My Debt Story Part 1

A recent posting over on MMM really hit a chord with me and I want to share my debt story.  It's not very exciting really but I felt it was very in line with MMM's message in that post.

I grew up in the upper class of the low income spectrum.  At least that's what I was always told.  My parents divorced when I was very young and I was raised by my mother and my aunt.  I think they did a bang up job and produced one hell of a good dude but things were usually pretty tight.  However I think we were in the upper spectrum in that my dad and grandmother always came through for us on christmas and our birthdays.  We were never usually more than a year behind on video games (which back then meant you were doing pretty good).  On the other hand I remember numerous occasions when the cupboards were pretty bare and I would wonder when the next trip to the grocery store was going to happen.

One thing that I remember very specifically however was that neither my mother nor my aunt put things on credit cards.  That is why our presents normally came from dad or g-ma, because my immediate family wasn't buying us stuff with money we didn't have.  In this way I was never introduced to the consumer machine of credit through perhaps the most persuasive role models available, those that raised you.  There was a time when my mom tried to start her own business and she would complain she didn't know how she was going to pay the rent the next month.  I never asked many questions because I knew I wasn't going to like the answer.  But even during those times neither my mother nor my aunt turned to credit cards.

What I learned from this was to fear money.  Not the best lesson to teach your children but neither is "Spend!  Spend!  Spend!"  When I finally graduated from high school and started making "real money" I was always afraid of not being able to pay my bills or pay my rent so I was always very strict on myself to make sure I had money set aside for those things.  I understood that no matter how much I was getting paid I had to pay for the roof over my head, the water coming out of my faucet, and the heat coming out of the floor boards.  I wasn't into cooking back then and went out for most of my meals.  This really killed any chance at savings but I never went into debt.

Around when I turned 20 I thought it would be a good idea to build some credit.  Again I didn't think about getting a card to take a vacation on, just that I was 20 now and didn't have any credit to speak of.  This was my first run in with over spending.  I remember specifically the item that did me in too.  My credit card came very quickly and I purchased a Microsoft Intellimouse.  These things were so cool with five button functionality and optical tracking.  But it cost me about $80, and that was enough to put me over.  I remember looking at the thing and, just like MMM talked about, a giant red emergency alarm came on over my head.  Images of my mom telling me how we might not be able to afford rent quickly appeared in clouds above my head and I took the mouse back (I drove as I wasn't so mustachian yet).

I think that was when I realized I should be okay.  Debt was something that I feared so I tried to stay away from it.  Some of my friends tried to tell me it was okay.  "Just make the monthly payments and you'll be fine" they said.  But I didn't like that interest was just free money for the credit card company.  In fact that was simply unacceptable to me.

I had won my first real fight with debt, but it wouldn't be my last.  And it wouldn't always be so pretty.

End of Part 1