Debt

Debt can become and is often like being in quick sand. Low debt, up to your ankles, High debt, up to your neck. The National Debt is $1,400,756,000,000 and growing. That come to $40,519 for every man, woman, and child in the USA. Fifty years ago when Eisenhower was elected president, I remember him in his State of the Union address saying that he was going to have a balanced budget. Congress to whom he was speaking, stood up and cheered. He didn't have balanced budget, but took the country further into debt. Bill Clinton was the only president who had a budget surplus for several year. Many presidents have announced that the rate of national debt will not be a large as it was the previous year. Sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't.

If the debt doesn't increase any more, the children of today and tomorrow have $40,519 to pay back during their life time. I don't see how they can do it. We don't have much control over the national debt, but we do have control of our own debt. My plea to all young people is to stay out of debt. Do not spend more than you make. A house is something that you probably need to borrow money to buy. You may have to get a loan to buy a car.

Let's talk about the car. First you need a job. The $64 question is: How do you get a job with out a way to get to work. Some answers, but not very popular are: You get a bike, you ride the bus, or you pay a fellow worker to ride with him. After working, you finally, you get a paycheck. Now you can buy a low cost used car. Suppose you buy a fairly nice car for $2,000 and you plan on paying %200 a month for one year. The extra $400 would pay the interest and insurance. You then have to consider the gasoline, oil and tires. You always pay your tithing first. After you pay your tithing, rent, groceries, and clothing, is there enough money left in your monthly paycheck? It will take you one month to determine if you can afford that car. Save your $200 payment, gas money, and other car expense for one month. If you can can save that much, then you can afford the car. If you can't save that much, how are you going to be able to pay for the car. Save for two months, you will only have to borrow $1,600. You could save for ten months and end up buying the car without borrowing and money or buy a better car.

The same with a house. Don't buy more house than you need and can afford. Start saving your house payments for several months. The larger amount of money that you can save, the quicker you can pay off the house and be out of debt. You may have to live on grass and sparrows in order to save. Most young married couples are not able to get a house for quite awhile.

Again, stay out of debt. Pay cash instead of using credit cards. The money that you don't have pay for interest is money that will improve your standard of living.