Pursuing Holiness

Every month my husband and I make hard financial decisions about which debts to pay and what things to buy. Like the Obamas, we too struggle with student loan debt. And we owe tens of thousands in medical bills and illness-related debt which we are grateful to have received up front-service for and glad to pay. While we could have slogged along indefinitely juggling bills and trying to maintain a particular lifestyle, we chose to examine how we were living and see where we could trim the budget, including canceling our cable television. Millions of people make these decisions every month; we want to do the right thing, fulfill our promises, and gradually build our family’s wealth. So it’s with particular frustration that I read stories like this and realize that ultimately, my tax dollars are going to bail out people like Jose Canseco.

Canseco, 43, one of the most flamboyant U.S. baseball players until his retirement from the major leagues in 2001, told the celebrity TV show ‘Inside Edition’ that it did not make financial sense to keep his 7,300-square-foot home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. ‘Inside Edition’ said it had foreclosure documents showing Canseco owed a bank more than $2.5 million on the house.

Note that he wasn’t forced to foreclose. He chose to foreclose. And many more will follow in his foosteps.

I feel completely demotivated to do the right thing when I read stories like that.  Why bother struggling and fighting to pay my bills when we can find some way to weasel out of obligations we freely undertook but now find inconvenient?  It’s not like my husband’s degree will be revoked or his remission from cancer will be rescinded.  Here’s why we pay: we maintain our dignity and our pride every month when we meet our obligations.  We set the example for our daughter that it’s important to keep your word.  The trust that is created when people fulfill their part of that social contract is the fuel that keeps society going.  It’s what keeps doctors providing healthcare, colleges full of students, and George Bailey providing mortgages so that we don’t have to live in Potterville.

Canseco’s got nothing left to lose.  He surrendered his dignity quite a while back, as this demotivator I made of him in September, 2006 illustrates:

As for my family, we’re keeping ours.

written by Laura