Debt

I’ve been struggling with debt for quite a while but I’ve made significant headway in the past few months. I took a look at my spending trends and found that within the last few years I’ve “supplemented” my income to quite a large extent with credit. I won’t provide you with a dollar figure but it’s shockingly high – I really didn’t know how bad it was until I looked at the math. I had a little help with a website called Mint.

The website uses your login credentials and checks account status. The website is highly secure and has won a number of awards – the service is free – provided that they have “offers” to help you out. The offers are provided by other lenders who hope to get you to transfer your debt or savings into their care. They are unobtrusive and don’t bother me at all.

A variety of charts are available to help you budget your money and see exactly where it goes. For some, it’s a little easier to see it in a graphical format instead of raw figures. It won’t calculate everything but it is a start. You SHOULD NOT use it as a way to track your spending – continue to track your balances through your accounts.

I am not the only person that is supplementing their income with credit – it appears that America as a whole has done the same thing. We are no longer saving our income for larger purchases, we are relying on our credit to borrow as much as we can. There is an interesting article at the Huffington Post complete with statistics and graphs that explains it in further detail.