There are several myths about debt that I grew up with. One was that debt was necessary to get things that you need in life. The other is that only rich people can be debt free. I heard those lines from family members and business owners so often they became ingrained in my mind and I believed them. It took most of my adult life (so far) to learn that they are just that, myths. They were nothing more than myths.
But, they were so ingrained that debt was something I grew up expecting to have and since I expected it, it happened. But eventually, I learned that most debt was not helping me and my family. Debt was keeping us broke and keeping us from enjoying the good things in life. It was also the driving force keeping me in the work force long after I wanted to retire. I was a slave to the creditors, mostly credit card companies, because I did not have a good handle on managing money and debt.
Growing up with people who expected to be in debt probably did not help me much, but the only person I can really blame is me. I was not dumb by any means, just uneducated when it came to managing credit card debt. It was not something that was taught in school and debt was something that our parents did not talk about.
Managing credit cards
After we decided to turn things around, I learned two things that helped keep me motivated. The first thing was if you have money, debt is something you never need. The other thing was that anyone can get out of debt. It takes hard work and common sense, not debt consolidation, debt management companies or bankruptcy.
It just takes commitment, some sacrifice and time. If you are willing, you can become debt free. It won’t happen overnight. But then, your debt was not created overnight either. It took a lot of time and a lot of mistakes along the way to get in debt.
I mentioned mistakes, because I believe that most hard working people get into debt because of mistakes made in planning or lack of planning for the future. And most hard working people will continue to work even after they should be retired and living the good life just to pay off the debt.
So, how do you get out of debt? That is the real question and there are any number of people who have made a business of answering that question. But the fact is, most people are willing to work hard and try to avoid the quick fix because it is their nature to pay their debts. Another part of the problem is that people have difficulty learning from their mistakes and they are doomed to repeat those mistakes and stay in debt. It is also a lesson that is easily passed on to our children.
The first absolutely necessary thing to becoming debt free is to accept responsibility for your financial situation. No one else caused you to accept credit as a way of life. The second most essential thing you need is a plan and maybe a little bit of guidance. If you are building a house, one of the first things you get is a plan and you might want to understand how the house is supposed to go together. Your financial house is no different. Without a plan, you just make the same mistakes over and over again.
Pay off credit card debt
Getting out of debt is not rocket science. It takes hard work and commitment to become debt free. Some people have gotten out from under mountains of debt just by changing their attitude about debt and making a plan to become debt free. It certainly worked for us. Learning how credit cards worked and finding some strategies that we might use was first on the list. Click here to read more about how we learned how to manage debt and eliminate credit card debt.