Debt? No way! I had lived all my life within my means. I had never borrowed a penny. I had worked since I remember. I had provided for my family. I had sacrificed a lot. I had made it across the ocean. I even have a few months’ salary stashed away…
We had just moved in together. We had merged our bank accounts. We were both mature enough to deal with the consequences if it didn’t work out. And trusted each other on this matter. A few months later, Alex’s car lease was expiring and he needed a new car. At the time his contract work would take him to Durham Region (100km round trip), Lindsay (125km round trip) and even Ottawa (400km one way). He could probably have bought an old car with the money we had, but how long would it last on the roads? A new one would last us a long time, he said, and might be cheaper on a long run. Having poured good money after bad in my old car I agreed. But where would the money come from? We’d take a car loan he explained. A loan? You mean, we’d have debts? You are out of your mind. I could only spend money I had saved. But a car on this continent is a necessity. One can’t get to their work place without one. In Europe it is possible for most people to use public transportation. There isn’t such on this continent. Not for the majority that commutes 20, 30 or even 100 km to and from their work place.
It was just after the IT melt down. The year 2000 had come and gone, and nothing disastrous had really happened. The Y2K specialists were not needed anymore. And then there was the dot com crash. My small dot com company was struggling and I had just, for the first time in my life, experienced a job loss. As if that wasn’t enough, Alex wanted us to take on a loan. I was in a panic…
We eventually would take the car loan and it would take us less than two years to get rid of it. The car lasted us a lot longer and is still alive and driven by my son, almost 17 years later. And in good shape I’d say. But there were many sleepless nights, until we paid off the debt.
This however wasn’t the worst. After renting for about a year it was time to buy a house. Rent was high and we’d pay less as a mortgage for our own house. Again, Alex would do his Excels and show them to me, proving that all would work. Intellectually I understood it. I knew it. As a matter of fact, I had done my research long before I met him and knew, at the time, given the housing and rental markets then, that the best was to bite the bullet and buy a house. But alone I could not take the risk. Now that we were together the risk was mitigated. At least one of us would have job at any given time, we hoped. I had started my consulting practice and he had been consulting for two years by then. It is unstable and unsecure income. One day you have a contract, the next you don’t. It can take months and even years to land another one. But there were two of us. Don’t even remember when the time arrived how the bank gave us a mortgage. It wasn’t easy for the self-employed to obtain good rates. Yet we did. We both had good credit ratings. Yes, having no debts and paying all your bills on time counts big time.
I am writing this on a sunny October day sitting in the backyard of our lovely home, a beautiful house we both put the time, energy, love and effort to make ours. The many sleepless nights I had after the humongous (for my head to process) loan (mortgage) we took at the time, are a long time gone. We have no debts and I for sure hope all will be healthy enough to enjoy it for the years to come.
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