Are you struggling with bad credit? Is your debt piling up month after month even after your best efforts?

Well, there’s a way out—but it isn’t an easy one. Having bad credit is as serious a problem as they come.

So, why not take the bull by the horns and chuck your credit cards away. Living within your means is much better than getting repeated calls from loan sharks or financial institutions to which you owe money. Isn’t so?

Of course, the transition from using plastic money to hard cash might be a little hard, but it’s very much possible. As a matter of fact, you don’t need to carry a lot of cash with you, because you can use debit cards. The main thing is to stop relying on credit, once and for all.

Here are some key advantages of living within your means, aka ‘credit-card’ free:

You will learn financial discipline

If you are constantly in debt, it means only one thing: you are careless with money. And this is true irrespective of your monthly income. Of course, each of us comes across a situation when we need to take a loan, but when taking credit become the rule rather than the exception, there’s a huge problem.

The only way to tackle it is by throwing away your credit cards and spending only what you can afford to. You will learn to separate necessary expenditure from frivolous spending and to recognise the latter for it is—superfluous, to be indulged in only when you have extra money, and then also not necessarily.

Expect to face some teething problems when you make the transition from living on debt to living with financial discipline. As you become more mature with money, you’ll find yourself improving in other areas too. That’s the thing about discipline; it affects other aspects of your life.

Sadly, the same goes for indiscipline, which, if anything, permeates other aspects of your life much faster. That’s why; people with money problems tend to have problems at work and home front too.

Less stress

Nobody enjoys living in fear of getting retrieval calls from lenders or, worse, a legal notice to settle debts. You will no longer have to worry about these things if you live within your means.

Save money

Think about how much money you spend on paying the interest rates on different loans. If you have a history of bad credit, chances are you might be taking loans at an exorbitant rate, as you wouldn’t qualify for loans from a bank or a financial institution. You can get out of this vicious circle by stopping using credit cards altogether. However, if you find yourself in desperate situations, a licensed money lender offers loans to people with bad credit history but charges a steep interest rate in return.