Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
User Journal

Journal tomhudson's Journal: Some people are shedding debt ... and enjoying it! 120

I've been a strong advocate of paying everything with cold, hard cash. Don't even pay with a debit card - go to the bank, take the money out, put it in your purse or wallet, and then take it out again to spend it. This gives you several opportunities to do something you don't have a chance to do with plastic - several more points in time to change your mind, and keep that money in YOUR pocket.

So it was nice this week to hear not one, but two success stories. Thursday, one woman told me about how she had so far managed to cut her debt from $20,000 to $13,000 after cutting up her cards. She's on track ot be debt-free sometime next year. Friday, a coworker told me about how, for the first time ever, he's completely paid off one credit card, and how he's now going after all the rest of them (because, once you've eliminated one payment, there's more left over to tackle the rest).

They're both proud of their achievements, and rightly so. Certainly it will mean a better quality of life, if only from less stress juggling credit card payments. "Cashless economy" is an oxymoron - if you "can't afford" to pay cash, you're not running your own finances economically.

Just look at how much you're spending in interest each month ... better in your pocket than someone elses, no?

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Some people are shedding debt ... and enjoying it!

Comments Filter:
  • ...statistically and historically...have no chance [google.com].

    Nice poster child cases you have there. Do you work PR for a casino, too?
    • I know I wouldn't be hiring him for PR!!!

      Also, you should realize that he's Canadian, and that the "rest of us"!=America. (I, OTOH, am an American.)

      Still, your point that Tom's anecdotes are exceptions rather than the rule is definitely true for Americans (and very likely most of the rest of the world, too).

      • We're just doing the same thing as our federal government; we've been reducing the federal debt in absolute terms (not that "the federal debt is a smaller percentage of the GNP than it was" BS that is trying to hide the fact that the US federal deficit is out of control). In other words, the Canadian federal government stopped with the deficit spending thing more than a decade ago.

        Maybe they're exceptions, but I had lunch with another woman today who as of now is pretty much debt-free, except for the leas

        • Heck, I don't even really know how typical it is for US citizens. Keep in mind that you could have multiple layers of selection bias:
          1. The people you hang around might be in better shape financially and intellectually.
          2. The people willing to talk about their debt are more likely to be those who don't have any or who feel like they have it under control
          3. You might remember these stories better.

          I'm not saying all of these are happening, but any one of them could have significant impacts on your perception.

          • "The people you hang around might be in better shape financially and intellectually."

            I have some friends and family who are so far in hock that its scary. "How could it possibly have gotten that out of hand" is my reaction. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night owing what they owe, and not having anything really to show for it ... I also have friends and family who are fiscally "conservative", have been through a few rough spots, and don't want to have to ever "relive the experience."

            "The people willing

      • Oh goody, love it. Wimp.

        I paid off school debt, secondary education debt... how? With CASH!!

        Yep, instead of paying for a wedding, or extra housing, I swallowed my pride, lived with my folks and paid off my debt. Did it stop me from having a love life? No.

        I agree with you though... there is no reason that "everyone" will succeed at this. Most people are cowards, fools and 100% ignorant and willing to kill to stay that way. Whether you are or not, is entirely up to you, I can't read your minds, I can on
        • Judging from your first sentence, that is. Either that, or I am misinterpreting you (entirely possible). I, personally, am debt free - other than my car loan which I haven't paid off only because it has a 2.9% APR, and I'd rather have the extra cash available to me for emergency than have the satisfaction of being technically "debt-free". No, I'm talking about the "typical" American (not that it's limited to the US). I guess I will throw in the extra tidbit that my work in computational neuroscience has slo
          • I won't be drawn into a "this reality is an illusion" discussion, or "free will" is an illusion, or choice vs destiny (though if you delve far enough into both quantum physics and Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism (and Gnosticism), you'd find they all agree with that concept). However, for the purposes of this simulation that we've immersed ourself/selves into, I am simply saying that I agree with Tom, those of us that figure out how to play the game aren't "sole/rare samples", in fact we are those who ac
            • For the action, though, and not for the actors. Just like I have no idea what it's like to have homosexual urges, I can't claim to really understand those who spend themselves broke. I agree with you, however, that playing the victim is tantamount to perpetuating the problem. I believe that I also was agreeing with Tom, and was merely pointing out that the trend towards becoming debt-free is possibly a result of selection bias (through no fault of his). I definitely won't argue that those living debt free a

              • Free will, truth vs illusion... whoo boy, I won't touch that one, because I like having "free" time :)

                Agreed on the rest of your post though. I hold contempt for the actions of those people who claim someone "victimized" them. You aren't victimized... only if you let yourself BE a victim.

