I had a spirited conversation with someone on Facebook the other day about paying back debts. He wanted me to sign a petition for making the government eat 70% of the student loan bill.

I said “no”. I told him it was the wrong thing to do.

Here is my take on debt repayment: It sucks. 

You feel like you are getting nothing for your money, even though you did actually get something. It’s kind of bizarre. It’s some type of psychological backfire.

I went through the same thing when I declared bankruptcy many years ago. I was sinking in debt, I had made bad decisions, and I just wanted a chance to catch my breath. I got that chance and then I had an idea that exploded into a million dollar business. I had the choice of whether or not I wanted to “persue” my bankruptcy or have it annuled by paying everything off in one shot. My lawyer told me flat out that I could get away with only paying 50% of it.

I had to really think about it. Did I want to waste the other 50%? Was it really wasting it? What was the right thing to do?

I eventually made the hard decision to pay it off completely. It allowed me to completely annul the bankruptcy so that it never showed up. My wife and I discussed it for quite a while and, funnily enough, we made the deicision based on Karma. We felt like, if we didn’t pay the debt back, we would be asking for something negative to hit us in the future. It was our debt and it was the right thing to do.

The funny thing is, I held all this anger around paying it off the whole week that I had the check. I kept second guessing myself. I didn’t want to part with that cash.

The moment came where I finally had to hand over the check to my lawyer ……..and guess what?

I felt a HUGE relief come over me. I felt a feeling of pride. I felt free.

It was one of the best moments of my life.

As time went on it only got better. Every time someone asked me if I had ever declared bankruptcy I had the choice of telling them:

A) No, which was the truth because it was annulled

b) Yes, but I had it annulled by paying of every cent in one shot, which made me proud.

Powerful people were impressed by that.

It showed I had principles.

It showed I had courage.

It showed that I could stand strong when the going got tough.

Do you know what not paying your debts shows? Disrespect.

Do you know what it fosters? Distrust and resentment.

Once you get a reputation for it, no one will ever work with you again unless they have you under their thumb. You have officially lost your mojo.

So is paying back your debt really that important?

You can always make more money but you can’t always make someone trust you again.

Aaron Parkinson