Growing Up With Credit
Posted on March 13, 2010
Filed Under free foreclosure houses |
As a young adult, there are a few key moments in your life when you feel truly grown up. Graduating from high school, getting your first car, moving out on your ownâthese are the classics. But in the past few decades, another more dangerous (financially, at least) rite of passage has emerged–the credit card.
I got my first Visa at the end of senior year, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the card offers started rolling in as soon as I graduated junior high (nowadays, my friends say the offers start arriving for the kids when they’re still in diapers). Problem was, no one ever explained to me how credit worked. I remember my jaw dropping when I opened my first bill and found, to my delight, that I only owed $10–the minimum payment. I knew I had dropped at least a few hundred bucks on textbooks (and CDs and clothes and so on), but I only had to pay a measly ten! I felt like I had won the lotteryâ¦or at least stumbled upon the secret to living the good life.
Until a few years down the road, that is, when I left college with a degree–and more than $10,000 in credit debt. I had always thought of debt as something that only happened to wild spenders, the kind of people who buy a new, larger big-screen TV every Christmas. But now I know it can happen to anyone. We’re not in a credit meltdown because Americans are over-the-top greedy or materialistic. I think it’s because no one ever told us how to make good credit choices (or we were too stubborn to listen when they did).
Back when my parents were in high school, they had to take home economics. We poke fun at home ec today (between the sewing, cooking, and cleaning, it’s so 1950s homemaker), but those classes taught young adults how to survive in that time period. When I graduated, I couldn’t cook a meal to save my life, had to take my jeans to the tailor for hemming (which I still do), and didn’t really know what debt was.
We need to do more to help our kids handle today’s obstacles. And until the public school system picks up on the idea, it’s up to us to teach them–and ourselves–how to spend wisely.
If you swipe your cards in front of your little ones, they probably think you’re paying with magic, not money. Make sure they understand everything that goes on the card also goes on the bill–and that real money comes out of your checking account to pay that balance. With older kids, honesty is even more important. You probably tell them money doesn’t grow on trees, but if you treat your credit card like a money tree, they won’t believe you–and they’re likely to repeat your same mistakes.
Since you can’t really preach what you don’t follow, you might need to re-educate yourself. If you’re carrying credit card debt, stop. Don’t apply for any new cards or loans. Quit spending more than you earn. Can’t figure out how? That’s a sign it’s time to make a budget and identify places to cut back.
Pay your credit card off in full each month, or at the very least, make more than the minimum payment. Maybe you signed up for the low promotional rate when you got your card, but most credit companies hike that rate up to 18-40 percent after the first few months. Ask yourself, would you pay $300 for something that was marked $100 in the store? Of course not! But that’s what you’re doing in the long run when you only make minimum payments that barely cover interest. Credit card companies aren’t giving you a break because they’re generous. They know that the less you pay each month, the longer you will have to keep paying, giving them more money in the process. Wouldn’t you rather keep that cash for your family?
All it takes to change your credit habits is motivation. Changing your past is not so easy. If you’re overwhelmed by credit card bills or facing foreclosure, you don’t have to go it alone. DebtStoppers can help. Contact one of our attorneys for a free one-on-one debt analysis and find out how to conquer your finances and keep your house. Just because you never passed Credit Card 101 doesn’t mean it’s too late to learn.
Debt Stoppers
http://www.articlesbase.com/credit-articles/growing-up-with-credit-671175.html
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6 Responses to “Growing Up With Credit”
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Is growing consumerism on credit, and ever-growing population the only basis for an economy?
One might think so from politicians’ and economists’ proclamations. If you check Gross Domestic Product you might consider burning houses down and crashing cars would make us all richer, happier, and content - especially with standing room only. But do you see much publicity for different ideas?
And if you’ve heard of a different basis - apart from saving up for consumerism - what is it?
as long as the numbers keep going up. even the weight of the people, then the economy is great.
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Nope, traditional economic principles never advocated the credit markets for a healthy economy.
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"Growth". That is the keyword you will always hear when things are going their way. Growth of debt, and population especially. How ironic that over population is the major cause of virtually all the worlds problems, from environmental to war.
There are different ideas. If you read some on Ayn Rand she points out how "saving" is actually the real stabilizer of the economy.
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We not only give things meaning we give products its perceived value. A shirt that cost $7 to make goes up in price depending on who made it. Like say a popular fashion house. It doesn’t count that a Chinese present made it for just $150 a month or that it put others out of work. It only counts if it makes you more prestigious than the next kid or office mate.
We are all trying to make it to the top of the heap on the bear back of the economy. Everyone cries growth and climbs but looks for no foundation. It’s like putting a very tall latter in the mud pit and then getting on.
We could do better building an economy around something that had morals or something that we all could believe in. GM built a disposable car for the past two decades and now it’s time to pay the piper. No body believes in them now. Now the credit market is digging there own holes. This is all just correction in the markets. We need to stop being so G.D. superficial.
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no
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