Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
This might be partly the case (about everyone buying everything on credit these days), but that's basically necessary. A lot of us love online shopping, and obviously that's on credit for example.
There's a marked difference I see in my clients though. People who are better off are buying everything on credit are also paying that bill every month and paying $0 in interest. In the words of Patrick Ewing, "we make a lot of money, but we spend a lot to".
|
It is the credit/interest Siren that gets you.
At one point my wife and I had purchased a vacation condo, ran up debt with purchases/vacations and had a large line of credit which we ran up.
The banks don't care they will always give you money.
We used a move as a jumping off point to change our ways. Sold the condo, payed off the line of credit, went to paying the credit card off every month.
In short, living within our means. It was hard, with some hard decisions, we passed on a vacation in Costa Rica, where all where had to pay was flights, but it was the right thing to do and cemented our new approach.
Now 9 years on we are debt free (except for house) and don't take trips unless we have paid for them first with real money. There are times that is still sucks, buying #### feel good, but it is the right approach for us.