Since switching teams on the whole Credit Cards are Evil debate I have had a major increase in intensity as I deal with not getting myself and family into worse debt.  I’m keeping track of spending on it, which was what I was not doing before that made things worse.  Spending more than you’re paying will just rack up the debt like nobody’s business.  The motivation to have self control, the motivation to maximize the rewards to help maximize the payoff is intensified.

Without clarity of vision, a focused attention on the goal, using the credit cards could be financial suicide.  Or, at least a severe case of bankruptcy, something I’ve got zero interest in doing.  Our vision is someting we keep constantly beholding, constantly cutting out distractions, and constantly evaluating our mental state.  Without the focus, our goal could be like a car accident waiting to happen on this road.

The credit card companies want you to feel like you’re on the journey of life to live out experiences that are outside of your reach, all the while keeping your payments from actually letting you have quality experiences within the frame of your budget.  The experiences in life that you have must be evaluated in the context of its richness and not in the luxury.  The Mastercard ‘priceless’ commercials emphasize this well, they want you to pay each little bit on your Mastercard to have that priceless moment, that comes with a cost that is often outside of what would be a smart financial choice - unless you paid cash and it fit within the context of you reaching your goal.

The Discover card commercials are much more subtle.  Their focus is on the idea of rewards to the max.  Imagine a life with rewards at every turn - except that if you carry a balance on the card, you’re going to pay those rewards back[just as we have] over and over.  The rewards are only rewards if you keep a zero balance.  A zero balance must be part of the goal and vision of your daily lifestyle.

There’s nothing quite as exciting as the unknown.  There’s nothing quite as exciting as the adventure of facing life’s trials and coming out victorious - but don’t quit staring at the goal, anything that comes between you and that goal is a completely wasteful distraction.  Capture those distractions, put them aside, and keep going.  The goal is so close, don’t lose sight!

• No related posts.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 7:57 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.