Don’t Let Debt Make You Sick

The Effects of Debt on Your Health

According to a Globe and Mail article I recently read, people have gotten sick and depressed thinking about their debts. “Researchers and health professionals are making the case for treating personal debt as a public health problem.” Oh no. 🙁 Dr. Donna Ferguson, a psychologist in Toronto says, “I think that it’s a major crisis. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed.”

The average consumer debt in Canada is only about $21,000. Personally I don’t think that’s a whole lot. Yet psychologists are calling this a “major crisis.” 😠 People are blaming debt for making them feel physically ill. But I have much more debt than they ever will. So if having a healthy relationship with debt is their primary goal, then they should do something to keep their stress under control. 🙂

Luckily I have a solution to help those consumers. If we want them to get better we have to address the root of the issue. The problem is with individual psychology, not with debt. Instead of creating more health problems for borrowers and increase the burden on our public healthcare system, like what Dr. Ferguson suggests, let’s try to educate people about the truth so we can prevent people from feeling ill in the first place.

So here’s my simple yet effective tip to help anyone who may have debt anxiety:

If you don’t think you can handle the debt, then don’t borrow the money. 😀

Sometimes the negative consequences of debt are blown out of proportion. The ASA, a financial support organization, has even made a horror video to show the trepidation and paranoia that comes with having student loan debt, which further supports the common narrative.

Some people have this irrational fear that if we have debt then somehow it will come to get us like the boogeyman. 😆 But the reality is nothing bad will happen as long as we make the payments on our debt.

Missing a Debt Payment is No Big Deal

The consequences for delinquent debt are very lenient towards borrowers. The bank can’t just take our house away as soon as we stop making mortgage payments. In my neck of the woods for example, the bank has to first draft up a foreclosure petition if a mortgage payment is 3 months late. Then the court hearing will be a month later. And then the property goes into a redemption period for up to 6 more months. So we have plenty of time throughout this entire process to get our payments back on track. We can even sell our house if it’s worth more than the mortgage balance.

For other types of debt, if money becomes tight we can enter into consumer proposal or apply for other debt relief options. We’re usually given at least 3 months to catch up on our payments before it goes to a collections agency. Despite the scary rumors, consumer debt cannot physically harm us. We won’t be assaulted or locked up if we’re late on our credit card payments. Nobody will drag us to jail because we failed to make a car payment, lol. The worst they can do to us is take the car away and tarnish our credit score. But I think that’s only fair. Our vehicle is being repossessed only because we broke the debtor/creditor agreement first.

So there’s no reason to get all worried and stressed out over a reasonable amount of debt. 🙂 We just have to be smart and not borrow too much.

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Random Useless Fact:

If the original Power Rangers series were made today in 2016, it would probably offend too many people and be banned from airing in most countries.

The yellow ranger was Asian. The red ranger was Native American. The pink ranger was portrayed as a ditsy white girl. The black ranger was black. And in later episodes they introduced the white power ranger who was the strongest.