Credit cards are not one-size-fits all, and either is the average consumer.  We’d love to hear your stories of credit card use:  what you think, what you’ve learned, what you wish others could know.  Do you have special rules for using credit cards responsibly?  Would you swear them off completely if you could? Share your opinion.

We live in an impatient society.  We want things now and we don’t want to wait for them.  Some of the “seasoned” generation might remember what it was like to have to want something really bad, save up for it, and then pay for it.  I was raised this way, and the lessons learned have proved invaluable.

Too many people today don’t know the value of good, honest work.  If they do, some still don’t know what it means to make a budget and to save money.  In a credit card world, it’s easy to slip up and land yourself in a mountain of debt.

Credit cards are not inherently bad.  Properly used, they make transactions easier and more efficient.  However, if you let yourself get out of control, credit cards can turn into your worst nightmare.

All this trouble can be avoided though. Remember, before you use a credit card, make sure you have budgeted that money out.  Want to get that new TV?  That’s fine.  Just have the money before you buy it.  You’ll  be a lot happier down the road having something you worked hard for and saved up for, and you won’t carry the burden that comes with being in debt.

Just be smart with your money; some things can wait.

Budget trimming tips for a down economy

3 Steps back to the Sanity of Cash

Here is what is really on my mind though. Its the article linked at the bottom of this entry. It discusses the credit card crash that is coming. I knew it, it doesn’t surprise me. Read it, internalize it and use it to plan for you future. We need to be out of credit card debt before a crisis comes that will leave us all in financial ruin.

The Next Meltdown: Credit Cards?

Managing Debt and Credit

The mentality I am talking about is called have it now and pay later. It should be called have it now, sell your freedom now, pay a load and regret it later. Loans in general should only be taken when you really need the money and then you should still have a plan for how to pay this borrowed money back. If you are taking out loans just to pay for a luxury then you are trapping yourself in the mentality that you need what you want now. Change that and start thinking of what you NEED now.

Lets stop and throw out all our bias feelings. Now think about borrowing money and taking out oans. Its almost crazy that we even consider getting this money that we will have to pay interest on. We will not even be paying off the loan, but additional money for the loan. That is why we should only be borrowing when we need to. If we are in debt so that we can suppliment our life style with toys and conveniences then we are in debt for the wrong reason and we need to pay off those debts and then start spending money we have rather than someone elses.

I can say universally that every person I know who is out of debt is very satisfied with their financial status. I know this sounds obvious, but that is not to say that they have everything that could be imagined. It is to say that they have the enough and they rule their own finances, thus freeing up their lives.

I know a family with 15 children and they are not in debt or ruin. Really, if they can do it, no one has an excuse. We can all do this. We just have to live by the right mentality and not satisfy our every desire now. Put something in the cookie jar and save it for when your hungry not for when you have an in between meals snack attack!