It’s not irresponsibility. Some would call it that, but everytime you get somewhere on your debt…..something occurs and the temptations….always there.

I know I can get rid of the debt, I just don’t know exactly where to start chiseling out that little niche to get started…..and have the motivation and determination to make it happen.

My goal is to be rid of all of it in 3.5 to 4 years. It’s not impossible. I have to become dedicated and I can make it happen. It’s just so scary.

The main problem for most people in regards to building up credit card debt is that they act too much on “want” and too little on “need”. The best way to stop spending beyond your means is to re-focus the things in life that gratify you away from material possessions. It’s hard but consumerism isn’t a road to happiness, it’s the path to misery.

I too figured that I would be making “great” money so why worry but there is every reason to worry when you have a child to think of and his future. Not being able to show him the world because I had made foolish mistakes with money in the past.

It’s also about practicing what you preach. How can I tell my son(when he’s a few years older that is) to live below his means and avoid debt if I’m in debt myself? I wont be that hypocrite!

Guess what? I didn’t die young (thank God) and didn’t have anything to show for my daring lifestyle. My father lived till he was 91. So I have a 50% chance that I will too.

I didn’t come to my senses till I was 50 years old! Thankfully my father left me some money to get me back on track. Now, six years later I am back where I would have been had my mother not died so unexpectedly.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. We all make incorrect choices in life. Live and learn. That’s all we can do.

I guess the biggest thing for me was to tell my folks just how much the stress of having debt was getting to me. Out of the $20K in loans I had, my parents only paid about $4K of it. Most of it was definitely me, but being able to talk to them about my finances and theirs has been good for everybody.

Don’t ask me about credit card debt. I’m still working on it!

Better late than never though – I could have a lot of sleepless nights worrying about this otherwise!

I’m glad I took some responsibility in college and at least kept the debt levels reasonable enough to handle the payments with my student job. Friends of mine who went on spring break every year never had the money to go but plenty of credit to do it for them. I spent my last semester setting up job interviews, going to job fairs, and finding an apartment instead of partying with my friends. At least the majority of my credit card debt is related to school expenses and very little to actual crap. If my parents would have helped me with school expenses I might not be in as much debt. I’m not going to blame them for my debt I just think it’s sad they never considered college for my future. I want to get back to the days before college where I didn’t have to make payments to anyone. With some determination and focus, I hope to accomplish this in my 20s.

I’ve been wondering about the same thing. My credit card debt was accumulated through years of overspending, along with a personal loan. I’ve now paid off the credit card debt and am looking to pay off the loan, but have been wondering why it took me so long to decide to live within my means, pay off debt and start saving. I think in my case, it was like dieting, I’d do it for a while to the extreme, splurge badly and go backwards before giving up. I changed my attitude so that I now I can accept my failures and detours and yet still keep going. I set goals that were specific and had a plan to achieve them.