Personal Finance and Investing

It took 2 more years of proving my credit worthiness to get a MC w/ $500 limit. Back then they almost served as a parent to keep you from overextending yourself during those critical years in your young adulthood and they knew they were making a decent profit.

Fast forward to graduate school, well after Reagan was in office and when going to the BU bookstore I found they put several credit card offers in my bag of purchases. I asked why they did that (so damn naive) and I got a strange look.

Later at home I looked over the offers and got a sinking feeling. If I had been given this after college I could have gotten myself in a lot of trouble. Seeing this dramatic change in credit being thrown at people I knew this was not going to end well. My rule was if I wanted something ask 3 questions: do I want it? (That’s easy) Do I need it? Can I afford it? One ‘no’ put the kabash on most purchases.

Loosening credit by itself was not the problem. It was how it was done. Everything became more expensive.

Can’t afford that appliance? Don’t wait and save, put it on your card!
Can’t afford college, a car, a house? No worries - take a loan out. They used to say you could afford a house that was up to 3x your income. Now? You’d be lucky to find a tear down home in a lot of areas.

Easy credit has been the worst thing for the average consumer.

Yes I am a CC deadbeat and proud of it!!