Whew! what a relief...my husband I can can officially say this month that were are out of credit card debt!!! (yay!!! times a thousand!). We still have a loan to a relative we are paying off but this, being a direct withdrawal, will be over in August as well : )
Prior to the last couple years I was never one to rack up any credit card debt. I was the "envelope" girl. I would put something on my credit card and then put the money to pay it off in an envelope...and then at the end of the month I would pay it off...in full of course! Yeah, until REAL life came knocking! lol!
Graduate school time came. Fred and I were living together and I was highly encouraged NOT to work during this time by the school. Well, of course looking back on it I COULD have worked and SHOULD have worked...but I took the guidance of the school and put all of my energy into my coursework. It paid off in most respects. I kept a 3.96 GPA, I got a 12 credit per semester scholarship for the entire four semesters of my program, and I believe being a good student was what landed me the job I currently possess at the school. But, not working for two years did come at a price.
My husband (fiance at the time) makes a moderate living -average for the area we were living in. However, as most families know these days one income is not usually enough to support two or more people. And in this case it came close, but we ended up using the credit card for groceries for almost two years. Yikes, I know. But, no big deal, we thought. I'll graduate and get a high paying job soon after and we'll be fine. Again...until reality struck!
The very month of graduation my husband and I went on our long awaited honeymoon to Greece. A trip we had saved and budgeted for, for a year and a half. We did NOT put this trip on our credit cards. We had enough saved to pay of the trip in its entirety...or so we thought... Six days into our trip I came down with a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). Now, a clotting condition runs in my family but I was told prior to leaving for this trip that I tested NEGATIVE for this clotting disorder. The lab results were read wrong. While we did purchase trip insurance it was only enough to cover MY expenses in Greece for an extra 12 days, not my husbands. And, at a time like that, you certainly do not want to leave your loved one half way around the world, sick and alone. So, screw credit card debt. He stayed with me and it cost us.
At the time the Euro/ US dollar exchange was $1.50. So, for every dollar my loving husband spent to stay with me, we ended up paying a dollar and a half. When we returned we found ourselves deep in a type of debt I had never known before and with jobs scarce (I did not obtain full time employment until fourteen months post graduation, EVEN with my stellar grades and resume...it just didn't matter. This was Michigan and we're in a recession) we were in pretty deep. I would sob on my way into work while the creditors called my cell phone telling me what a horrible human being I was and how irresponsible I was. I now understood why people do such drastic things to get out of debt. It feels HORRIBLE. It feels like a bull standing on your chest that you feel responsible for putting there yet know that was not your intention at all. Did we rack up debt buying things we couldn't afford? Not really.
Sure, we should have not taken a trip to Greece and instead used that money to supplement our income. But at the time we made these choices it was before the bottom fell out in the economy. MANY people made choices thinking things would stay the way they were...but they were wrong and so were we. Did we go to Greece expecting to rack up thousands in debt because of a massive medical condition? Certainly not! I was told I did not have a clotting disorder before leaving. That mistake costs us thousands...triple the debt we had leaving for Greece...now was that our fault? No.
Now that we are on the other side we have set ourselves on a strict budget. And that is much easier to do now that our income has more than doubled. We spend less than we make and we're careful about our choices. We have not been on a real vacation since Greece and I don't know when we'll be able to take one. We take short trips in our state and save our money...because we are being responsible. What this lesson has taught me is that debt and bankruptcy and mismanagement of money is not always because people are irresponsible or buy things they can't afford. Sometimes people make calculated decisions and take calculated risks (like the risk to have another baby, or go back to school, or stop working to be a stay at home mom or dad) and sometimes it just doesn't work out. And sometimes your life doesn't go as planned.
Sometimes both people lose their jobs and can't get new ones for a year or longer...sometimes people get sick and can't work...but will your mortgage company or credit card companies care? Not one bit. All you can hope is if or when this happens you have been fortunate enough to be working long enough, and making enough, to have savings to fall back on. If you're in that position, you are better off than most and you should count your lucky stars. I think this is part of the reason my husband and I do not take our jobs for granted for one second. We may complain about being busy or having a rough week but we are so LUCKY to have decent paying, somewhat secure jobs in this economy. I will NEVER take that for granted. Because knowing the alternative is sometimes the only thing that makes you truly appreciate what you have.
