92 | Debt as a Family Member

I once had a teacher who said that any customer who makes up 25% of your revenue is a member of your management team and a customer who makes up 50% of revenue is on your board of directors.

This concept captured the hidden costs that often accompany something that seems so good on the surface.

The big contract is awesome in all the ways that you can measure, but it’s often less awesome in the things that are hard to measure.

It seems like debt can play a similar role in our own finances.

The larger it grows the more pull it has on our decisions and the more it begins to resemble an unwelcome advisor or a demanding family member.

Debt can seem so innocent and convenient until you realize that you’re the only person that can make it go away.

Debt has a way of calcifying a certain level of income as the only one that can work for a household.

Debt loves to see the future self footing the bill for the past self.

Debt has a way of delaying plans or completely eliminating the opportunity to pursue something unique, new, or different.

Debt has a way of making peace, contentment, security, and flexibility seem always out of reach.

Debt has a way of snuffing out dreams before they’ve even crossed your mind.

Debt has a way of looking your good idea right in the eye and saying “Nice try, but I don’t think so.”

Debt is tricky because it’s a useful tool all the way up to the point that it grabs the pen and starts writing a different story than the one we would write for ourselves.