The Fulcrum and the Lever

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Recommended: reducing the burden of debt

I turn the key and unlock the deadbolt. It’s been a long day’s work. I have been working three jobs for weeks now. I come through the door of my tiny one-bedroom house and stare at the desk, piled high with debris: old junk mail, magazines, and a few bills. I keep thinking maybe on my day off I’ll clean this mess up, balance my check book and pay my bills. “But what’s the use?” I think to myself, “I have $210 left on my credit card, that’ll get me through another week.”
Independence is what I wanted and that’s what I got. I have a car, a house, furniture, stocked cupboards, and plenty of I-can-do-what-I-want free will. I was working a lot, and sure was doling out a lot of dough, yet I felt atrophy kicking in. When I was dying to leave my parents house, I didn’t think that it would be like this. Going and doing whatever I wanted all the time was not something I did. Life cost money and the reality was kicking me in the stomach every time I walked in my front door and looked at my desk. “Where is that Consumers bill? How much money is left in my checking account? Do I even have any in my savings?” These thoughts break-danced in my head often.
In a day where I see more commercials advertising credit cards, debt consolidation, and home mortgage lenders, one might find it hard to believe that debt can actually be a problem. Seeing those poor saps dance in a conga line screaming, “Freedom!” makes it that much harder to notice. With three maxed-out credit cards, and other debt in the thousands of dollars, I was one of those people screaming, “Save me!”
My life could go nowhere while I was struggling to make payments on three credit cards that I hadn’t even used in two years. One of my frustrations stemmed from the fact that all of this money was going to the credit card companies for things that I don’t even remember buying. With my student loan in deferment, I had only to worry about everything else. Working three jobs was not my cup of tea. The “American Dream” was killing me.
A lot of Americans are drowning in debt, with predators just waiting to add to the pile. Dave Ramsey, New York Times best selling author and financial advisor, says:
Debt is dumb. Most normal people are just plain broke because they are in debt up to their eyeballs with no hope of help. If you're in debt then you're a slave, i...

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Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company. 20 May 2005.
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Ramsey, Dave. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2003.
-----. More Than Enough: The Ten Keys to Changing Your Financial Destiny. New York,
NY: Penguin Books. 1999.
“The Debt To the Penny.” Bureau of the Public Debt: United States Department of the
Treasury. 20 May 2005. .
Waggoner, Darren. “Going Broke?: Younger Americans have a serious debt problem.
Not surprisingly, lenders and consumer advocates propose different remedies for the credit crunch.” Collections & Credit Risk. 10.5 (2005): 21. Infotrac:
General Reference Center Gold. Online. 31 May 2005.
Webster, Noah. Noah Webster's First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English
Language. San Francisco, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1995; Reprint edition 1 June 1967.
Yaqub, Reshma Memom. “Swipe at Your Own Risk.” Parents. July 2005. 49-53.

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