It’s strange, being without debt. I’m so used to trying to decide how much will go toward debt vs savings – It’s like an old habit that doesn’t make sense anymore. Now, I don’t have to decide. I can simply move excess money into saving… AND NOT WORRY ABOUT DEBT! It is ia very strange feeling.
I suppose I got used to the pressure hanging over my head – or at least, used to its presence. I tried to explain my feelings to Laura, and this is the best that I could come up with: Imagine yourself wearing a 20-pound watch [some of you who wear dive watches may understand what I mean]. You wear this watch day and night, never taking it off. It’s not a comfortable watch – it’s cold and hard and has sharp edges. You keep having to look at it – you’re obsessed with the numbers on the front. You wear it for six years and while the watch isn’t what you’d call comforting, you become accostomed to its presence. Then, one day, you finally figure out that you don’t need it and that you can take it off and never pick it up again. Imagine the feeling of lightness – of freedom of movement.
Imaging also, that feeling of always wanting to look at the numbers – the numbers that aren’t there anymore [if any of you regualr watch wearers have forgotten to put on your watch, you know what I mean – you feel a little lost without it and keep trying to check the time on your empty arm…].
In fact it’s kind of like getting a cast off – you can finally itch where you couldn’t reach for so long and the feeling is simply sublime. But, even so, you still want to favor the limb: go easy on it, because you can’t quite believe that it’s as strong as it ever was and you don’t want to have to put that cast back on.
These feelings are very akin to what I have been experiencing this week.
Being debt free TOTALLY ROCKS! I’d recommend it to anyone.