Why can’t I get out of debt? When will I reach that bankrupt low where I will learn my lesson and start spending responsibly?
Why am I so damned impulsive?
When will I grow up, for God’s sake???
thx
I don’t know either.
When you figure it out could you tell my husband? TIA 
I once complained about being in debt, to which someone said, “You just have to live within your means!” I informed them that at that point, if I were living within my means, I’d be dead.
Except, of course, for Canada’s model welfare system . . .
::d&r::
You actually have credit cards?
::sigh::
Read “Financial Peace” by Dave Ramsey. It greatly changed my outlook on debt. It’s the easiest-to-read financial book I have ever encountered. It’s “common sense” stuff that no one seems to do anymore. Sigh His religious beliefs aren’t mine per se but if they aren’t yours either, disregard - the other information is worth it.
The trick to overcoming impulse buying is to restrict your ability to spend money. If you don’t carry any money with you, you can’t spend it.
Destroy all your credit cards but one. That one will be for emergency use only (say your car breaks down, or you have an unexpected medical bill). Keep it in a safe place - that is, safe from you as well as from thieves. Do not carry it with you. Leave it at home, or, if you really can’t trust yourself, keep it in a safe deposit box.
Don’t carry your debit card around with you, either. If your bank doesn’t charge for in-branch withdrawls, destroy your debit card. This will force you to go into the bank to get cash.
Leave your check book at home.
Buy groceries once per week. Bring one blank check.
Set yourself a weekly cash allowance. Withdraw that amount and no more.
Never buy anything on impulse. Ever. If you see something you absolutely must have, wait a day. It’ll be there tomorrow, trust me. You might find that after sleeping on it, you’ll decide you don’t need that indespensable thing after all.
You may consider one of those debt consolidation schemes. Some people think they’re a con, but I believe an honest one will work, as long as you don’t rack up any more debt. They won’t magically make what you owe disappear, but they will consolidate all of your various high-interest debts into one with potentially lower interest. This will be easier to keep track of and may save you money.
Figure out a reasonable schedule for making debt payments once a month or every pay period and stick to it. Have the debt payment automatically withdrawn from your bank account or paycheck if you can.
If what I want is over 10 dollars, and something with no practical value… alcohol, dessert or a video game.
I wait. I either wait until I can get it used, it comes down in price or until I’ve got 1.5x the cost of the item in my checking account (after bills).
Even then I buy it with my credit card, and pay half the amount off on the day I buy it, and the othe half when my statement is due.
Then again I hate spending money.
Oh yeah, and with credit card bills… If you’re fairly young and aren’t making much money threaten to default. The credit card people would rather get a fraction of their money rather than none at all. I had a friend do this in college. 5k credit card debt, they defaulted. They were a student, no income beyond a stero and a computer nothing of value… The settled on 35 cents on the dollar 
If you have fairly good credit still, apply for new cards. The ones that offer 0% interest on balance transfers. There usually is a 35 dollar fee associated, but you can transfer pay it down w/ no interest then transfer again.
Oh yeah, and if you do buy stuff with credit cards, don’t use a debit card/check to buy anything. Its easier if you have just 1 or 2 places where money comes out of. So you can better track what’s going in and comming out.
You wait until you can get that alcohol used ?
[sub]Not meant offensive - I just stumbled over that.[/sub]
If you’re at all like I am, it’ll be when you figure out you’ll be paying credit card bills for the next 30 years. Yep, I let one of my cards get out of hand. It wasn’t so bad until a problem with my first card resulted in the interest rate on the second being raised from 14% to 22%. I did some math and realized that second card would be paid off around the same time as my mortgage so I went looking for help and, as a result, got a loan from a relative in exchange for cutting up my cards. I’m now paying her $75 a month with no interest for five years instead of $100 a month to Discover. It’s been five months since I requested Discover cancel my card and they have yet to do so.
I agree wholeheartedly. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and has helped me tremendously. It’s not your average “all you need to be debt free is $150,000!” type books. It offers REAL support, REAL perspective, and REAL advice from a man who became a multimillionaire from scratch, lost it all in impulse buying and credit, went bankrupt, then got it all back.
Read this book!!!
