|
The first sign that debt is becoming more of an issue in your life than it should be is the incredible shrinking bank balance. Although you make enough to pay your regular bills, more and more of your monthly income goes toward servicing your rising debt. It gets to a point where money is tight, and you feel like you are choking because there is never enough money. Unfortunately, this situation creates a negative domino effect upon the rest of your financial life.
The first to fall is the credit card domino. Your lack of funds causes you to begin to take cash advances to pay your minimum balances or basic living expenses. You know that your gold card still has about $5,000 left on it, so you begin to use it to live on. Or, even worse, you begin to accept all of those credit card offers that come in the mail, and before you know it, you have 10 open credit cards.
You take out $100 here and $500 there. "No big deal," you think. After all, you are used to paying off your cards, or at least paying enough that the debt has not, so far, seemed burdensome. You begin to rationalize. You tell yourself that you're just in a temporary cash crunch, that this is why credit cards were invented. Feeling better, you take out another $500.
|
Linear Mode
