Debt is a hole in the ground, right smack in the middle of your backyard.
Your income is like sand running through an hourglass. Each grain that slips through must go to fill little holes (monthly bills). What’s left over can go toward filling up the big hole in your backyard. This takes time. Sometimes a lot of time.
If you get frustrated with the size of your hole, you may be tempted to fill it by whatever means possible. One way to fill it is to borrow dirt from another dirt lender to fill up your current hole.
This is much like digging a fresh hole, right next to the first one, and using the dirt you dig up to fill the original hole. But you still have a hole. The only difference is that this time, another lender’s name is on it. Soon, you will hate this new hole just as much as you hated the old hole.
The only real solution is to fill the hole with dirt of your own. You can siphon off a few extra grains of sand that come through your hourglass each month and put them in the hole. Or you can figure out a way to get more dirt each month.
If you start a small home-based business in your spare time, and consistently apply yourself, you might wind up hitting pay dirt. Then filling the hole in your backyard will become much easier. More dirt means, in most cases, a smaller hole.
Just make sure you’re putting your extra dirt in the right place. It belongs in the hole that’s in your backyard; not in somebody else’s dirt pile.
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I like the imagery of this post–especially the idea of digging extra holes to get dirt for the other. If somehow you can dig a smaller hole (like a lower interest rate).
Thank you, Ms. Micah.
The way I see it, you can’t dig a smaller hole to fill a bigger hole. But you might have a different hole that costs less to own.
A hole costs you a little extra dirt each month… call it a monthly maintenance fee (interest). The trick is to get a hole that’s cheap to own.
You can’t build a mountain until you get out of the hole first.
Or, you can dig the hole as deep as you can, until it threatens to cave in under your home, and then have everyone who took the dirt just go right ahead and give it back. In which case, you probably won’t be allowed to dig any more holes for a few years.
This is called bankruptcy.
@Dave – Nice. I like that extension of the analogy.
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