                I heard this put like this once... "As a man, your body will die, presuming that that is a fact, the only choice would be, will you die on your knees, or on your feet?" And yes, I know "asleep" is another choice, but tha
  • ...often means living WITHOUT the "wants" vs. the "needs". As a person working in the computer field you NEED food, water, electricity and/or natural gas and maybe a land line phone with some sort of dial up access. You DON'T need cable, satellite, HDTV, personal cell phone, pager, laptop, PDA, any sort of GPS system, iPod or other digital music player, a million paid online subscriptions to various services other than basic internet access or even a car. And by food, I'm also not talking about rich food
    • by Talinom ( 243100 ) *
      That involves paying at least a mild amount of attention to Maslo's hierarchy of needs [wikipedia.org]. By asking one's self the simple question of "Will I die if I do not have that?" one can start to eliminate a whole crapload of debt.

      Using that simple methodology the only debt I have is my mortgage and my car payment (only necessary because my last car was totaled. It was fully paid off.). Otherwise I have been debt free for 10 years or so. OK, fine. I had one credit card, but that was so I could get my credit score u
  • Although I would argue that in some cases, it is impossible to be completely debt free.

    Want a house? A car? Pay for your college loans? Or your kids' college loans?

    Now, wasteful spending in some forms can be offset - but that does not necessarily mean that everything that people spend on is unnecessary or that we all can be debt free if we stopped doing things other than the bare minimum (or that we would do so if we'd all simply use cash).

    A little off-topic, but sometimes, it is those other things that we
    • All I'm advocating is waiting a bit to buy the things you want - not do without. By waiting a bit, you get to pay them up front. If you end up with tens of thousands of dollars in credit card and consumer debt, the interest spent means there's less available for "the goodies."

      Besides, its harder to enjoy life if you have to worry about juggling payments. The best vacation most people could give themselves is a permanent vacation from credit card debt and consumer term debt.

      Sure, taking on debt to buy a

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It has about 90 The mess starts here: hit this link, then see the parent link that really started it all http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=257055&cid=20 0 24659 [slashdot.org] - Stevie's fault (http://slashdot.org/~homelessinlajolla [slashdot.org], http://slashdot.org/~hairpinblue [slashdot.org], http://slashdot.org/~omaze [slashdot.org] his favourite AC has exposed Stevie as a two-faced lying hairball who doesn't know what he's talking about and likes to scam people, stalk their posts, etc., but we've hit some sort of bug in slashcode when it comes to "convers
      • Hmm.. I'm not experiencing that bug, as their entire conversation is unfortunately readily available to me. I confess that I'm currently reading this on an XP box (hey, but at least I'm using Firefox).

        • Interesting ... and strange. Thanks for the feedback. I'm running ff/linux. However, I checked with opera/lunux as well, and in nexted mode, most of the thread has also gone bye-bye, so its not just a firefox issue. Ditto for konq and seamonkey.

          Putting itinto threaded mode didn't show the hidden comments before in firefox, but it does now. It must be a boundary condition.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Is this just happening to me?
      No, I'm seeing that too.
      • Its a "sploit" that allows you to hide parts of threads by triggering a bug in slashcode. I explain it better here [slashdot.org]. It's probably happened before, but people wouldn't notice it on a front-page story with many comments from a variety of posters - especially since the hidden thread is still visible to the people involved in the feud, since they get notifications with valid links when they get a reply - so who's going to notice that a thread only has, say, 400 posts visible instead of 470?

Long computations which yield zero are probably all for naught.

Working...