Don’t Spend Your Future

I read an article the other day that really bothered me. Credit card debt is again on the rise. People are feeling comfortable with the good economy so they are pulling out their credit cards more often especially this past Christmas shopping season. They are spending their future. It really scares me because that will be the next bubble in the U.S. to pop.

Just take a look at the following articles:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/credit-card-debt-hits-record-high.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-credit-card-default-rate-20180121-story.html

http://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/news/u-s-credit-card-debt-by-the-numbers628618371/

When will people wake up and realize that they can’t continue to spend above their incomes. Will it take going bankrupt and losing their homes to make that happen? Will it take a death in the family and the spouse realizing that those bills will have to be paid out of the estate under probate? I can’t even imagine owning a home and having to sell it to pay the credit card bills. Even worse, having to sell your home because your debt has snowballed into you not being able to manage it each month. It’s really scary to me.

Yet, Americans live under these threats day after day.
They juggle their money and rob Peter to pay Paul. They rob their future money to pay past bills. To be honest, I don’t know how they sleep at night.

Is it worth buying things that you don’t even remember purchasing a year ago and you are still paying for them because of interest rates. I know it is exciting when you buy something new. You take great joy in it but a  few months or so later you need something else to give you that same high. Credit card debt is a vicious circle that is harming your bodies because of the stress involved. You are constantly wondering how you will make ends meet. Is it worth it folks? I think not.

Just think of the savings that you could have to reach your goals if you weren’t giving all of your money to Visa or MasterCard each month. You could actually pay for your vacation instead of going into debt for it.
You could pay off your mortgage so that you own it instead of the bank owning it. You could actually buy a home instead of giving rent to someone each month. 

If you have aspirations to send your kids to private schools or to college, you could save the money to do that.

Perhaps you want a vacation home. You could save to buy one.

I have even heard of people who charge their school and property taxes every year. Then they pay interest on that. That kind of spending would give me nightmares.

Over the years, I have had people who have gotten themselves into massive credit card debt tell me that they deserved that vacation they charged or all of the other things they purchased because they worked hard every day all week long. Nothing disturbs me more than that statement.

No one deserves to spend money when they don’t have it. If you can’t pay for that vacation, you don’t deserve it. If you can’t pay cash for your school and property taxes, you shouldn’t be a homeowner. 

If you can’t pay for your groceries as you buy them and have to charge them, then you are getting into serious trouble.

I know there are many people who charge everything in order to get cash rebates. We do with the exception of groceries and Other incidental things that we need money for when we are out and about. However, if you can’t pay your bill every month in full as we do, you are defeating your purpose. It will cost you more in interest in the long run than the cash rebates.

We went to paying cash for groceries and other incidentals every month because I wanted to actually feel the money leave my wallet. It was getting way to easy to overspend the grocery budget by whipping out the credit card. I did not like overspending the budget even though we had the money to pay the CC bills every month.

I am loving paying in cash and tracking the grocery money every week. I am much more careful about what I buy when I only have so much to spend. When that cash is gone, I stop spending until the next week.  It is working beautifully. Yesterday as I went out the door to do some shopping, Hubby asked me to pick him up 3- D ring binders. No problem, I just took the money from our Other category in our wallet. Tomorrow I have a hair appointment which I will pay cash out of the Other category also.

So think twice about whipping out that credit card. Pay off that debt and have a stress free future. Don’t just dream about your future, make it happen. You will be so glad you did.