PAT'S
PERSPECTIVE
Aim
For Debt-Free Living
By
Pat Robertson
The 700 Club
CBN.com
--Solid financial planning is key to a peaceful Christian
life. With the potential threat of a future recession in the upcoming
millennium, Pat urges Christians to reign in on expenses and opt
for debt-free living whenever possible.
The Bible says that the debtor is the servant of the lender (see Proverbs
22:7). This has always been true. It is a great tragedy to have to borrow money
to pay for current expenses, to live beyond your means and constantly try to make
$100 do the work of $200. I believe that those who do not live within their
means and who borrow to meet day-to-day expenses wind up being the slaves of those
who lend to them. They do not have peace, and very often their marriages are torn
apart. Some marriage counselors and financial consultants assert that 80 percent
of marriage failure is caused by money pressure and that money problems account
for about 50 percent of the impotence in married men. Living beyond your means,
which results in debt, can be devastating. There are some types of debt
that are not always damaging, however. For example, a business may need to borrow
to purchase productive assets; the servicing of interest and principal payments
make up a business expense that is included in the operating budget. Modest debt
can allow a business to buy equipment, buildings, and land, and to expand in an
appropriate fashion. The same justification applies to the debt-financed purchase
of a house. Mortgage payments are not considered by some as debt but as a monthly
budgeted expense. Of course, the
happiest people in this regard are those who have no debt on anything, who have
paid cash for their cars, their furniture, and their houses, and who have funded
their businesses out of either equity or cashflow. These people are better off
in times of recession or even in times of rampant inflation. Especially in today's
world, when in the next ten, fifteen, or twenty years I believe we are going to
be faced with increasing deflationary pressures, the paying of debt is going to
be extremely difficult, because we will pay off debt with more and more expensive
dollars. It will be a terrible situation. A time of deflation is a debtor's hell. The
present economic environment is the worst possible time to incur debt for anything.
If at all possible, do not go into debt now. You will win the battle
if you use the weapons that God has made available to you! You can be debt free!
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