I haven't blogged too much about how I got started with credit cards and debt; mainly because it seems such a long while ago now that I don't think about it. Anyway, my finances started to go wrong when I was 19; I had this notion that I had to be a property owner and at the time I worked for a bank and it was {very} easy for me to get a mortgage.
I found a small studio apartment in the town where I lived and set the wheels in motion to buy it. I can't remember the exact amount of the mortgage, I think it was less than £20k {a lot of money in those days} and I think I put 5% down, but this was the start of it all going wrong. I couldn't afford to socialise, eat, and pay the bills, so I got my first credit card. I took a second job three evenings a week just to get by, but I still struggled. I never missed payments; I just kept increasing my limits and getting cash advances {the worst thing to ever do with a credit card}
This carried on until I sold the flat {about 2 years later} but the credit card habit was well established by then and it took another twenty years to break it.
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Hi there. Atleast your learned and realized your mistake. Having a house payment and scrimping by all other life neccesity must have been real hard. Let alone needing to work 2 jobs.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're able to break free and see the light.
http://moneyhoneysf.blogspot.com/
thanks money honey; my parents didn't really set me a good example, something I've tried to redress with my own kids.
ReplyDeletethanks for dropping by :-)
It is scary how credit cards just become the norm. I'm amazed at how people often say they have nothing in savings, yet then tell you they bought new furniture, or a holiday etc. I always thought that meant they had the money, now I see it is that they put it on credit. Very sad.
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