New Year’s Resolution to Live Debt Free
by Mogamahttp://mogama.info
Fully aware that the majority of people give up on their New Year’s Resolution before the end of February, I still dared to give a failed habit another desperate try. I resolved to become debt-free...again.
When I arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, in January of 1991, I owed no one any money. I was 100% debt-free. Borrowing money as a lifestyle is just not the African way. Most Liberians and Ghanaians have no credit card debt, car loans, mortgage loans, student loans, etc. In Africa the poor live on next to nothing, and the rich live on cash. Most loans are more person-to-person, not business-to-person.
So, how did I plunge head and feet into the muddy waters of America’s debt culture? Well, a good friend of mine initiated me by saying I should see charge card as “buying power”. At first I laughed and told him the obvious, “The credit card is not buying power, man; it’s debt! Let’s call it what it is…”
But barely one year later, I had followed my friend’s advice. I took on my first car loan of about $6,000, with the help of a sympathetic friend who co-signed the note. The payment was $150 per month.
Next, I added my first credit card, followed by a few other loans, including a Citgo gasoline card, a Sears card, to name just a few. I charged everything from food to computer.
Few years went by before I awoke from the financial stupor that had lowered our family to living pay check to pay check, which is normal for most Americans.
In 1997 I was fed up enough to begin an aggressive effort to pay off all debts. My wife and I used whatever money we could find to pay down debts, until we became totally debt-free by the year 2000.
This freedom was short lived. About two years to be exact. Then it was back to borrowing again, like a drunk or drug addict relapsing into his addiction. Beginning April 2003, our debt load climbed to around $35,000, excluding our mortgage (house loan), of course.
Desperate for a change, on December 31, 2008, I wrote two simple statements on an index card as my New Year’s Resolution for 2009: (1) “I Will pay $100 or more per week towards debts.” (2) “I will cut up my credit card and not use it again.”
There was nothing easy about either of these vows. First off, my wife and I really did not have the money to pay $400 each month towards debts. Secondly, cutting off my pet Master Card was like breaking off a long-term relationship; to tell you truth it felt like divorce; that card had become our clutch for every emergency, unexpected expense, and whenever we fell short on our bills.
The temptation was strong, but I refused to revise those two statements about paying $100 per week towards debts and performing plastic surgery on my credit card. I put a scotch tape on the back of the index card and stuck it to the mirror of the dresser in our bedroom, where I see it every time I stand in front of that mirror.
Well, it’s now the 11th month of the year 2009. Any progress? Yes! We have paid off 3 out of 6 debts. If we stay on track we should become debt-free, except for the mortgage, by the year 2012. Hopefully, we can taste debt freedom much earlier.
It has taken many twists and turns to make it this far. I have learned some simple but valuable lessons and tips that I will be sharing on this blog. The first tip is: Set a written goal to pay off debt, and set a definite amount to pay on debt every pay period.
So, here is where debt freedom begins: (1) Make a firm decision to pay off debts and stop all borrowing; (2) Write down your goal with a specific dollar amount to pay towards your debts; (3) Set a date when you will become debt-free. Anything less is just a weak wish.
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Article submitted Tuesday, December 29, 2009 & read 173 times.
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