Resist credit offers

It’s easy to blame the bankers for the recent economic crisis, and they do deserve their fair share of the blame, but one of the reasons why we fell into it was because people here in America are all too willing to incur debt. This is a big issue, and it is true that all of the manipulative powers of Madison Avenue broadcast a reality to us that encourages us to spend, but the companies that are behind the products are committed to paying us as little as they can. So on the one hand we are encouraged to buy, and the innuendo is that “everyone” can afford the things that are advertised on television, in magazines, and online. But that is really not the case because half of the people in this country live paycheck to paycheck. So invariably, people respond to the impetus to buy through the utilization of credit.

Your identity in America can get intertwined with what you are able to purchase, and we are a competitive lot who are not prone to accepting the limitations of our spending power. So rather than living within our budgets and dealing with the fact that we really can’t afford every new bangle that comes down the pipeline, we buy things that we really don’t need, on credit. Now if you need something, or really want something special now and then, and when you do the math you can afford the payments, that is part of life and totally reasonable. But when that mentality gets out of control, you are inevitably going to create a mountain of bills for yourself that may very well come crumbling down.

The wise thing to do is to maintain a balanced approach to using credit and make sure that you don’t get in over your head. Many of us get one or two catalogs a week offering us “buy now, pay later” deals on a bunch of stuff that we really don’t need, and there are people who just can’t resist a new watch or an Elvis bedspread and comforter. But when you fall for these gimmicks, you wind up paying much more than the stuff was worth, and you really didn’t need the things in the first place. Be smart and recognize that the reason you are being offered the credit is because it is benefiting the finance company, not you.