A Modern Allegory of Hansel and Gretel

Getting Out On Your Own

Sometimes when we get out on our own we find that things are harder than we thought they were going to be.  The freedom to do what we want doesn't measure up to our expectations.  But for some, the promise of getting what you want whenever you want is too enticing to pass up -- so we go into debt [usually by credit cards].

So we get a little here... and get a little there... and we don't really pay attention to the looming financial burdens that we are facing for our future.  

Eventually the credit card industry has us so indebted to them that there is no escape.  We get so deep into debt that we find it difficult to make a payment.  We end up missing a payment and suddenly our 2% APR credit card becomes 18% APR. 

Because our monthly payments are even higher now, we miss another payment.  This sends our APR rate through the roof to 30 or 40% because we are now a "credit risk."  We find ourselves scrimping and saving just to make the monthly payments on all of our different debt balances.

Luckily we finally figured out that debt was a bad thing and realized that the credit card companies are NOT trying to help us.  We started paying off our debts (using steps like Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball) and ended up being debt free.


And we lived happily ever after.