If you have to go to your parents to learn how to manage money, do it. My son won’t, and he will probably be financially fucked for the foreseeable future. Go to someone who knows how to handle money… someone you can see does a good job on the bills and lives within his means. I used to be really bad with money when I was young. My husband is excellent with money. It actually rubs off! I am now doing the bills on time and saving money every payday! WooHOO!
Suze Orman’s books are also useful. But check them out from the library. DON’T SPEND.
I’d say one popular strategy among the issuers is to gouge you on the late and over-the-limit fees. I have a few credit cards myself that are maxed out (but all very small limits, thankfully), and I’ve noticed that the OTL fee on one is one dollar less than the minimum payment. So if I can’t pay more than the minimum, it virtually all goes to the OTL fee and interest continues to accrue, to say nothing of the fact that I make no progress in paying down the principal. I think that’s unconscionable, since I never use the cards anymore and am just trying to get them paid off and out of my life.
One more peice of advice. Never, never, never, never pay just the minimum amount due, you kill yourself on the interest. At the very least try to pay twice the minimum or more if you’re able.
Hear, hear! I have been in that boat. I wouldn’t even have used my card in months & I’d be over the limit. In the book I mentioned, DR suggests, no, INSISTS that you take all of your debt, smallest to largest, and pay minimum payments on everything EXCEPT the smallest debt. For that one, pay every bit you can towards it until it’s gone. Then, you focus on the next smallest debt. This is called the “debt snowball” - while DR didn’t pioneer the concept, he advocates it whole-heartedly. It works very well (for me) because you see PROGRESS which keeps me motivated to continue paying things off. If I were to pay slightly above the minimum of my 3 cards, I’d wouldn’t see progress for YEARS - as it is now, everything but my car will be paid off in less than a year. The car is next - it’ll be paid off a year earlier than scheduled. I have learned a valuable lesson before it was too late… and Financial Peace has some astounding stories of people on the brink of bankruptcy, hundreds of thousands in debt & they dug themselves out.
The funny thing about America is we will talk about our most intimate moments, a terminal illness, a cheating spouse, etc but we will rarely discuss our level of debt. It’s more shameful than a drug habit in most opinions. We have been mislead by our society… “Spend Now, Pay Later” is why we have a huge National Deficit and why Social (In)Security is so far gone.
YMMV Good Luck!
Which Chretien and his ilk have been slashing for the last seven years. At the same time as they made students the only class of people who can’t declare bankruptcy. (That’s right, you can get a $20000 loan and blow it at the Windsor casino and declare bankruptcy, but if you get a $20000 loan and spend it on your education, you’re up shits creek.)
Someone mentioned “debt consolidation schemes.” If by this was meant organizations like Ameridebt, I would not wish them on my worst enemy. They are understaffed, clueless, and end up getting you into more trouble than they are worth.
I tried Ameridebt for a while, and they made things worse for me. Now, I cringe every time I see one of their cheesy ads on TV.
Slainte,
You are very right. We think nothing about talking about how much we paid for that brand new car, what exotic locations we travel to, or that we just bought this or that, (“Do you like my new shirt?” “We went out to dinner last night at the nicest place!”), yet no one ever says “Oh my God, I got my credit card bill for Christmas, and I have no idea how I managed to spend $4,000!” No one even says “Well, we are going to Ireland - saved three years and I completely gave up my daily latte in order to be able to swing it.” You seldom invite you co-workers out for lunch to hear “I can’t go, I don’t have any extra money this week.”
This gives the impression that everyone else is managing to afford the most extravagant lifestyles (or at least they can afford to go out to dinner).
My mother is fond of saying “People with money never let you know how they managed to get it all, but people without money sure let you know why they don’t have it!”
Dangerosa,
Exactly!
We have gotten too comfortable with the idea of debt. It’s no wonder though, the “No Interest Until January 2004!” ads are all over billboards, radio ads, TV commercials, etc. We are inundated with the idea of credit. Add to that, (my) parents who were uneducated about credit - they filed bankruptcy (on credit cards, not something legit) & set poor examples. Then, you enter all the co-workers & friends who can Magically afford lunch, the vacation, the shirt, etc. The temptation is overwhelming.
I say we take our Financial Independence back! Screw Credit Card Companies with their late fees, loan-shark interest rates, annual fees, etc.
Now that I see how vicious of a cycle it can be, I cringe whenever I see someone charge lunch on a credit card.