04-26-2002, 02:40 AM
The best way (in my experience) to get out of debt is to make yourself a plan (5 years or so) and stick to it as much as humanly possible. About 7 years ago I got divorced and had to find an apartment for me & my son, buy new furniture, appliances, etc. I ended up charging everything. I did not ask for alimony, so it was sink or swim on my own. I would not ask my parents for money.
I decided I would do whatever I had to do to make ends meet. I also had a student loan, and a car payment because my 11-year old car crapped out. I started bringing my lunch to work and cutting out anything I didn't really need (of course, I allowed myself to splurge every now and then). I made it a point to ALWAYS pay more than the minimum on my credit cards...transferred balances when there was a good interest rate on another card...paid double on my student loan when I could.
The good news...it gets better and it gets easier. My student loan will be paid off in September, the car in February and that extra money will go toward the credit card debt. I still pay more than the minimum, but now I only have 1 card which is just about maxed out from transferring the balances. This works for me because I can't really use it unless it's an emergency. Two years ago I bought a house (yeah, my mom co-signed and it's an FHA loan because of my debt to income ratio). Soooo, the moral of this long story is, you can do it. You just have to be able to tell the difference between "needs" and "wants" and be able to get over the embarrassment of having to tell people "I can't do [insert whatever] because I can't afford it." It sucks, but you can do it if you want it badly enough.
Oh yeah, and I believe the changed the bankruptcy laws last year to make it harder for people to declare just to give them an "out".
Edited By Sweet Angel on April 25 2002 at 10:43
I decided I would do whatever I had to do to make ends meet. I also had a student loan, and a car payment because my 11-year old car crapped out. I started bringing my lunch to work and cutting out anything I didn't really need (of course, I allowed myself to splurge every now and then). I made it a point to ALWAYS pay more than the minimum on my credit cards...transferred balances when there was a good interest rate on another card...paid double on my student loan when I could.
The good news...it gets better and it gets easier. My student loan will be paid off in September, the car in February and that extra money will go toward the credit card debt. I still pay more than the minimum, but now I only have 1 card which is just about maxed out from transferring the balances. This works for me because I can't really use it unless it's an emergency. Two years ago I bought a house (yeah, my mom co-signed and it's an FHA loan because of my debt to income ratio). Soooo, the moral of this long story is, you can do it. You just have to be able to tell the difference between "needs" and "wants" and be able to get over the embarrassment of having to tell people "I can't do [insert whatever] because I can't afford it." It sucks, but you can do it if you want it badly enough.
Oh yeah, and I believe the changed the bankruptcy laws last year to make it harder for people to declare just to give them an "out".
Edited By Sweet Angel on April 25 2002 at 10:43