Not your fault

As I turned into the last corner on my long trip home tonight, my ear caught these words from a commercial playing over the car radio. It went something like this: "Are you in more than ten thousand dollars worth of debt? Do your credit cards have you locked down? Are you tired of calls from collectors? We'll it's not your fault."
"What?" I thought, as I felt for the button on the garage door opener. How is being in debt way over your own head, not your own fault?" I turned the car off, and left the radio on, determined to listen a little closer. In what can only be described as some brilliant Americanized marketing, the voice I was now hearing went on to explain to me that credit card companies have devised a scheme to "keep you in debt" because "that's how they make their money."
Wait a minute. If I spent over $10,000 dollars of someone else's money and I cant pay it back then just how does that profit them?
Well, to cut a long story short, this genius has devised a plan (not for free I might add) to get you out of debt, and a way to stop the "evil" credit card companies from calling you.

Why not just pay what you rightfully owe? Oh that's right, you cant because you don't have any money.

Personal responsibility. We seem to be missing that in our country these days. I remember amassing quite a large debt with a certain credit card company in my early twenties, but I don't seem to remember an "evil agent" from Visa putting a gun in my back, forcing me to spend money. Oh no, I did that all by myself. Because we are all taught that having debt is normal right? One needs to "build your credit" when you are young so you can take on more debt when you are much older. Spend now so you can be more in debt later - got it.
And why have a savings account for a rainy day - isn't that what a credit card is for? Yes, of course, because borrowing more money when you are flat broke is always a good idea. Especially at a 21% APR.

These days, normal is broke, or only 4 weeks away from it.

I'm proud to say that we (Marci and I) are free of all debt, but our home. You read that right, no car payment, credit cards, student loans - nothing. Why, because we got sick and tired of owing everyone else money. It took 3 years of hard work. Marci (a.k.a Minister of Finances) wrote out the last check for someone else, last year. I cant tell you how liberating this experience was. I firmly believe that one of the reasons we have a great marriage is because we are not under the stress of debt anymore. You should try it.




Sean.