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From Mensagenda - February 2004
The Third Side
by Tim Goetsch
Giving Credit
Where Credit is Due,
at the End of Every Month
Have you ever done something you
knew was stupid, but you did it anyway,
and then you spent years paying for your
mistake and regretting it?
Yeah, you can guess what kind of article
this is going to be.
Some people overeat. Some people
don’t finish college. Some people dream
big but don’t follow through. I’ve done
all those things, plus I’ve racked up
credit card debt. Stupid, stupid credit
card debt. Stupidest thing I’ve ever gotten
involved in.
If it weren’t for credit card
debt, I wouldn’t have to be on
a budget. Actually it technically
isn’t a budget, but, for
the purposes of this article,
it’s a budget, and if I weren’t
in debt I wouldn’t need one.
Except that if I had a budget in
the first place, I wouldn’t be in this mess.
I figure that if I didn’t have credit card
debt, I could buy a new computer and
then, three months later, throw it away
and buy another. Then again, it was buying
a computer that put me on the first step
along this slippery slope. Fortunately the
computer comes with a spreadsheet program,
so I can plot my budget (which isn’t
really a budget). Sometimes the shovel you
use to dig yourself a hole is the one you use
to dig yourself out.
You can probably see how this article is
going. It’s a lot like the old joke about the
guy going around, saying, “I wish I could
afford an elephant.” When his friends ask
what he would want with an elephant, he
says, “I don’t want to buy one. I just wish
I could afford one.” Big joke. Substitute
“car” for “elephant,” it would be just as
funny to me. Substitute “house,” and suddenly
it stops being funny.
Ah, the dreams you can have about
money you don’t have. Better home. Better
food. Wild women. Hawaii. Grand
Canyon. Duluth. But then you realize you’re
looking for a new shovel to dig a new hole.
Too bad. I liked Duluth.
I won’t go into how much I owe. Whenever
I tell others about it, they usually
snort and say something like, “Amateur!
Can’t you dig a deeper hole than that?” It
might not seem like a lot to others, but it is
to me. A few years ago I sat down and
figured out that, even when sending in
every spare penny that I could, it was
going to take about thirtyfive
years to pay the thing
off. I was pretty discouraged
about that, since I had already
scheduled being dead
or retired by then.
That revelation came
about four years ago. Since
then I’ve gotten a better job
and a better interest rate. Payoff date is
now about two and a half years off. A
much better deal, but the self-imposed
poverty is still no fun.
C’mon, Daddy needs a new shovel.
Or an IRA. I have two and a half years
to decide.
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