Posted by noa on April 9, 2003, at 21:46:35
In reply to Re: stressed out, posted by Dave1 on April 9, 2003, at 19:42:13
Yes, I had that problem, too. I was so buried under debt, I thought I'd never get out. I did not start accumulating a lot of debt in college, though. I did not have a credit card until about age 25. Before that, keeping to my budget was easy! I simply had no money to spend on anything besides the basics. And I mean BASICS. I remember how frugal I had to be. For example, I used to buy palates of ramen noodles when they went on sale--for like 25 cents a piece--that was dinner. Don't worry, I didn't starve! But I rarely bought new clothes, went out to dinner, etc. I was lucky to live near an old movie theater that sold coupon books with about 15 admissions for $20. That was the extent of my entertainment budget. And I had no car. I walked every where and took the bus when it was out of walking distance. That was in the days of my first job out of college. I earned $9000 a year.
But eventually, I caught the credit bug. That is because credit started flowing really easy (Thank you Ronald Reagan maybe?). On top of that, ATMs began to proliferate, so money cash was just available all the time, especially if you could draw on a line of credit. What a disaster! I started to live more "normally" but that was beyond my budget. Then I went back to school and the debt grew exponentially! Plus new student loans on top of the old ones. It was a major stressor for me.
I finally went to a non-profit community based consumer credit counseling service. Best move I ever made. Through them, I paid off all my debts! It took a while, but they really helped. They negotiated lower interest for me, and then took an automatic payment from my account every month to pay off all the creditors. they also give budgeting advice, etc. Part of my plan included me finding less expensive housing, which meant giving up some amenities. But as it turns out, that move eventually led to me really liking the new community I moved to, and eventually being able to buy a condo here. If I had stayed in the pricier apartment, I might never have found my home.
Now, the only debt I have is my mortgage. I even decided to pay off my car loan early just to be free of debt. It feels SO good!
If you do decide to find a credit counseling service, be careful. Nowadays there are a LOT of such services--some are not-for-profit, and some are for profit. Some have great, long standing reputations, and some are fly-by-night operations that have cheated people.
I used the Consumer Credit Counseling Service. It was one of the first. It is funded by the credit industry, actually. Their motive? They would rather people pay back, even if they don't get as much because of lower interests, than having people totally default on the credit balances.
SOmething to think about.
poster:noa
thread:217395
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030407/msgs/218042.html