Just this past week, I received an enticing invitation to apply for a major credit card with no cost for the first year, plus $500 worth of other benefits.
I put it in my round file.
I have no desire for a credit card. The last credit cards we obtained more than twenty years ago are now defunct because we haven't used them for years.
When we had them, we only used them only as a convenience when ordering by phone. We always paid them off as 30-day accounts.
I heard an estimate on a news report that the average American family owes some $20,000 dollars on credit card accounts.
That means that my family is not average. I owe nothing because I don't have one, which is a comfort worth having.
My husband, George, and I paid cash for years until we found out that we had no credit rating because we ran no credit. We established credit with two big retail stores just to have a credit rating, then seldom used it, to the point of a "Huh?" attitude when we produced our cards.
This wasn't easy in our early years. Our cars were financed, as were other large appliances like my Singer sewing machine, refrigerator, freezers, etc. We did without many things in order to put away some savings for emergencies.
I shopped to save with an eye to getting the most for every dollar, dime and nickel I spent. We purchased the cheapest cuts of meat - after all, the nutrition is just as high for the cheap cuts as for steak - and bargain foods.
It only took more ingenuity and cooking skills to make it just as tasty and nutritious. I bought fabric remnants and sewed. I knit. I mended. I cut every economic corner I could.
When we lost our house and property, we bought a mobile home and a small lot to put it on. We saved, only a little at a time, but it added up.
Worst of all was one year when George found work only five months out of 15. He was ill and required surgery. We had just enough money to pay for it.
Credit for most people is a trap with the bait of spending money they don't have, mortgaging their futures. The tremendous economic problems today rest largely on people who lived beyond their means and didn't stick to "the bare necessities" when things were tight.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 1
DemocratsAreTheProblem writes:
Sad story.
Next time you go to the polls you may wish to keep these facts in mind:
1. The very same Democrat leaders in power today are the same individuals that opposed many years ago investigations by the Republicans on the Fannie Mae/Mac of lending to unqualified loan recipients. Many Republicans in Congress screamed out that lending to unqualified home buyers was a mistake...but the Democrats said NOT A PROBLEM..In fact many of these Democrats were paid by the very same institutions that supported this outrageous move. The loaning of monies to non-qualified borrowers is the very reason that America is in the economic crisis we are in....all the thanks to Democrats.
2. Banks and other mortgage lenders were REQUIRED by Democrat Party instituted and defended laws to lend to those that did not qualify. WHY would Democrats do such a horrible thing? Simple: 1. They hope to gain these people as supporters for Democrats. 2. Create a further dependence on federal government.
3. Obama and the Democrats (a.k.a. Deceit, Nonsense, Corruption) are broadcasting huge amounts of legislation so too convert America into a totally dependent society upon the federal government..a.k.a. Socialism.
Make no mistake about it..Obama and the Democrats in Congress are committed to erasing Capitalism and placing a Socialist form of government for America. Read your history,,Socialism ALWAYS gravitates to Dictatorship.
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