Alfarif said:
We're in a society where we're told from a young age that there is "free money" in the form of credit cards. That if you don't own a brand new 200X car or a house, you are worthless. If you don't have the latest electornics, a cellphone with all the latest features, and able to go out to expensive restaurants with your friends every weekend, then you are a loser. Unless you're the #1 man on the totem pole, accoridng to society, you are nothing and your life isn't worth shit.
You're not your fucking khakis.
I agree with you. Not just in society but shit, even on this board. Gaming setup anyone?
I was in a situation where I was $4000 in the hole in credit cards and I borrowed student loans like nobody's business. Realizing that I maxed all my cards out, I had to make changes. The first thing I did was write down every expense on an Excel spreadsheet. Next on another Excel sheet, I tabulated my credit card debt and set up a nice chart where I could see progress.
The hardest part after that was that the only expense I had was food and cell. I sold all my shit off. Sounds wasteful as I got maybe 30-40% of what I paid for but I put that towards debt. I was tempted to sprint out and buy all kinds of shit but I never went through with it. I eventually found myself motivated by every pay day, going to update the cc bill chart and seeing the drastic downward trends. I made about 6-8x minimum payments and got my credit cards paid off in 8 months. I saw that from the start to finish, I paid $700 in interest payments and bullshit fees. I was pissed but I treated that $700 as a harsh lesson learned.
I stopped borrowing for school, the amount is still high but I won't have to get any more. In fact, I have several thousand dollars already saved up and I'm soon about to pay off my car. After that, it is all going towards the student loans.
It isn't easy and I think that is why many people make these financial problems to be tougher than they are. All it takes is restraint but in this consumer driven society, we are told that we need, not want but need, all these excessive luxuries. Not only that but you need to get more and more of them. I bought some shit $400 Gateway laptop and in nearly two years of service, is still going strong. I could have bought a Core 2 Duo laptop to play games I wasn't going to end up playing for $1000+ but anyway...you get the idea.