(specific to personal finances)
Any physical item that you purchase, in part, or entirely, with any form of debt, automatically means that you don’t actually own the product.
You may have physical possession of the product. You may use the product. You may use up the product, wear it out, break it or lose it, but you don’t (didn’t) own it.
The person or institution that lent you the money to purchase the item is the real owner, at least until you have paid off your debt.
Don’t count the money that you’ve just borrowed as your money. It is not.
Not only is any borrowed money not your money, but any collateral that you may have put up (house, real estate, car, boat, motorcycle, business, accounts receivable, stocks, or bonds) are no longer really yours either…try missing 3 or 4 payments to the lender, and see what happens to: the original item that you’d purchased, you collateral, your credit score.
Frustrating ain’t it!
Charles Tadros, MD
June 12, 2023
Saint Louis, Missouri