When I Used to Live Off The Card

I don't live off the card anymore, but there was a time back in the 90's when I was in a lot of debt including credit card debt. I would buy gas and food with the card. You know it really doesn't hit you till you see the bill.

Then what happens when you are late? Well for me the minimum payment doubled. This was when I would max it to the limit. That is no way to live. It turns into a financial nightmare.

I wasn't the only one. I would talk to a person at my old job and he would use one credit card to pay the other. That was crazy. I knew that wouldn't work, but I also at the time had multiple credit cards.

Then I would get the phone calls. I was afraid to answer the phone, cause it was the bill collectors.

The only way to stop the madness is to stop spending with the card. I heard that the card doesn't make you feel like you are spending a lot cause you don't see the cash you are spending.

So if one was in this position, he or she would want to do something different. What? Stop using the credit card and pay in cash. You see sometimes you want things and when you get them, it seems you could have lived without them things.

It took me a while to figure it out. I think I was watching Suzy Orman on public TV. Well, yes it started to make sense. Plus I was spending on things that I could have paid less for.

I think it was the coffee thing that got me. I think it was Suzy Orman that said people that are buying expensive coffee everyday and if they would channel that money into a stable investment they would have like $20,000 just for the money of the expensive coffee alone.

Well let's work that out. Say you spend $3.50 a day on that expensive coffee every time you were at work for the next 20 years.

So $3.50 times 5 days a week times 4 weeks for the month times 12 months times 20 years would equal $16,800 and if your investment gave you some kind of return then I can see it going to $20,000.

So if one could find all the things they are spending on and do something different. Like bring your own coffee to work. Bring your own lunch to work.

Then channel all that money you would have used for Starbucks coffee and going out for lunch and put it toward some kind of an investment.

So I stopped using the credit card. I had an opportunity at my job, at the time there were more hours needed than for people to fill those hours. I started to work the extra overtime.

People at work thought I was crazy, but I thought it would be easier to work the overtime than to take a second job at let's say McDonald's.

I even took on roommates. That is another way to get more income. I did get to catch up on my debt and when that happened, when the last roommate moved out, I stopped taking in roommates.

There are books out their like the Richest Man In Babylon by George S. Clayson. I found that book very interesting. I remember one story called, Remedies For A Lean Purse. It is wear the story talks about living off of nine tenths of what you make and keep saving that tenth.

That savings will grow in no time at all. Maybe that is the trick, by living lower than your wages.

Think about the guy that wins 2 million dollars on the lottery, but is filing bankruptcy after 2 years.

Even 2 million dollars is finite and when you spend more than what is coming in, then yes you would have to file bankruptcy after 2 years, if one kept on spending more money than was coming in.

Now days I still use a credit card, but I make sure I have extra money to pay the card off at the next bill. That is the rule that I put upon myself, to pay off the bill completely when the bill comes in.

This way the card will never get away with the craziness I experienced in the 90's.

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Thank you, David.
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