“I’ve got the money—I’ve got credit cards, and I’ll always make more money later” is a statement frequently made by many twenty-somethings. But what they aren’t realizing is that their credit card spending will haunt them in just a few short years, and the words below will attest. So instead of splurging on the next beach hacienda vacation, take a moment and read some alerts and time (and money) saving advice below.
Credit, and credit card spending, are hot topics these
days. Virtually every media outlet from
Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show to the
nightly news have covered this topic, and it is so enrapturing to the general
public that states like New York have enacted legislation curbing the
promotion of credit cards to 18 to 25 years olds (college aged folks). These local and state mandates, as well as
the televised discussions on the matter, are not meant to hinder an individual’s
free will or spending power. Rather,
they are well intended “lessons” on a growing problem—the problem of twenty-something’s
accumulating mass amounts of debt before they are thirty. This dilemma lends toward an the inability to
buy a home, purchase a new car, go on (well needed and deserved) vacations, and
enjoy the life that you work so hard for. Think about it. Is it worth working overtime just to pay off
the credit card debt?
Racking Up Those
Bills in the First Place
At eighteen most folks find themselves feeling a bit
invincible, and at twenty-five they still have some of those same threads
running through their heads. But the big
difference between eighteen and twenty-five is the amount of responsibility
that society emplaces upon you. Setting
marriage and babies aside—for the sake of brevity—most twenty-five year olds
are expected to be working a forty-hour work week, bringing home close to
thirty thousand a year, and most
importantly, social dogmas expect them to not be living in their old bedroom from childhood or in their
parent’s basement. But, if you’ve got
thirty grand or more in credit card debt, it’s highly unlikely that you will
be able to live on your own. Instead you
will find yourself with roommates at best, and living in your parent’s house at... at the heart of a social stigma.
More poignantly, every time you roll in after midnight there will be the
line of questions in the morning, and every time you walk in with a new CD
there will be looks and remarks about how you mooch off of the padres. Yup, racking up mounds of credit card debt at
an early age (or any age) is bound to lead down a road of self-loathing and
social disease.
Social disease stems from your living at your parents house,
or with not-so-likeable roommates, and that you never have money to go out and
do the things that your friends do.
Being the “poor man” out puts you in the position of being uncomfortable
because everyone else has the money for high-end entertainment adventures, Aspen ski lift tickets, water front concert seats, or
European vacations, and worse yet, you will probably convince yourself that you
can afford to scurry along with the crowd.
But, when you run low on money one of your friends might pick up the tab. Yeah, that will only last for so long because, as we all know, paying for
someone else’s tab gets old real
quick, and the sympathy factor rapidly turns into loathing and disgust. And
the other end of that social disease spectrum—all your friends know how you got
so broke.
You
bought every new CD that came out during college.
You
picked up the bar tab more times that anyone can count.
You
went to Mexico, Aruba, Jamaica,
and any other beach destination on every single holiday vacation.
You
developed a bizarrely manifested need to see the local pizza delivery guy
at your door every night, and you made yourself known as “the big man
around” by always paying the bill.