Why Do I Keep Falling Back Into Debt After Paying It Off?

Hey, if you're like so many of us, you work hard, you sacrifice, and you finally get out of debt. And when you do that, you feel this huge sigh of relief. It's a level of freedom.But then somehow, maybe just a few months later, you find yourself back in debt again. But what if that frustrating cycle could finally be broken for good? Well, I've got some answers and I'm going to share them with you on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there. Welcome back. My name is Ralph. This is Financially Confident Christian.Before I even get started today, I've got a very special thing I want to bring to everyone's attention. Today is my 25th wedding anniversary. Yes. 25 years. My wife has gotten her angel wings to put up with me every day. She has done that.So I just want to wish her a very happy anniversary and tell her I appreciate you sticking along with me for this ride and I just want to thank God for helping us stay together. We've been through some trials and tribulations and if you're married, you know exactly what I'm talking about.But sweetheart, I just want to wish you a very happy anniversary today. It also happens to be my birthday and I'm ticking up there in the 50s. I'm going to tell you how old I am.But I got married on my birthday, so I never forget my anniversary. So quick tip, don't forget your anniversary. All right, well, let's get back to the show.Today we're continuing in our series Breaking Financial Change. We're studying those 30 things that make people just suffer financially.And if you missed yesterday's show, we talked about unexpected expenses and how they can destroy our budget. Hey, we talked about how unexpected. Yes. We kind of expected they're going to happen from time to time.So if you missed the show, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out. You can find all of our episodes@financially confidentchristian.com today we're going to talk about something that so many people struggle with.I've had so many people say to me, I've do live shows. I've had people come in for counseling and they say, ralph, it seems like I finally get my debts paid off and then they start creeping right back in.Just it seems like a month or two after I've paid them off. And I can remember this myself. May tell you a personal story. I can remember it like it was yesterday. It's about 21 years old.I was on my way to college one morning. I was a Pontiac Firebird. And my dad had gotten me this for my 17th birthday. But it was sort of my responsibility to take care of it.And I'll never forget, I went down the driveway, a long driveway, top of a hill we were going down. And I got to the road to Pueblo, on the road, and my car started puttering, and just all of a sudden, it just died.And off to the side of the road it went. Well, unfortunately for me, guess what? The engine had seized. Well, guess what I shouldn't have done.I shouldn't have neglected doing those oil changes. Well, guess what? My dad hit the roof. So he comes to me, says, son, he says, we got to get this car fixed. He said, how do you intend to pay for it?And I said, well, honestly, I'm kind of tapped out, dad. He says, what do you mean you're tapped out? He says, I know you've got a couple credit cards. I said, yeah, you know, dad, I'm tapped out.I've got those credit cards up to the max, and I'll forget it. My dad did me a huge service. He bailed me out of my credit card debt. And I said to myself, hey, I'm never going to do that again.I am never going to find myself in debt again. Let me just tell you, that's happened a couple times in my life.And if you're listening right now, you're probably saying, ralph, it's happened to me, too. Because, look, things happen. Like me. The car breaks down, you don't plan for holiday spending, and you overspend.Or maybe you just overspend in general. You swipe that card and you say to yourself, oh, just one more time, I'm going to swipe that credit card.If you're not careful, suddenly, over a little bit of time, those balances start to go back up. And I had a listener say to me, she says, ralph, why do I feel like I'm doomed in this cycle forever? I feel. I sense that struggle.I've been that several times in my life. But today, I want to start by encouraging you to do something. And I want you to really change your mindset.See, paying off debt, that's the first step, but it's not the finish line. So many people think, oh, I'm going to get that debt paid off, and I've crossed the finish line. That's only the first step.Because here's the real problem. It's Kind of like a diet. If you don't change your eating patterns, you're going to find yourself going back into being overweight again.I've been there several times in my life. What kind of works the same way with your spending habits. If you don't change your spending habits, guess what's going to happen?Debts are going to return. Because debt freedom isn't just math. I wish I could say to you, hey, it's this simple. Go pay these debts off and you're going to be done for.Life doesn't work that way. It's a mindset. And bigger than that, it's a discipline.Well, as we're talking about discipline, let's jump right into the biggest discipline book in the world. And, and that's the Bible. I've got a great Bible verse today, and this one comes to us from the book of Galatians. This is chapter five, verse one.It says this. