TRUTH: The truth is, the system is designed to put us in debt. The system relies on us being in debt. Who remembers the stimulus plan? Does anyone also remember the point of the stimulus plan? I can tell you right off the top of my head, the point was NOT to get you to put that money into a savings account for the future. I can tell you right off the top of my head that the point was to get you to spend that money on TVs and cars and clothes and other junks you don’t really need.

I’m not saying it isn’t my fault too. I shouldn’t fall the consumerism crap in America, but I do. And so tens of millions of other Americans. It’s not a coincidence that so many Americans are in such bad debt these days. We’re convinced we need to spend more and more money on junk we don’t need in order to keep the economy from collapsing. Well, it’s neither your nor my responsibility to keep this economy afloat. The best thing I can do for this economy is to get myself out of debt.

The Truth Is Out There

LIE: Credit card debt will destroy my credit rating.

TRUTH: It ain’t helping, but credit ratings aren’t permanently etched in stone. If you focus on paying off your debt. If you close down extraneous accounts that are doing you no good. If you make good, smart, educated decisions about your budget and spend appropriately, your credit rating will come around. The worst thing you can do is think it’s permanently F’d up and just give up. Don’t ever give up.

LIE: Cutting up my credit card means I’ll never have to deal with it again.

TRUTH: Who doesn’t sadly think this is true? God, sometimes calling up the company and canceling the card isn’t enough, so it certainly doesn’t do anything to just cut up that card in your wallet. You have to cancel the account, and you have to demand written verification that the account has been canceled. You want to make absolutely certain that neither you nor some identity thief can go and use that card. And it doesn’t help your credit rating to have a card that is never used. It looks bad. It looks like the card has been maxed out.

LIE: One more card can’t hurt. I’ve been paying off the rest so well.

TRUTH: If you’re paying them off so well, then why do you think another card? Here’s the truth, having all those cards and spending using all the cards is going to kill your credit rating. Stop it right now. Don’t bother with a store card. You don’t need those stupid bonus points. Consider how much you’re probably paying in interest, and you’ll quickly realize those bonus points are at most a tiny, minuscule fraction of the interest and penalty fees you’re paying. Also, you don’t know what the future holds. Maybe you can afford all those cards now, but who says you’ll have your job in a month or two, or who says you won’t be hit with a pay cut? You always want to give yourself enough wiggle room, and you always want to have enough in savings that if you lost your job today, you’d be ok for at least the next six months.

And finally, let me add, Americans already have TOO MANY CREDIT CARDS.

And that’s the truth.