I ended up in debt like most people – going head first down the vortex. I was fortunate in that I did not have an unexpected emergency like the sudden illness of a loved one which causes people to go from managing their money well to suddenly having having tens of thousands of dollars of debt. No, for me the journey into started innocuously – a new dress here, a vacation there. Then the car needed a major service and the house needed to be refitted. Suddenly a month came along when I was dipping into my savings to pay a bill or bills as the cases may be. Then another month required the same withdrawal, and another, and another… Before I knew it, it was a debt landslide and I was continually withdrawing from my savings until I looked at the balance ….and there was none. To make matters worse, this was all before the recession hit.
All the while, at the back of my mind there was this needling voice saying, I should get a handle on my finances, I needed to manage my spending. Did I know how much debt I really had? How much did I owe and to whom? The voice was always loudest during the week to ten days leading up to pay day. That’s when the money from my last check was all but gone and the groceries and gas purchases were going on the credit card. At the beginning of the month when I had some cash, things didn’t seem that bad. Sounds familiar?
After months of hair pulling, tortuous feelings and two free seminars on managing personal income, I decided to take the plunge. I took a deep breath and decided to take a look at all debt I had accumulated. So here goes…
Credit Card 1 1,116.67
Credit Card 2 7,862.69
Store Card 1 198.99
Bank Loan 1 4,000.00
Bank Loan 2 3,834.52
Other loans 353.99
Student loan 0.00 (Thank God I finished that one a year ago)
Total 17,366.86
I remember looking at the total in shock wondering what to do next. Granted it may not be a lot compared to some of the albatrosses around the necks of others but hey, it’s mine and feels just as overwhelming to me as it may to someone who is in the red for twice or twenty times that amount.
Isn’t it all relative though? What may be manageable debt to you based on your income level, may be completely unmanageable to another person. I try to be sympathetic to those who find themselves in these situations. Yes we are the ones who put ourselves there. We slide head first after all. Yet often we arrive at the erroneous conclusion that we can afford to pay it back when the paycheck comes around, or that making the payments while eating and living will be easy. I certainly thought about my purchases before buying them. Still the money I owed seemed like some esoteric number floating in outer space…until, that is, I actually sat down and listed it all. My next step is to try to find the best way to eliminate debt and better manage my money?