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.That is a really powerful verse, isn't it? And I can see you right now, you're thinking, man, those debts, they are a yoke of slavery. I see.Just like spiritual freedom, we have spiritual freedom. If you know Christ, you've got spiritual freedom. You had that right to make that decision. But to be spiritually free, you got to stay vigilant.Guess what? You've also got to stay vigilant to maintain your financial freedom. Because here's the truth, and I'm going to say this is kind of bold.A lot of people might not go here, but my honest goodness truth is this debt is the modern yoke of slavery. Now I know slavery's a big word to use. A lot of people may be offended by that. I don't mean any offense by that.But if you continue to put money on credit cards, you will continue to be in this yoke of debt slavery.I'm gonna encourage you right now, if you really want to get past this, the main thing you've got to do is you've got to stand firm and you've got to protect your hard won progress. For example, so many people I know, they pay off that credit card. Listen to this one. It's a crazy story. I had a client tell me this.They had worked so hard to pay off this credit card and they wanted to celebrate. So what do they do? They went and charged up their credit card in celebration. Totally wiped out their progress.I have another friend, she had paid off all of her credit cards. She paid off a furniture loan that she had. Next thing you know, she's out shopping. Oh, I'm gonna get a new refrigerator. What did she do?The clerk at the front checkout at the Lowe's, I think it was a local home repair store, said, hey, you know what? We've got one year, same as cash. I've done many shows on that. Don't fall for that trap. Now, you can do it if you're going to be vigilant about it.But next thing you know, she's in debt again. And she finally said to me, she said, ralph, you know what it took?It finally took me understanding that I broke the cycle of debt when I stopped relying on credit completely. See, that's the key to this whole thing.If you're going to rely on credit to fund your life, you are going to be stuck in this constant cycle of debt. So here's my practical solution today. You got to shift your focus from payoff to protection.And you've got to build some guardrails to keep yourself from sliding back. So here's my one action step for today to really help you break that yoke of debt slavery.I'm going to tell you right now, and it's going to be a little bit bold. Cut those credit cards up if you have to. I've had people to tell me, ralph, you know, I did.I took and I froze my credit cards in a block of ice, Talking about removing that easy temptation. We talked yesterday about building that emergency fund that can be huge to help you break out of debt.You build that buffer against those surprise expenses. When you do that budget, what I'll call intentional spending plan, make sure you do it with reality in mind.So many people build a budget, they build their pie in the sky, but it doesn't reflect the reality of their lives. It doesn't consider holidays. It doesn't consider birthdays or those unexpected car repairs.So if you're going to take the time to build that intentional spending plan, make sure you do it with a dose of reality. Look at where you're really spending your money.It's probably the biggest struggle I see people falling into that debt cycle is they didn't budget in reality. And one more final thing I'm going to encourage you to do is find an accountability partner.Find somebody to check in with, because that can truly help you break this cycle. Because here's the truth. Freedom isn't one time. It's not one time. It's just like A diet. I've lost a ton of weight over the past few years.It's not today I'm going to decide. It's a day in and day out. What that is. It's a lifestyle. How about we pray together? Lord, we just thank you today for freedom.We thank you for freedom both spiritually and financially, Lord. But you know, we struggle with this, Lord. We're humans. We're flesh. And we just need you.We ask that you would grant us strength, Lord, to resist sliding back into those cycles of debt, Lord. Help us to be intentional in our spending, Lord. Help us to not live on that debt cycle. We ask you for your wisdom, Lord, to help us build new habits.And. And we ask this in confidence in the name of Jesus, Amen. You don't have to live in that cycle anymore.If you hear nothing else I say today, you can break out of this cycle. What you need to do is you need to stand firm and you need to protect the freedom that you've worked so hard for. Don't backslide now.And while we're here, I want to ask you to do me a favor. If this show is impacting you, if it's making an impact on your life, I want to encourage you to share it with somebody.There's so many people that are stuck in. In that slavery to debt who could listen to the show and maybe they would get some impact from it.So I'm gonna encourage you right now to share the show with them. Just send them a text, send them an email, just point them right to our website. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com.and here's another special thing that you can tell them. Hey, right now I'm giving away a copy of my book. I just finished writing my third book. It's called Becoming a Financially Confident Christian.I'm going to give you a free copy of it. Send it to your friends and get a free copy, too. Absolutely no strings attached.Just go to the website financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming again, that's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming. Help them to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Help them to break free of that yoke of debt. I just want to close with this today.I firmly believe you can do this. You can break free of this. I believe in you. Believe in yourself. Now go live as a financially confident Christian. God bless you.And you have a great day today.