This Week in Personal Finance Blogging: Debt is Easier to Shed Than Keep Off for Good
| January 13, 2012 |
Last fall, I finally paid off my credit card bill in full and kept the debt off for a record two months. It was exhilarating.
After months of financial dieting and careful tracking, I had finally achieved my zero debt goal. Then the holidays hit and my newfound financial discipline went AWOL.
Initially, I started out on the right track. I carefully set up a gift budget for my large and rapidly growing family, made a plan for hand-making at least some of my Christmas gifts and managed to save nearly all of my receipts.
But as the holidays inched closer, my stress levels skyrocketed and so did my spending. I started cutting corners and buying more meals out, stopped tracking my food spending and overspent on last-minute Christmas and birthday gifts.
By New Year’s Eve, I had somehow regained all the debt I shed last fall and I’m certain I’ll gain even more by February. My car needs a brake job, my 5-year-old computer is acting up and I’m still waiting on a bill from the emergency clinic I visited Christmas morning when I stepped on a piece of glass.
Like weight, debt is so much easier to shed than to keep off for good. It feels like I’ve been battling the last five pounds of this credit card debt for years, and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever be able to keep my balance at zero for more than a few months.
Unfortunately, I’m not the only one battling holiday debt regret. The Federal Reserve reported on Monday that credit card balances shot up more than 8 percent in November — the biggest jump since 2008. And overall debt, including student loan debt and auto loans, rose by nearly 10 percent – the largest increase since November 2001.
After years of careful post-recession spending, it looks like many U.S. consumers are finding you can’t put off the big purchases, like cars and computers, forever.
With post-holiday debt in mind, here our my picks for the best personal finance posts from the last week:
1. Financial Highway explains why you need to make painful changes to truly "live a debt-free life."
3. Careful Cents laments being treated like "an ATM machine."
4. Couple Money explores the "financial benefits of being married."
7. Wisebread shows it’s not impossible to live a "nearly cash-only life."
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