Avoid debts like a terrible stench

Shortly after I got my first job in 2008, money lenders knocked on my office door with an offer. Tagging along was their car dealer. I just needed to walk to his show room, pick my choicest car and pay for it in monthly instalments stretching to five years.

I turned down the offer because I love the health and spiritual benefits of walking. Walking home from work is the best "me time" I get in this fast-lane life we lead. This is when I get to truly think, pray, meditate and exercise my joints.

I love the health and spiritual benefits of walking

I also find amusement watching the bored and anxious faces of some Ugandans in powerful cars stuck in the traffic jam. How can they look bored in such posh cars? Or were they bought on loan, with the pressure of paying back now taking its toll on the owners?

The Lord knows the stress of paying back is as exacting as loan sharks extracting their pound of flesh when you fail to pay back. You have heard and read stories about merciless bailiffs attacking and selling cars, buildings and chunks of land; turning previous owners into sudden paupers.

That wise king, Solomon, was spot on when he said the borrower is a servant of the lender. The spirit of debts is basically a bad spirit which puts men into bondage. Poverty, arrest, broken friendships, isolation and a ruined reputation often come with failure to pay back debts.

A friend of mine who had a hard time paying back a bank loan told me that every time you borrow money you borrow into your future. For while the debt-free are progressing, you are busy paying huge interests that would be propelling you to success.

Borrowing is clearly an indicator that you are trying to live beyond your means. Live within your means and accumulate little by little consistently. Besides, the things you have: knowledge, talent, friendships and health, when well-utilised with patience and hard work, will make you achieve without going into debts.

So, by all means, avoid debts like I shunned money lenders who were interested in me having a car more than I was.