Comments on: Avoiding debt

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:22:45 +0000

Wow. I’m speechless.

Okay, not so much. This is so bad that is warrants a whole blog post response.

By: Revanche

Revanche — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:37:03 +0000

From very early on, I always reveled in the act of paying bills because my parents let me write out their checks. That was probably the first real thoughtful interaction I had with money, and cemented my expectation that you paid all your bills when they came in. That meant you always had to already have the money on hand, else what would the check draw on?

I also tried to tell my parents that they should be budgeting and setting aside money for household expenses instead of floating from month to month and putting everything back in the business. Since I was only ten they didn’t listen, but I’m convinced that if they’d practiced better money management that long ago, they would have been on a far better financial path.

Instead, I took on their financial burdens less than ten years later and with the exception of my car loan, never had the time or money to take on debt! I was under too much pressure to make ends meet and pay off debt so it would have been completely illogical to build up my own debt.

It was easy to see the effects of owing everyone money on my parents, and the bill collectors dunning my brother, so, for the longest time, nothing was as important as staying out of debt and paying off debt.

By: JenniLynn

JenniLynn — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:15:54 +0000

The biggest thing was taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University when I was 20.

I also started having a checkbook and checking account when I was 15, so I got used to the concept of spending and balancing long before I was ever eligible to take out debt.

I started working at 16 and was responsible for some bills that weren’t just “fun” things – gas for my car, paying over time for a trip I was taking (paying ahead of time), and so on.

Another thing that I think often gets left out is that it is just my nature to be fiscally conservative, and I don’t like shopping, so that has been helpful.

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:48:10 +0000

I’ve never been in debt. One of the main things that helped me accomplish this was being educated about money by my parents, who are financially conservative. I wasn’t necessarily raised to be frugal, but rather to be practical and research my purchases. Also, I was taught to treat saving as a mandatory expense each month. Even when working low paying jobs as a teenager, I always put something away in my savings account. I graduated college and graduate school without student loans (or rich parents) by attending a fantastic public university rather than a fancy private one. My guiding financial principle has always been to live within your means.