Maybe it’s because I’m not getting any younger or maybe it’s because of the crowd I’ve been running with or maybe it’s just the time we’re living in, but I’m hearing an awful lot of anxiety about all the debt we’re in.
Credit card debt especially.
You’re maxed out and they’re raising your APR something crazy.
And I know credit cards. I’ve got some of them. And I know anxiety. I’ve got some of that, too. But how many nights sleep are we going to lose over it?
We don’t need good credit. We don’t need credit cards. We didn’t used to have those things and we can live without them again.
My friend K says, “c’mon, what if your car breaks down and you need to fix it, well, you’ll need a credit card then.”
What I’ll need is a bicycle and a bus schedule.
Good credit is nice. You should keep it if you can. But plenty of people live perfectly normal lives with really bad credit.
There are no debtor’s prisons.
The worst-case scenarios:
They tell you to cut up your credit cards. They take away your car in the night. Maybe they even take your house. (That last one really sucks, I know).
But then you figure out how to get an apartment. And you get that bicycle and you get that bus pass. And you tell the collection agents to stop calling you. And you send them a letter and you “cc” the attorney general and you insist that they stop calling you. And it’s OK. You have your body. You have your creative mind. You have the moon and the stars and you have every right to be here. And you have every right to a good night’s sleep.
And repeat after me: There are no debtor’s prisons.
