Debt doesn't just cost money, it costs sleep, confidence,
opportunities, and peace. So today we're going to be
breaking down the real cost, the invisible cost that people don't
talk about. Hey there, I'm Jules, the budget
nerd, and welcome to the Debt Rebel show.
This is the place where working families like yours learn how to
stop living paycheck to paycheck, crush debt for good,
and build a life where money actually works for your family.
In about 15 minutes, I'll share practical family budgeting tips,
tough love strategies, and the actionable steps to move toward
debt free living without the fluff, the shame or the
confusion. And I know a thing or two about
this. My family and I have eliminated
over $107,000 in consumer debt. And that was after I got my
degree in economics. So stay tuned.
This is going to be a great episode.
So grab that coffee, your planner, whatever you need to
make this a great experience. Maybe a snack if you're like me.
And let's make your money work for your family.
That is costing us so much more than money.
It cost us sleep, confidence, opportunities, peace, all right?
And it's costing us time with our families.
So today we are going to be breaking down the real cost, the
invisible cost, the things that we don't like to talk about.
But today we're here for it and we are talking about it.
So stick around, right? Debt cost us so much.
Oh, if you are brand new to the show, First off, welcome.
I am very glad that you're here. And second of all, I want to
share a little bit of a back story because so about myself
because this is going to be helpful to understand how much
debt is actually costing us, right?
I was raised how to live within my means.
I got a degree in economics and then my husband and I got
together and we bought a house and a thing is kind of went
sideways from there. So we couldn't make our first
mortgage payment because we put all of our money into buying our
home. And then it just got like our
finances got to be such a disaster.
So we ended up over $107,000 in consumer debt, all types, you
know, credit cards, car payments, that kind of stuff.
And it was, it was out of control.
And so we realized we needed to do something differently.
And so now we are debt free. We have a little bit of a
mortgage left to go and then we'll be completely debt free.
But we don't have any more consumer debt, so we don't use
credit cards to fund our daily life anymore.
I don't even have a credit card in my name that I know of.
That is one of the things. A little side note there, I do
check my credit once a year to make sure that there aren't any
new accounts open in my name. My family and I, we've decided
not to use debt to fund our day-to-day life.
That's why I called the show the Debt Rebel podcast because we
found that being debt free to us was of such high value because
of the lifestyle that we were able to live now versus when we
quote, UN quote, had all the things and we were buying things
and doing things and spending money without a plan.
Our life is so much better now. And I think that's one of the
things I, I could kind of like see it in like a OK, like, yeah,
alright. And then now that we're there, I
look at my husband and he even says that he's like, we are so
much better now than when we were using, you know, credit
cards for groceries and all that kind of stuff.
Like we, our life is so much better.
So we can talk about the dollars and cents.
We can talk about the interest on credit cards and the loans
and payments and we can talk about the fees that come in and
when we're late, we missed the card.
We had a credit card for the airline miles that we were just
putting all of our auto pays on and paying it every single pay
period. So that never had a balance, but
there were fees to have that card and then there were fees.
There was a fee because I forgot to pay it in one month because I
lost track of time, which is something that happens to me
very often. So we don't have that credit
card anymore because of a bunch of reasons.
And I still need to record that episode.
Oh my gosh, that's a good one. Why we don't have a airline mile
credit card because that's something that others will say,
Hey, you should do this. And this is really good for us.
We found it wasn't. And so I'll tell you about that
in a future episode. But we, when you have those
kinds of things that the dollars and cents cost of it is you're,
you're paying, you're spending tomorrow's money, which means
you are losing that future cash flow that you could be spending
on something else. And you get into this snowball,
not the good kind of snowball effect where it's like, OK, just
it's just one more payment. But when we think it's just one
more payment and then we have more maxed out on all of our
other things, it can lead to some really, it can really lead
to some stressful times. And so this is where we get into
the hidden psychological costs that a lot of people don't talk
about because we might have been taught not to talk about our
money. And so this is where the shame
of our money decisions come in. So we carry around this debt
shame with us. And so when I say we, I mean I
have added hello, I had a degree in economics and I knew, I knew,
right? I should have known better, but
there we were. So we, I was carrying around
that debt. Shame.
