Aside from the threat of losing your possessions there are several other reasons to get out of debt as quickly as possible.
First and foremost is the fact that living debt free is the only way to have financial security.
My definition of financial security is the ability to live without worry about where your next meal will come from or where you will sleep tonight.
This is different from financial freedom, but we'll get to that in another article.
If you are like most people you have a mountain of debt.
It may be a small mountain or a large mountain, but you are carrying some debt.
Any time you owe someone else money you relinquish some control over your life to them.
You have an obligation to pay them back and depending on the terms of your debt that obligation may be significant.
For instance, if you owe money on your car and you don't make your payments it won't be long before your car is repossessed.
Not all debt is bad, but much of debt can and should be avoided.
A simple way to analyze debt is to look at the benefit borrowing will provide.
My philosophy is that debt is only good if it is going to help you make more money.
Borrowing for education is a good example.
However, most people have several thousand dollars in accumulated credit card debt.
This debt represents meals, they've eaten, clothes, movie tickets etc.
Credit card debt is, in my opinion, the worst kind of debt.
It is the most expensive, it is the easiest to abuse, and it is the most likely to get you in financial trouble.
As I am writing this our economy is in the tank and lots of people have lost their jobs.
Most of those people were in debt when they lost their job.
Many, in fact, were living paycheck to paycheck.
Contrary to what you may think, living paycheck to paycheck is a phenomenon that reaches across all economic classes.
If you lost your job today would you be able to pay your mortgage? What about your car loan, or insurance payments? How would you get around looking for a new job? What would you do if you got sick or had an accident? How would your children get to school? Most financial advisors tell us to have three to six months of living expenses saved up for emergencies.
I don't know anyone who has this kind of money put away for a rainy day, do you? While this is certainly sound advice, you will be better able to accomplish it if you don't owe anyone money.
So while you are putting a portion of each paycheck away to build that security blanket, why not take another ten percent or so and apply it towards paying down your debts.
You will be surprised at how quickly you can get debt free.
You can rapidly eliminate your debt if you consistently use a technique known as snowballing.
Snowballing is the process of attacking one debt at a time and gradually increasing the amount of money applied towards debt as each bill is paid off.
Take the debt with the smallest balance first and build from there.
Make today the day you commit to getting your financial house in order.
Don't wait until you have a pink slip to prepare.
Financial security is the number one reason to get out of debt.
Why not start today?