I received my first credit card when I was 16!! I can remember walking back from the mailbox sooo excited! It was from a store that is now Macy’s. It had a $100.00 credit limit on it. I immediately went to the mall and spent the $100.00. The card had $5.00 minimum payment and about $3.00 of that minimum payment would go to interest.
Looking back now, WOW! That was the card that started all of my credit card debt. I eventually had not one but 2 Target cards, 2 Lowes cards, Home Depot, Marks & Morgan, JcPenney, Discover, and numerous Visa cards. Racking up thousands of dollars in debt and nothing to show for it really. There are a couple of major purchases I made on those cards, (vacation to Niagara Falls, riding lawnmower, mattress, bath tub) but all in all it was on a bunch of little purchases that added up to thousands. We didn’t “need” that new riding lawnmower we had an almost new push mower but we were being spoiled brats and spent $1200.00 on the riding lawnmower, which I had to creatively finance. I had to put it on 2 separate Lowes (my husband had an acct. & I did too) accounts in order to finance it. It wouldn’t all fit on one card!! You know what, I mowed the backyard this past weekend with the push lawnmower because something is wrong with the NEW RIDER!!
If I would have invested that $1200.00 in a decent Growth Stock Mutual Fund averaging 10% annual return, that $1200.00 would have been $600,000.00 at retirement for me.
That is an expensive lawnmower!
We have finally paid off all of our credit cards. It took a long time, a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of hard work. Once we decided that we were not going to go on another vacation until the credit cards were paid off, we paid them off in about 7 months. We finally had realized, “We have had it!” I was tired of sending in payments and most of the payment going to interest. The balances would never come down. It was very frustrating.
I still have a lingering student loan and a HEL loan to pay off. I hope to see those puppies out of here in the next 4-5 months.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I received my first card from JC Penney’s. You are right it is a wonderful feeling, and I got mine about 3 weeks before Christmas so it was maxed out really fast!
Great blog!