Growing up I was led to believe that debt was an adult thing. I vividly recall what my mother told me when she found out that I owed someone some cash, she said, “Matt, you are too young to be in debt.” That statement stuck in my mind all through my childhood and it more or less made me feel embarrassed about ever getting into debt.
I’m all grown up now, living an independent life. All around me I have friends and relatives who are deeply rooted in debt. It got me wondering, is debt an adult way of life?
LaToya Irby, a credit and debt manager guide, has identified four spending habits that lead us, adults, into debt. She notes that debt isn’t something that just happens coincidentally or accidentally as you go about your daily living. There are certain spending habits that lead to debt. Recognizing these habits now could save you a lot of money and stress later. Let’s check them out.
Spending more than you earn
This is quite a common thing with most of us. We find ourselves spending more than we make and over time we’ve ended up doing it without even realizing it. Like LaToya puts it, we find ourselves dipping into savings, borrowing from others and using credit as our way of life. Banks are constantly dishing out credit cards, at times forcing us to take them, and this is brought up a credit reliant society. You area of residence might push you to spend more than you earn. You might be living in an apartment that accounts to 50 percent of your monthly income, with the current cost of living the remaining 50 percent might not be sufficient to cater for your food, transport and other expenses and in turn pushing you into debt.
You might get away with it now but sooner or later it will catch up with you. Picture this, you’ve been spending more that you earn, this probably means you have not been able to save money. If you were to lose your job, will you be able to support yourself until an alternative source of income comes your way?
Spending money you don’t have
While this might seem foreign to some, there are people out there who actually spend money they don’t have. They depend on credit cards and loans to get by. Haven’t you heard of the guys who take out a loan to buy a giant flat screen TV? LaToya notes that when you use these instruments to pay bills and make purchases, you’re creating debt. If you can’t repay the debt each month, it will continue to grow.
Reduce your expenses and rely only on your income to pay for your wants and needs. If it’s a giant flat screen TV you want, its best you save up for it as opposed to taking out a loan to pay it the TV.
Using credit when you have cash
Holding on to cash in your wallet comes at a cost. It might be difficult for some to chuck out a significant amount hard cash to make purchases thus they would rather use their credit cards to avoid feeling the pinch. Here’s the reality of things, if you don’t want to pay for it today, chances are you won’t be willing to pay for it today. No one enjoys paying back debt; you might as well avoid it if you have cash with you.
As LaToya notes, in order to change this this habit you have to be willing to pay for what you want with the money you’ve earned. Realize that by postponing payment by using credit, you’ll end up paying more than if you had just spent your own cash.
Using debt to pay off debt
Using debt to pay off another debt doesn’t mean you are paying off anything, you are simply shuffling your debt around and incurring more debt each time you do so. Taking a loan to pay off another loan might not be a good idea either. Transaction fees, down payments might actually end up making this worse off than what you begun with.
LaToya notes that using debt to ‘pay off’ debt might be beneficial if you can transfer a balance from a high interest rate credit to one with a lower interest rate. You however have to be careful that the balance transfer fee doesn’t negate the interest savings and that your post promotional interest rate isn’t worse than your previous rate.