How to Know If Debt Is Working for You…
or Against You

Debt, like politics, is one of those topics that gets people ramped up. There are people who believe you should never carry debt under any circumstances. Then there are people on the other end who believe leverage is one of the most powerful wealth building tools available. And both camps will argue their position with conviction.

William’s take is more nuanced than either extreme. And it starts with a simple premise.

Debt is a tool. And like any tool, what matters is whether you are using it correctly.

The Case for Debt as a Wealth Builder

William uses his own mortgage as a straightforward example. Locked in below 3% during the pandemic refinancing window of mid-2020, that debt represents cheap capital. The idea that you can’t generate returns in excess of 3% over the next 30 years is, in his words, ludicrous.

Borrow at 3%, invest at 7 or 8 or 10%, and the math works in your favor. The interest you pay the bank looks different when you put the investment returns column right next to it. Most of the tables that show you how much you paid in mortgage interest over 30 years conveniently leave out the column showing how much your invested capital grew over the same period.

For business owners, the same logic extends to business loans, equipment financing, and property purchases. If you’ve used debt appropriately over the last 20 or 30 years and properly reallocated those resources into investments that grew, debt has very likely created excess wealth that would not have been possible otherwise.

When Debt Works Against You

Not all debt is created equal.

William draws a clear distinction between a sub 3% mortgage on a primary residence and a 9% student loan taken out to fund a degree with limited earning potential.

The math on the first one is compelling.

The math on the second one is a much harder sell.

The key question with any debt is whether the return on what you are buying with that borrowed money is likely to exceed the cost of borrowing it. When the answer is yes, debt is a tool working in your favor. When the answer’s no or unclear, it’s working against you.

The Emotional Side That Nobody Talks About

Here is where William’s take gets interesting.

He fully acknowledges that the math is not the only thing that matters.

There are people who lose sleep over debt, who cannot get it out of their heads regardless of what the spreadsheet says, who feel the weight of owing someone money as a genuine psychological burden that affects how they think, make decisions, and show up every day.

For those people, paying off debt isn’t just a financial decision. It is a mental health decision.

And the peace of mind that comes from being debt free has real and meaningful value, even if it means leaving some theoretical excess wealth on the table.

Did they maximize wealth in the way they could have by leaning into leverage? Probably not. But they sleep better at night. And for them, that is the right answer.

How to Figure Out Where You Stand

The right approach to debt starts with two things. Understanding the numbers and understanding yourself.

Know the rate you are borrowing at and be honest about the realistic return on what you are doing with that borrowed money. Then ask yourself honestly how carrying that debt affects you emotionally.

Does it motivate you or does it paralyze you?

Does it feel like leverage or does it feel like a weight?

The answer to both of those questions together is what tells you whether debt is working for you or against you. Not just the interest rate.

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Debt, it’s a funny topic. It gets people charged. Uh, people have wide opinions on it, and so just wanted to take a quick minute to talk about it. Debt is a tool, right? When we talk about debt, we talk about borrowing money, right? There’s all kinds of different ways to borrow money. We can borrow money to buy a car, we can borrow money to go to college, we can borrow, borrow money to buy a house.

Uh, we can borrow money to go on vacation. We can borrow money to buy a, uh, uh, shoot, something from the grocery store these days with buy now, pay later, right? So debt is a tool, right? It’s, it’s something that we can use And there’s a lot of people that believe that you shouldn’t have debt, and there’s obviously gonna be people in the other camp that believe you should have all kinds of debt.

And I think the [00:01:00] reality is, is like other videos we’ve talked about in the past, it depends. It is… When used appropriately, it is a tool that can create excess wealth, right? Like, I don’t think you can make a, a good case for the fact that if you had a mortgage, and probably, um, if you were a business owner, you know, some type of business loan, right?

Um, buying a property, buying equipment, buying things like that. If you’ve properly used the tool of debt over the course of the last 20 or 30 years, and then properly reallocated resources to make an investment as a result of that debt, that you have created excess, excess wealth, right? So I mean, again, think about it today.

Our mortgage here is below 3%, and we’ve had that mortgage since 2000 and… mid-2020, right? Pandemic. We were fortunate to be able to refinance at that point in time. And [00:02:00] to believe that we can’t make in excess of 3% over the course of the next 30 years sounds ludicrous to me. And so debt is a tool with leverage.

So I can borrow at 3%, and in theory, I can make 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, whatever it ends up being, right? And if I can borrow at 3% and make whatever in excess of that, then I win, right? So it doesn’t matter how much money… We see all these tables that, you know, the pay off debt earlier, how much money you’ve paid the bank in, in interest payments which, which is great.

You know, it’s a, it’s a very valid point. You pay a lot of money in mortgage interest because you’re paying it over 30 years on what is a significant balance, right? But show me the other column, right? Show me how much money you made as a result of that debt. And so it is… it’s a, it’s a very hot charged topic.

But the reality of the situation is if, if we use the tool, we use it appropriately, it should lead to excess wealth as a result of proper usage of debt. Now, you get into different [00:03:00] opinions of what proper usage of debt is, and I’m all on board with that, right? Like borrowing to go to college and paying 9% to get an art degree is probably a harder sell for me than borrowing at 3% on a mortgage for 30 years.

What’s undeniable true is that there are people that hate debt, and they can’t get it out of their head. They lose sleep over it. They don’t wanna owe somebody money. They are

ready to get out from underneath owing somebody another dollar. And that is important too, right? So for them, it’s as much of a, as much of an emotional decision it is, as it is a financial decision. And for those folks to be able to sleep well at night, be out from underneath it, not worry about X, Y, or Z, uh, that’s a good decision.

Did they create excess wealth in the way that they could have had they leaned into debt? Probably not. [00:04:00] But they sleep better at night. So again, debt is a tool. Used appropriately, you can win, and also not used appropriately, you can win. Because for those that sleep better without it, even having an extra dollar or an extra X dollars doesn’t matter.

They need that relief from pressure, that release from stress of owing somebody another dollar. So again, when we’re thinking about tools out there in the world, there are some tools that are appropriate for some people, and they’re not appropriate for others. So understand the tools, understand the benefits of the tools, understand the disadvantages of them, know the numbers, know where you sit f- uh, mentally, and then make your best decision

ORIGINAL MEDIA SOURCE(S):

William Bissett: The Truth About Debt That Nobody Wants to Hear | Portus Perspectives

Originally Recorded on July 22, 2026

Portus Perspectives: Episode 35

By /Published On: August 19, 2026/