Journey to Debt - Part I - Student Life

As a child, money was never a topic of discussion in my household. When I was a teenager, my parents split and it was my mom, lil' sis, and me. My mom had a job that paid the bills and, seemingly, allowed for a fashionable and fun lifestyle. In reality she was up to her eyeballs in debt and was choosing to ignore it.

My mom would always say that we were low on money then turn around and blow $500+ in a weekend shopping for lil' sis and me. And this was a pretty regular occurrence. As I got older I started to understand a LITTLE bit more.

I started my first job at 16 and made roughly $100 per week. Since I had never really handled more than about $20 at a time, I was THRILLED. This meant I could go shopping and buy what I wanted when I wanted! So I did. At the time I didn't know much about high fashion and designers so the $100/week pretty much allowed me enough freedom to buy just about anything I wanted.

As I got close to college I learned a little bit more. I learned that I should never get into credit card debt, but having a credit card is important to "build credit" (didn't quite know what that meant yet). So, I went off to college with my credit card in hand. I barely used it, and when I, did I paid it almost in full each time, keeping just a small balance to "build credit". I worked a couple small jobs on campus, had a pretty decent financial aide package (including loans), and received financial support from my mom.

In my first year of college I accumulated close to $10,000 in student loan debt (that school actually cost $30,000/year, so I made out ok). I knew that wasn't good so I transfered schools. I ended up at a respected state university, a bit farther from home, with my tuition completely covered and a federal loan for other living costs. My mom bought me a used car, paid in full (by her home equity line of credit, ugh), and sent me on my way.

I used my biannual loan disbursments to buy books and go shopping. Sometimes the money went to my pay off my credit card, sometimes it went to rent and bills, but I never saved. I believed that as long as I kept my credit card balance under contol, I was golden. And with the financial support from my mom, I didn't really think twice. I knew she was in credit card debt and was proud of me for keeping my balance under control. That had to mean I was on the right track.