My introduction…

[Guest]

Ok, well after reading all the posts this morning I am wondering if

I’ve done the right thing by signing up here. But I am going to give

the group a chance because I’m looking for money savings ideas and

wanting to bit by bit chip away at my debt. I do believe I am

responsible for myself and I am seeking ways to reign it all in.

I am a credit junkie (meaning I’ve allowed myself to be trapped in the

never ending credit, pay, get more credit cycle), BUT I am NOT overdue

in any of my bills. I have NEVER been overdue in my bills. My credit

rating is not as good as it could be because of the size of my debt

load. But it’s above or near average depending on the reporting

agency. AND yes I would like to learn how to live within my means at

least most of the time. However, I do not have anything against

getting, keeping or having credit cards, mortgages or auto-loans since

the average person could never save a few hundred thousand for a

mortgage. Heck, I could never save 15,000 for a used van for my

business. If we pay rent we lose that huge tax relief called mortgage

interest and the rent we would pay would usually be a little bit higher

than what we might pay buying with a mortgage. Why pay someone elses

mortgage interest for them? That’s all we are doing when we rent.

I would appreciate not being looked at as irresponsible. GASP…I am

around 50,000 dollars in debt and I am NOT scared or upset at the

fact. I’m a little miffed at myself for letting the habit get out of

control. So while yeah, I see and understand some of the viewpoints

expressed against letting debt get out of control. I don’t appreciate

the militant viewpoints that throw phrases around like “stupid tax”.

I am against total bankruptsy but not against a reorganization

bankruptsy that allows a person to pay off the debt over time with the

judge forcing the companies to lower the interest rates. I haven’t

done it myself. I choose to believe I can pay off my smaller cards and

then direct those payments towards the bigger ones. I comfort myself

with the idea that my interest payments are putting food on the tables

of everyone that works for these companies. For those of you that are

militantly against all credit, have you considered what would happen to

our country if every family that has one or more wage earners working

at these banks, mortgage companies, credit bureaus, credit collection

agencies and finance companies were out of their jobs? After all, they

earn a paycheck and then spend that paycheck back into our own economy

which helps us all.

As for how and why I’ve gotten into this debt? That’s a LOT of various

reasons including huge dental bills, job loss for 10 months on the part

of my husband, setting up and re-setting up my business whenever we’ve

moved and yes, some of it was luxury items I wouldn’t dream of living

without 🙂 Do I deserve these things? Heck yeah! LOL. I work 7 days

per week, 24 hours per day and have for 21 years without missing a

single day a long the way. It’s daycare by the way. I care for

children from many families on all types of shifts. I get up all times

of the night to let sleeping children go home and sleeping children get

dropped off. So all my luxury purchases have been made to make my home

and daycare appealing to the families and to myself.

I don’t have that big screen tv yet! LOL. I am actually trying to pay

my Dell account down really fast so that I can feel ok about buying

one. In fact, my only goal financially at this point is to make sure I

have 25% available credit in all my accounts. That would increase my

credit bureau score and lower my interest rates. Then, as I continue

to step 2 of the proccess, I can pay off everything that is only a

couple thousand dollars or less which would allow me to close about 25%

of my overall cards/accounts again increasing my credit score and

reducing my interest.

I did just recently buy 492 dollars worth of carpet with CASH! LOL.

That is a huge step in the right direction for me.

Suzi

[Author]

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