Article April 26, 2004 Issue

Debt eliminated by giving GOD the CREDIT

By Bill Spera

By my late twenties, I had racked up about $10,000 in credit-card debt. By my mid-thirties, this number had jumped to $25,000, even though I had paid off the initial $10,000 with a debt consolidation loan.

It all started when I was approved for my first credit card during college. I then applied for a few more credit cards, some gasoline cards, and even retail store cards. I remember having at least 15 pieces of plastic in my wallet. Somehow I thought this multiple-card ownership validated me as a young professional, and made me more savvy. I believed credit cards were a symbol of what it meant to be "grown-up." Now, it's easy to see how wrong that notion was.

Little by little, the debt began to accrue. It didn't seem that substantial on any one card at first, but soon, the bigger the credit line, the larger my debt would become. Treating friends to dinners out, buying compact discs, books, and videotapes ten at a time, spending weekends out of town.

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