=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= FREE DEBT, NO SYMPATHY ---------------------- Written for F.U.C.K (2/10/95) I could not imagine what life would be like without a credit card. I usually only carry around twenty dollars in my wallet and charge just about everything over ten dollars on my credit card. Who wants to waste time walking into a gas station-I just use my credit card in that pay and pump machine. Writing checks take too much time and they always ask for identification plus it is a pain to carry around a checkbook. I only use checks to order stuff through mail and pay bills-why get bogged down in stores writing checks? It surprises me to see so many people using checks when credit cards are accepted almost everywhere. Perhaps the reason a lot of people are using checks is because of their tendency to abuse credit cards. Every once in awhile a statistic comes out about how 75% of credit card owners carry a balance (i.e. only pay the minimum). I am not sure of the exact figure but it is ridiculously high and so is the amount these people owe. "HELLO, HELLO, anyone home in there" is what I keep thinking. These people are spending more than they can afford and paying huge amounts of interest because they can't pay off their balances. Before you start feeling sorry for people like this let me tell you a true story about a friend of mine who I warned early on about credit and debt. Joe and I met freshman year in college-we were roommates. Joe had an Aunt who saw him through college and made sure he had enough money for food, tuition, and etc. I guess Joe felt this was not enough and proceeded to get a job during his first semester to help pay for college as well as have some extra spending money. Joe worked off and on (mostly on) during his five years in college. The sad thing is I don't believe he saved a dime during his whole college working experience. He even bounced a number of checks and he never wanted to ask his Aunt to help bail him out (pride?). At the beginning of semesters Joe had plenty of cash but by the end, without fail, Joe was struggling to get by and often found himself eating just Noodles because of his excessive spending during the first part of the semester. This trend continued and in our final year I knew bad things were about to happen when Joe had his Aunt give him the years rent up front. Sure enough Joe's rent money ran out about three months earlier than expected after he purchased an expensive printer. Time and time again I tried to convince Joe not to make such irrational and impulsive purchases. I only succeeded in delaying those impulses for a few days-if that. During most of those college years Joe had credit cards and was, of course, always paying on debt. All that working, his Aunts support and never once do I recall Joe ever being debt free. On more than one occasion I told Joe he better take control now or he will be in debt for a long time, even when making thirty thousand plus a year. Don't impulse spend, think it out, and definitely don't spend more than you can afford. All the while Joe did not listen but at least he had everything he wanted-right? I can't remember the full details but I think Joe left college debt free after a final bail out from his Aunt. This depleted his college "expense" account the Aunt held for Joe but at least Joe entered the working world on a good note. Joe held moderate paying jobs (about $6 an hour) until he landed a job in his field a year later. During this year Joe managed to not only survive but to increase his material wealth and once again go face forward into debt. A motorcycle, computer upgrade, and who knows what else landed Joe about $5000 in debt before he got a job in his field paying over $30,000. Things were starting to look better-or were they? Joe stayed at my house during his job relocation and my whole family-especially my mom-talked to him about his finances. Maybe Joe would take someone else's advice for a change? Well, apparently not. He moved into an apartment, got himself a girlfriend (who he later married), and his debt more than doubled all the while. It is now about a year and eight months since Joe has had that high paying job. He is about $12,000 in debt and has a wife who is currently not working. Most of the new debt went into the ring for his wife, the rest of it went into his stomach as Joe has gained 70 pounds since beginning work. Too often I find myself talking to Joe about money issues-like a trip of a lifetime to Las Vegas which would have cost him less than $300 for four nights. Joe declined the trip saying he did not have enough money. Yet, a few weeks later Joe purchased a color scanner for around the same price he could have visited Vegas!?!? Joe is not a stupid person either-he did very well in college without too much effort. He, like many people this day and age, are stupid on the financial side of things. Not to mention he does not like to take good advice. I guess I'm just as thick skulled trying to offer him advice again and again. Maybe I need to use reverse psychology-tell him not to do something when I think it will benefit him. I hope you can learn a little from this story: Don't spend more than you have, don't eat your way into debt, don't impulsive buy expensive items if it will cause discomfort down the road, listen to what people are telling you, and of course think things through. A credit card is just a tool of the corporate masses. Use it correctly and it will serve you well, use it incorrectly and you will serve the corporate masses. Debt = Servitude. If you take pay then you must obey and if you must obey they you are essentially a slave. Get out of debt and have a choice. Visit http://www.smart.net/~banneker and check out "Little Free Press" for an interesting concept on how to become free of the system. Charge it, Pallbearer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, etc etc... = = Internet : jericho@netcom.com (Mail is welcome) = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = gote land +27.31.441115 = = Arrested Development +31.77.3547477 = = Chemical Persuasion 203.324.0894 Celestial Woodlands 214.252.6455 = = that stupid place 215.985.0462 Hacker's Haven 303.343.4053 = = E.L.F. (NUP) 314.272.3426 Misery 318.625.4532 = = Dungeon Sys. 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