How does debt affect lives?

In such a situation, financial institutions come to the rescue, which will gladly facilitate the realization of dreams. Of course, financing has its price, which can be expressed as a percentage. As long as we can maintain moderation and sanity, this is not a problem. However, not everyone knows when to say enough.

A survey of the National Debt Register of the Bureau of Economic Information shows that more than half of Poles (54%) are currently repaying loans or loans. This is not bad information yet. This includes, for example, zero percent installments for building a credit history before a mortgage.

The scale of the real problem can be seen in the lack of timely repayment of debts. Almost every 11th adult Pole has unpaid credit and non-credit obligations on time. More than two million seven hundred thousand Poles are unable to pay their debts on time.

What does the debt spiral lead to?

Let's start with how it all begins, because the beginnings are always innocent. Zero percent installments on essential home equipment, credit card, limit in account, vacation loan. All this raises our standard of living and allows you to shop right now, without saving and without waiting. It's so convenient!

True, it is pleasant to have something already now, and not in half a year. This is how instant gratification works, which releases the hormones of happiness, and these, in turn, are able to overshadow rational thinking. As long as the salary is enough to cover the obligations, we do not think about the problem. We reach for more and more — things, services, memories.

However, at some point there is the problem of overcrediting, that is, incurring debts beyond our capabilities. In such a situation, problems begin to layer up like a snowball, which leads to an avalanche. We do not want to give up our current standard of living, even though we cannot afford it. Installment delays are getting longer and longer, and we are desperately grasping at every opportunity to borrow more money to pay off previous debts. So we reach for worse and worse solutions, such as payday loans — as a result of which we are left with even larger and higher interest-rate debt.

We also try to borrow money from family and friends, but our relationship begins to fade, and we can only count on the phone from the debt collection company.

Each of us can have a debt problem

It doesn't matter how much you earn. It can happen to anyone. Both a regular employee and the owner of the company or a star of world format. There are known cases of athletes who, although they earned hundreds of millions of dollars, still became bankrupt. This is how lifestyle inflation works, which I discussed in materials on the home budget.

Sure, you didn't miscalculate when buying a new yacht or jet and have more mundane problems, but the principle is the same. Revenues are greater than costs, but at some point this proportion reverses. It doesn't matter for what reason.

Of course, I don't know what happened to you or what your story is. Not everything was influenced by you. Maybe the company closed and you lost your job, maybe you didn't get the promised raise, or you just had to go into debt because your child needed surgery. The history of each debtor may be different. No, that's what's important right now. What has happened will not go away - you have fallen into debt and you have a problem with them. At this point, you are 100% responsible for what you do with the current situation.

Debts are a serious problem

I have already mentioned that banks and other loan companies will help you finance your wants or needs at a price that can be expressed as a percentage. However, the deeper you go into the spiral of debt, the more strongly the price will turn from interest to anger, crying, feeling helpless, depressed, and many other things that no person wants.

Having debts is destructive, both mentally, physically and socially

At first it is not visible. We live normally, because having debts is now considered normal. In some countries, it is also normal to eat frogs, and such a frog needs to be cooked first. However, it cannot be thrown into a heated pot, as it will quickly pop out. The frog is a warm-blooded amphibian that gets used to the surrounding temperature. Therefore, frogs are placed in water at room temperature and gradually heated. This, unaware of the danger, ends, let's say... poorly.

But what does cooking frogs have to do with debts? Very much! Debtors in the same way slowly lose their health, and sometimes their lives. The Internet is full of posts, groups and forums where you will read stories that do not end happily, but have dragged on for years, like an increasing burden. They are full of helplessness, rage, crying and drama.

There are people behind each of these stories. Families who lose assets built throughout their lives. Marriages that fall apart because normal conversation is no longer possible due to stress or feelings of betrayal, when debts were hidden so long that they could no longer be hidden in the closet with other monsters. Sometimes even suicides.

You may not want me to tell you about such things, but this is the reality of hundreds of thousands of Poles. The question is, do you feel like joining them and seeing how strong your psyche is, or do you prefer to prevent it while you still can?