A Simple Way To Get Out of Credit Card Debt
A while back, I read a book called Generation Debt. Basically, the book goes on about how this is a bad time to be young because so many young people are in debt.
In debt?
Well, I’ll go ahead and “solve” the whole debt problem for the nation’s youth. It will probably be the simplest way to get out of credit card debt that you’ll ever read. Ready?
Don’t charge things on a credit card if you can’t afford to pay cash for it.
Simple, huh? Well, it doesn’t seem so simple for a lot of people. As a marketer, I know first-hand how people delude themselves into believing they “need” things when really they just want it.
But what if you are already in debt?
Have a massive student loan? I sympathize. I really do. I worked full-time when I was in college so that I could minimize my debt. And when I graduated I had $150 to my name, a sizeable student loan, and had a one-way ticket to South Korea in search of a job.
A year later, the debt was gone—and that was in the midst of the Asian Financial Crisis that saw a loss of 60% in the Korean currency against the dollar.
How’d I pay it off?
I did it by doing without. Don’t get me wrong. I went out with friends and had a good time. I even took a trip or two in that year. But the key was I didn’t buy anything. At the end of one year, I owned about as much as I did at the beginning of the year.
It sounds almost too easy, but I see too many people who want everything and want it now. They don’t think before they buy. And they wonder why they’re in debt.
The key is simple. Do not buy what you cannot afford. As I found out that first year I lived in South Korea, there wasn’t much that I really needed. There was no “thing” that could give my life meaning.
There was only me. There was only time. And what I lost in possessions, I gained in time, experience, and even money. And the money I saved by not buying things I didn’t need took me out of debt.
It can do the same for you.
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Categories: Financial Freedom
Tags: credit_card_debt, debt_problem, get_out_of_debt, student_loan
Comments: 3 Comments.
[...] Haas presents A Simple Way To Get Out of Credit Card Debt posted at Possess Less Exist More™, saying, “A while back, I read a book called Generation [...]
An interesting post well worth the read – the number of credit cards ought to be relatively small, although it is generally better to have added than one. Having too much credit accessible makes you appear risky to creditors, as you could promptly and easily burden yourself using more money owing than you can handle. On the other hand, if you have just one credit card accessible to you, you are more or a reduced amount at the mercy of the issuing bank’s conditions and conditions. By having added than one card, you are letting the bank know they are not your only credit options.
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