We often complain-or hear others complain-about paying too much in taxes. You’ve probably noticed this more than ever lately in Canada, where you can end up paying close to 50% or more when you factor in income tax, gas, sales tax, property tax, and everything in between.
Individuals and companies try to get creative to reduce their tax burden. Some even go as far as relocating to other regions or countries to keep more of their hard-earned money.
At the end of the day, people simply hate giving up a large portion of what they earn. And while taxes are meant to fund services we all rely on-healthcare, education, garbage collection, snow removal, roads, policing, and more-it still feels like money leaving your pocket.
But imagine life without those services. Picture having to bring your own equipment and water to put out a fire, or having to defend your home yourself instead of calling the police. In that sense, taxes, while painful, do provide tangible value.
Now here’s the shift:
What if we complained about our debt as much as we complain about taxes?
The reality is, we have far more control over our debt than we do over taxes. Taxes are mandatory. Debt, for the most part, is optional-or at least manageable.
Yet both cost us money. The difference? Debt often costs you more while giving you far less in return.
Think about it. Some debt may come from necessary expenses-like fixing a broken appliance-but much of it often comes from discretionary spending: things we wanted in the moment but could have lived without. In fact, you have to pay interest in your debt, as long as you have a balance. While with taxes, there are situations where you don’t have to pay it, for example on low income or if you have no job etc; at least not payroll taxes.
That’s where the mindset shift happens.
When you start viewing debt as something just as painful-if not more painful-than taxes, something changes. You become more intentional. More disciplined. More focused on eliminating it.
And here’s the powerful part:
If you redirected even a fraction of the energy you spend complaining about taxes toward aggressively paying down your debt, you’d accelerate your progress in a meaningful way.
Same frustration, different target, better outcome. Complaining about taxes will not make them go away. Sure, complaining about debt will not make it go away, but if you channel that energy properly and take the time to think about how you are wasting your money to service your debt – and the alternatives to use that money for – you will want to pay it sooner than later and keep that money in your pocket instead.
This shift in mindset worked for me at least and I am sure it is worth exploring if you happen to be someone who both pays taxes and has significant amount of debt.