DEBT

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.

So Where Debt is okay:

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.