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There are a lot of people that think that the way we manage our credit cards has a lot to do with the way our parents managed their money. And these people are probably right. Since debt management wasn’t taught in schools, where else were we supposed to learn how to handle our money? Teaching your kids how to manage money is something that you should do. Where else are they going to get the information?

Having worked in the credit card industry, I am amazed at the amount of people that didn’t know that when they used that little piece of plastic that they still had to pay for the item in cash later. I do like the new regulation that requires a person to be 21 before they can have a credit card in their name alone. This will prevent the mass marketing of credit cards to college students.

I have been reading a book where several women have been talking about how money was managed in their families. The one woman belonged to a family that was well off and they were pretty much given anything they wanted. As she went out on her own, she still bought everything she wanted and when her paycheck didn’t cover it, her credit card did. She soon had nearly ,000 in credit card debt and she finally came to the realization that if she ever expected to live out her dreams she was going to have to make some changes in the way she managed her finances.

Another one of these women was from a family that went through a divorce and she was raised by her mother. Her mother returned to school to get a degree and further her career and she did, but living one income and raising a family is still not easy. This woman said she remembers her mother buying her a candy bar and paying for it with a credit card. For a long time the woman said she thought that was how you paid for things…with a plastic card. Her mother did eventually pay off all of her credit cards and the woman after some time realized that if you charged it, you would eventually have to pay for it. She also learned to manage her credit cards.

If you expect to be able to save for retirement and live the life you want, you will have to manage your money wisely. Having credit card debt will only result in stress and high interest payments. Most people probably could not even tell what they bought that added up to so much debt. For many people it accumulates a few dollars at a time.

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