Saturday, February 11, 2012

debt, and appreciation

have you ever seen the episode of how i met your mother in which lily reveals that she has thousands of dollars in credit card debt?  i saw it recently and it really got me thinking, about the things i'm really grateful for that aren't as obvious as 'he always knows what to say when i'm sad' and 'he always does the dishes.'

i grew up without a lot of money, but because my mom's credit was so bad, she never used credit cards (funny story: she used to make up random social security numbers to put on apartment applications and hope they just came up unassigned).  i got my first credit card when i turned 18, and i've used credit responsibly ever since (i'm 25 now).  i'm not exactly sure where i learned money management - certainly not at home.  i remember reading articles about how to save and what was good/bad for credit.  who knows why such things intensely interested me back then, but i'm certainly thankful now.

but, not everyone stayed up late reading personal finance blogs when they were teenagers (i swear i did fun stuff too).  i know SO many people that have struggled with debt already.  so i know how fortunate i am that my fiance is also debt-free.

we already combined our finances (after all, we split nearly all expenses anyway).  i remember right when we were doing so, he owed me about $60 for...something or other.  that was my only objection to combining.  'but...that $60...?'  ha.  now i don't think of cash as mine or his.  it's really helped me cut down on spending, since i think 'do WE really need this?' instead of 'do I really need this?'

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