Deep in a Credit Debt Hole
Ever wonder how quickly things can go from bad to worse? I have a $35,000 year salary. I’m single. I’m twenty-five years old. I should be living a fairly comfortable life.
But it isn’t that simple. I didn’t immediately have this job straight out of college. Instead, I had a minimum wage job after I got out of college. It’s not that abnormal for students coming out of college to take a bad job just to get by while they’re looking for something good. While I was looking, I still had to pay those student loans. Those student loans were extremely expensive. My crappy job didn’t cover the loans, not to mention the rent, the car insurance, the car payments, groceries, phone, etc etc etc. The obvious solution was credit.
How I wish I’d look into another solution. Credit has ruined my life. I have borrowed beyond my limits. I have borrowed so much so that now even though I have a very good job, I am spending more in credit card interest each month than my student loans. I am spending so much in credit cards that though I make significantly more with each paycheck than I did just a couple years ago, I’m left exactly where I was. I’m still broke. And I’m still borrowing.
Fixing a hole where the rain comes in
It’s a vicious cycle, and unfortunately, in America, my story is not unique. There are so many young kids fresh out of college that are borrowing themselves into ruin. When my grandfather was my age, he already had a wife, a mortgage (he could afford), and a kid on the way. I can’t reasonably afford to be married. I couldn’t pay for a wedding right now. I doubt I could get a loan for a wedding. I can’t afford to buy my own home; I can barely cover rent each month despite living with three other people in a cramped townhouse. And most of all, there’s no way I could afford a kid.
We have become a country so dependent on shopping and borrowing that we have lost our ability to fulfill the American dream. Many people mistake what the America dream was. It wasn’t to maybe, just maybe if by luck somehow strike it rich or become a Hollywood star. The American dream was owning your own home, living comfortably, maybe owning and running a small business, having kids and sending them off to college. That dream is slowly becoming unattainable in a country where consumerism has become the predominant lifestyle. If I’m lucky, if I consolidate all my borrowing, if I try really hard to save every penny, if I cut back on all needless savings, maybe in ten years I’ll get out of this hole that I’ve dug for myself.
Sadly, it’s a big maybe.
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