I wanted to avoid the things, the habits that were going to
help us put a spending plan in place, a budget in place that
was going to be helpful. It put a strain on my
relationship, let me tell you. So my husband and I, we used to,
we used to argue about the littlest things.
And now we, because of the way that we have our budget set up
and then we have our, our money management, our money spending
plan set up, we don't argue about money anymore.
We have discussions about what we think is best for the next
best step. Like right now we're talking
about replacing a vehicle. And so we're having a little bit
more conversation about that. But we because we have set up
the system the way that we have, we don't have that kind of
tension anymore because we're not spending a future stuff
without talking to each other. And the other thing is, is when
we use, when we use credit and debt to fund our life, it helps.
It is it's increasing the decision fatigue.
So what I mean by that is you're going to go back and you're
going to, you'll see, OK, I got my credit card statement this
month. And then not only do you have an
extra payment to make because, but you're also going to be
looking back at like those past decisions and you have more
stuff to ruminate and think about.
And so when I spend money, I spend it one time and I spend it
with intention because it's in our budget.
And yes, there are some things that are a little bit more loose
so that I'm not like, OK, I know I'm going to, I know I'm going
to buy a pair of shoes on Wednesday afternoon at 1:00 PM.
It's not like that. So it's going to help you when
you live with it, when you live within your means and you have
this budget set up, it's going to cut down on that decision
fatigue. All right, And this one, the one
day I'll get a head feeling or that constant thought of like
one day I'm going to figure this out.
That right there is so taxing on our emotions and our mental
health because it is just one of those things where you just
don't feel like you can get ahead.
So those are some of the psychological costs, rate of
debt. So let's talk about the ways
that debt is costing us in our day-to-day life.
So this is a big one for my family.
Some of the things that it can be costing you are delayed
goals. Maybe you have less flexibility
and you're missing out on some experiences or you're setting,
you're settling for that survival mode instead of
building wealth and then creating a life for your family
that you want. So what I mean by all these
things are this is the perfect example when and my husband and
I set a goal to become debt free, We didn't know what was
coming next, right? So we just knew that this way of
life was not serving us anymore and we needed to make some
decisions and we needed to make a plan that was going to work
for us because one, we didn't want it to end our marriage, but
also we were just tired and we didn't want to we didn't want to
do that anymore. So Fast forward, we renewed our
wedding vows at 10 years, which just happened to be our debt
free celebration. We had a little party with our
friends, renewed our wedding vows, it was really fun.
And then the next month I got pregnant with my daughter.
We thought we couldn't have kids of our own.
My husband's oldest is well, 21 years older than her younger
sister. One of the things that is so
that I am so grateful for in the fact that we had set that goal
and we worked really hard to get there was now that my, at that
point, my daughter was coming along as a couple, we were able
to make that decision whether or not one of us is going to stay
home to be with her. In those earlier years, we could
make those decisions based on what we wanted our life to look
like versus a financial decision.
So it gave us that flexibility, but it also meant that we
weren't going to have to miss out on certain things because we
needed to go to work to pay for our debts, pay for things that
we'd already purchased. We could pay for today, today.
And so, yeah, we had to shift our life around a little bit
because we weren't going to have a second income anymore.
But we were fine. We were had, we had all of our
needs met. We our expenses were a lot lower
because we weren't paying 5800, you know, 508 hundred thousand
dollars, $2000 a month in debt. Fast forward after my daughter
was born, my younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and
I was staying home with my daughter at the time and my
sister has three young girls. As my sister was going through
her surgeries and her chemotherapy and her radiation,
all of her doctor's appointments, I was able to go
with her. I was able to be there for my
nieces and to be there for my sister, which God forbid, I hope
no one has to go through that experience ever.
It's terrible. But I am so grateful because we
had our finances organized the way that we did that I was able
to be there with her. And so when we talk about
missing out on experiences, I'm not necessarily talking about
like missing out on a Disneyland trip or all of those things are
fantastic. But I'm talking about we don't
know what tomorrow holds. And when we have those
opportunities to be there for people that we care about and
that we love, there's no price tag for that.
