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You wake up every morning, go to work, put in long hours, and at the end of the month, you get your paycheck. But before you even think about enjoying your hard-earned money, you already know where most of it is going. A chunk of it is for your mortgage. Another part goes toward your car loan. Then there’s the credit card bill, student loan payments, and maybe even some personal loans.
By the time you’re done paying all of that, what’s left? Not much.
It might not feel like it, but in reality, you’re not working for yourself. You’re working for the bank. Every month, before you take care of yourself, before you invest in something that could grow your money, before you even think about saving, you first have to pay back money that you borrowed—plus interest. And if you sit down and do the math, the numbers can be shocking.
Think about it. If you buy something with cash, you pay for it once, and that's it. But when you buy on credit, you don’t just pay for the item—you pay for the privilege of borrowing money. That interest is the bank’s way of making money off you. And over time, the amount you pay in interest alone can be staggering.
Let’s say you take out a 30-year mortgage. By the time you finish paying it off, you might have paid almost double the original price of your home. The same goes for car loans, credit cards, and any other type of debt. The bank is always making money, while you’re always paying.
And it’s not just about the money you lose. It’s about the opportunities you miss. Every dollar that goes to the bank in interest is a dollar that could have been invested, saved, or used to build something for yourself. If that money had been put into an investment—even something as simple as a savings account earning interest—it could have been working for you instead of working for the bank.
So what’s the solution? It’s simple: Avoid debt whenever possible. Save for things before you buy them. If you must borrow, pay it off as quickly as you can. The less money you owe, the more control you have over your own financial future.
Because at the end of the day, the goal is to work for yourself, not for the bank.