity than a friend is a creditor.”
-Unknown
“The borrower is
servant to the lender.”
-The Bible
“When you get in debt
you become a slave.”
-Andrew Jackson
“Never spend your
money before you have it.”
-Thomas Jefferson
“If you think nobody
cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.”
-Earl Wilson
“A man in debt is so
far a slave.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There are but two
ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift
in laying out.”
-Thomas Carlyle
“Debt is the worst
poverty.”
-Thomas Fuller
At a spiritual Level meaning of DEBT
In the Hindu way of life there are five types of debts
prescribed in the scriptures along with ways how to repay them.
Dharma (Righteous Living, Dharma also means
righteousness, or living morally and ethically at all times.) says it is our duty to pay the five debts.
Hindus believe that they are born in debt to the gods and various humans, and
they must repay those karmic debts during their lifetime. The debts are:
1. Debt to the gods for
their blessings; paid by rituals and offerings.
2. Debt to parents and
teachers; paid by supporting them, having children of one's own and passing
along knowledge.
3. Debt to guests; repaid by
treating them as if they were gods visiting one's home.
4. Debt to other human
beings; repaid by treating them with respect.
5. Debt to all other living
beings; repaid by offering good will, food or any other help that is
appropriate.
In
the Mahabharata Yaksha asks Yudhishthira several questions one of them pertaining
to happiness as below. The answer is worth considering.
Question: the Yaksha asked: Who is truly happy? What is the
greatest wonder? What is the path? And what is the news?
Yudhishthira: He who has no debts is truly happy.
Day after day countless people die. Yet the living wish to live forever. O
Lord, what can be a greater wonder? Argument leads to no certain conclusion,
the Srutis are different from one another; there is not even one Rishi whose
opinion can be accepted by all; the truth about Dharma and duty is hid in caves
of our heart: therefore, that alone is the path along which the great have
trod. This world full of ignorance is like a pan. The sun is fire, the days and
nights are fuel. The months and the seasons constitute the wooden ladle. Time
is the cook that is cooking all creatures in that pan (with such aids); this is
the news
Meaning of the Word Yaksha: (Sanskrit:
यक्ष yakṣa) is the
name of a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers
of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots.
Chanakya believed:
Nothing
should be allowed to remain of debts, enemies and disease.
According to Chanakya The debt that cannot be paid back….
A guru who shows his
disciple the path of righteousness leaves a huge debt. It cannot be paid back
as none of the physical objects is so precious.
The purpose of the above information is only
to draw attention to the fact that being in debt or engaging in activities that
would bring one in debt or enhance it, is considered extremely dishonorable in
the Hindu way of life and the biggest burden one can carry. Credit cards,
consumption loans or any other such types of loans will only bring misery in
the end. Since in the Hindu way we see life as continuity into the next, we
carry the skills and burdens of this life into the next. In short there is no
escape from debt in this birth or the next. Spend what you earn and a little
less.