Squeeze the Stone

Archive for the ‘Debt’ Category

Credit card companies are very smart and seductive, and they know exactly what to do to get you deeper and deeper into trouble. Have you ever noticed, for example, if you’re one of the many among us who are susceptible to credit card debt, that you find that as your balance keeps creeping up and up, your “available credit” total keeps going down and down? Then, right before you have used up your total credit limit, all of a sudden, without even asking for it, you get a letter in the mails saying that because you’re such a great customer, they’re raising your credit limit by $2,000. What a great company! With financial “friends” like this, who needs enemies? Before you even know it, you’ve used up that extra $2,000 limit, and you’re in more debt than ever before. Not to worry. Those magic credit genies will extend your limit again, just in the nick of time. You are a great customer!

When people come to see me and start facing the truth about their finances, they’ll often say, “Well, I owe my brother $5,000, but what I’m really worried about is that I owe $8,000 on my credit card bills.” But I’ve seen money destroy personal relationships so many times, and I know what loaning money to, or borrowing money from, someone you care about can do to both of you. Remember: People first, then money. Personal debt is every bit as important as institutional debt, and I would much rather have a credit card company, with all its resources, tracking me down than watch as my best friend grew more and more resentful the longer I waited to pay her back the money she lent me in good faith and that is long overdue to her.
It’s this simple: Whether it’s personal or institutional debt or both, you must face your debt head-on. Otherwise the disrespect starts to take root in your soui. Even if you have permission from the person who loaned you money to take your time, it will still weigh heavily on your heart every time you think about it (which will be often) and fail to take action. It will be harder and harder to face people to whom you owe money in person. Remember: Disrespect repels money. Not paying your debts is a serious form of disrespect that makes it almost impossible to find new ways to create new money to pay off old debts. Not paying debts will not make them go away; instead, it will make your money vanish, and possibly your friendships, too.

This was a shocker to me, but the more people I started to see after I opened my practice, the more the numbers spoke for themselves. Most of the people who had major credit card debt were people you would consider affluent. It seemed as if the more money they made, the more disrespect they had for their money.
My associate, Janet, recently did an informal survey in our area, and out of the sixty people we talked to, all leaders in the community, all of them carried credit card debt. How much debt? Only eleven had debt below $1,000. All the rest had debt ranging from $6,000 to $45,000. When we started asking around among these people if they thought others like them carried debt as well, they all guessed wrong. They would say, “Absolutely not.,,
All these people made great money and were highly regarded in the community. Credit card debt is rarely created Out of true need. It fills up, even if just for a moment, something else that is missing. If you hide it from others, as these people did, and believe you’re alone in your debt, you create a secret as burdensome as the debt itself.