#MoneyMonday

Debt. It's a word that causes health problems, relationship problems, and money problems. Yes, I just said that debt causes money problems which may seem obvious but I'm not sure it is all that obvious to some people.

My hub and I constantly look around at the huge houses that surround ours with the 3 car garages that house gas guzzling SUV's and boats or some other weekend toy. And we ask, out loud to the universe, "what do those people DO?" The reality is a lot of these people are living beyond their means. They have multiple credit cards that they juggle and they have loans and other ways they get money but are in debt. 

When we were looking to purchase a home we were told how much we were approved to spend. That was great except there was no way we could actually afford those monthly payments. We knew that just because someone said we could spend that much money didn't mean that we could in reality. So we limited our search to homes in the range of a monthly payment we knew we could afford. Our realtor kept trying to talk us up, we wouldn't budge. But we are a rarity in today's bigger and better culture. Most people, when given a number to buy a house, go all out and spend every bit of that approval number and then some. Then when the time comes to actually make those payments they find themselves in trouble. So other things get put on the credit cards so the house payment can be made. And the numbers keep climbing and becoming more and more red. 

Back in April (2017) CNBC published an article with a title that caught my attention, "Americans owe $1 trillion in credit card debt—here are 2 proven strategies for paying it off." Whoa! That's a lot of credit card debt. The article says the Wall Street Journal considers it a good thing - it means people are spending money but it's causing people personal and financial distress. DUH. You think? 

Is there ANY good debt? Generally a mortgage is acceptable and good debt but columnist Michelle Singletary disagrees. She says all debt is bad, read her perspective here. Financial expert Dave Ramsey "allows" for mortgages but has a plan to reduce debt and live debt-free. Here's his thoughts on debt reduction. 

So for #MoneyMonday today take a good, honest look at your debt and decide what you can do to reduce it.