Debt is the American way of life. Everything we do is geared toward living beyond our means. I am in debt. I have car loans and 2 credit cards. This is down from 7 credit cards. I decided that enough is enough and have been paying down the credit cards and destroying them. I now live on a cash basis. I purchasing all day to day expenses with cash, and all my recurring expenses- web hosting and the like are withdrawn from a debt card account set up for that purpose. As far a bankruptcy, been there done that, still smarting from the hit to my credit history. Credit cost more because of it.
Advice for those who don’t have a credit history and want to keep a clean one- start a savings account and set up a direct deposit to it. Set up a budget and stick to it. Pay all your bills on time, always. One late phone bill impacts your credit. Once you have a nest egg started and a good reserve fund, talk to a financial advisor about the best way to get a good credit rating. The best way to stay out of debt is to not get into debt.

Well, im 20. I go to a school that costs 30k a year. I actually chose this school over public universities in the area because my school offered me scholarships. With these scholarships, combined with working 15-20 hours a week, I do not have any school loans and will graduate debt free.

I have to say that im fortunate to have received such a large scholarship, but I wont lie and say I didnt work for it because I worked my ASS off in high school to graduate where I did.

Aside from that, I own a car which I bought outright. I bought it used for 5000 dollars, which I saved up for by working 50-60 hours a week over the summer. I do have two credit cards, but I always pay them off by the end of the month…come hell or high water. I will literaly not go out, eat out, go to movie, conserve gas to pay off these credit cards.

Right now…im trying to start saving again for a trip to Germany in Aug 08.

I am 33 and should be much farther along with my financial goals, but I had some trouble dealing with credit cards TWICE in my life already.

In college, I mostly footed the bill with campus jobs and financial aid. I came out of undergrad with about 10K in student loans and 3K in credit card debt. I went on to grad school where I got the credit cards paid off, but then once approved for more…I went nuts. I left grad school with 35K in student loans (including the original 10K from college) and maybe 10-15K in credit card debt. I cut up all of the cards, paid them off, paid off a car and now…7 years later…I have a house that I am buying, 2 paid for cars, zero credit card debt and 25K remaining on student loans. I am hoping to have those paid off in the next 2 years. I would have been there already, but…again…we ran up a bit of credit card debt while we were pursuing a surrogacy option, which failed.

Soooo…the long and short of it is that I have ALWAYS struggled with debt. I want to live a better lifestyle than my means I suppose. I finally have the means for the life I always wanted, but I am still cleaning up the mess from living that way before I was capable of doing so.

I have a plan though. Finish paying student loans off in 2 more years, buy a newer car and pay that off in the 2 years after that, then pay off the short arm loan on my house. I also am planning to step up my retirement savings.

I wish my parents had talked to me about saving money earlier in life for retirement. I started my IRA about 7 years ago, and wish I had done so at 18. But yeah…fat chance that would have happened LOL

Do people plan for retirement? What on earth will retirement for our generation be like?