And so when I talk about the debt is costing us in big ways,
this could be 1. And so we didn't know what the
what was coming. But those are two big things
that have changed. I have changed my life in a
really huge way because we set that goal.
My husband and I, we don't, we don't operate in survival mode
anymore because we don't have to worry about, you know, a $2000,
you know, payments for all of our debts.
We just spend with what we what we have and we have created a
lifestyle for ourselves that works in that way.
The other thing is when we got out of debt, it felt like this,
like the interesting feeling was, you know, I kind of talked
about it before, like my husband's like, yeah, we're we
feel like they're doing a lot better than we were when we had
all of this debt, right. And so, you know, I talked a
little bit about this already. We already have we have more
control. And so while we don't know what
tomorrow holds, it could be really amazing things and it
could be something that we don't want.
It could be some really amazing things and then it could be some
things that are not so amazing. But when we have maxed out
ourselves financially, then it doesn't allow us to show up in
other ways that we want for our family and for our loved ones.
So one of the things too that we found was getting out of debt
felt like we were giving ourselves a raise.
And so it was really interesting because when we we shifted from
that mentality of just, you know, just put it on a credit
card and we'll deal with it later.
And then just spending the money that we had, life became a lot
easier to manage. So one, we had more energy.
And I'm not talking necessarily about like, you know, physical
energy or anything like that, but like we had more energy to
like think like positively. And not until I dream about
things again, because we didn't feel like we were, we were stuck
anymore. We had more control over our
life because we didn't have to make payments to someone that
had control over us when we owed money.
And then we just generally had a we just felt more confident in
our spending. When we spend money now, it's
not this, this anxiety or it's not a negative feeling.
It's this is going to accomplish our goal.
And sometimes the goal is to like have a really fun Saturday
afternoon with our daughter at the arcade or sometimes it's
doing something else. It doesn't.
When I am, when I talk about that kind of stuff, it doesn't
necessarily have to be these, you know, these big things.
It could be what do you want your life to look like?
What are some things you want experiences you want to give
your family and be able to organize your money so that
you're able to do those things. And so one of the things, the
thing that we have found is not having debt because one, it's
expensive, not just the financial cost, but like we just
talked about all of the, and the emotional costs and things like
that. So that's why I'm super excited
about what's coming in 2026 because we, when I mean, we, I
mean, you and I, listeners of this show are going to, and I'm
going to lead you through this because I'm so excited and I see
so much value in this is eliminating $1,000,000 of debt
in 2026. So in 2026, this show is going
to help make a massive dent in America's debt problem.
And so I'm not talking about our national debt.
I am talking about your debt. So let's eliminate $1,000,000 of
debt as a community, right? OK, would that be amazing?
So maybe you're thinking, oh, you know what?
I don't know how much I have maybe about 20, maybe about 30,
I don't know. This is this is the time we're
going to, I'm going to walk you through how to do it, what we
did. And if you want to get started
right now and jump into jump into the the early stages of it
and get started before 2026, get to my website at the Debt Rebel
art. Go to my website,
debtrebelpodcast.com and grab your debt Rebel starter kit.
That is going to be that first step to joining the rebellion.
And I'll tell you a little bit more about that when you grab
that, I want to remind you that you deserve a life that you you
deserve. You don't have to finance, OK?
You can pay cash for it and it's going to be amazing.
And I would love to be a part of your journey.
All right, we'll see in the next episode.
Thank you for tuning into the Debt Rebel show today.
Ready to take your family budgeting to the next level?
Stop that paycheck to paycheck grind and start living debt
free. Head over to my website,
debtrebelpodcast.com. That's DEBT REBEL podcast.com to
grab resources, tools and tips to make it happen.
And don't forget, subscribe, leave a review.
And if you know another family that will love hearing today's
episode, it would be such a gift for both of us, your friend and
me. If you share this episode and
remember your debt free life starts with one brave step and
I'm cheering you on every step of the way.
We'll talk soon. Debt Rebel.