“My mother always told us never to borrow money for anything. She worked very hard and bought a small house for cash, and she never owed anyone. However, I’m finding it difficult to live debt-free in these times. Is all debt really bad, or are there any good reasons for borrowing money?”
In the olden days of Shakespeare, it may have been possible to declare “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,“ as he wrote in the play Hamlet. Even in your mother’s time it was probably also possible to acquire housing, transportation and an education without ever visiting a lending institution.
However, with today’s rising cost of living that hasn’t seen a matching increase in income, the average consumer is often left with little choice but to incur some form of debt.
But was your mother really right when she said ‘No debt’ is good? Or can debt actually be beneficial?