Chocolate helped me understand debt.
When I was a kid, Cadbury Chocolates had a programme to help children fundraise for sport, music, and art extracurriculars.
You’d get a box of 20 chocolate bars, and you’d sell them to friends for $2 each.
No money had to be paid upfront. With the $40 earned, you’d have to give $20 back to school to cover the cost of the chocolates.
On those long, hot summer afternoons, the box of chocolate bars sitting beside my school bag were too much of a temptation.
I’d think to myself, “One bar, it can’t hurt, it’s only $2.”
But by the end of the week, I’d be 5 bars down, and $10 in debt to my own fundraising goal.
Mum wasn’t pleased when she found out, and the $10-sized hold in my pocket money allowance was my lesson in taking responsibility for my actions.
It’s a simple example, and not reflective of debt-in-the-real-world, but the lesson has stuck with me. Debt may be easy to take on, but there’s always a price down the line.
So unless the debt helps acquire something that will appreciate in value—such as a house or education—it’s usually something to avoid.