One Trillion Dollars in Credit Card Debt

Debt is a prison. Not a mortgage or even a car payment although they are annoying. Paying my credit cards in full every month is one of the few things that kept me in the middle class during my time of underemployment.

This is not bragging. I have no idea what my interest rate is. When you pay the card in full every month the interest is zero percent. A telemarketer hung up on me when I said that. If she wanted to pay me- chances are she assumed I had a seventeen percent interest rate and she could lower it to twelve percent.

It's like that Dire Straits song. You are paying money for nothing. Part of the reason interest rates are so high is too many people are in debt. Let's do some math.

If the 1,000,000,000,000 (G Gordon Liddy used to refer to "One thousand million" because it sounded more real than one billion.) is exclusive to the United States which has three hundred thirty two million residents- that is three thousand one hundred thirty four dollars and eighty cents (I rounded that up) for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The National Debt is higher. Another story, another article. People probably have multiple cards with multiple debts. Pay one down. If you are twelve thousand in the hole- whatever you do- don't take out a loan to pay this off.

Payday loans, Title Loans and their ilk are worse than borrowing from the Mafia. You'll never pay them off. The average credit card debt is $5714.00 per household.

Make minimum payments and your debt will carry to when Star Trek takes place. In the 23rd century they no longer use money. Until The Eugenics War changes everything- money is used right now and the sooner debt is paid off, the better you will feel.

The most important debt is your debt. Don't say "Others have it a lot worse." You can pay your debt down. It will take hard work. The sooner you get out the cycle of revolving debt, the better. If you are debt free- that is another manifestation of freedom. Work on it. Interest rates keep rising which makes the incline steeper.

It takes more than not going to Starbucks. Find where you don't need to spend and break those habits. It won't make you rich. You will feel less poor and a little closer to the ultimate goal of a zero balance. Do your best.