• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Clever Dude Personal Finance & Money

Family, Marriage, Finances & Life

  • Toolkit
  • Contact
  • Lunch
  • Ways to Save Money
  • About the Clever Dude

Finances & Money

Avoid the freshman 1,500…Wait, what?

September 6, 2007
By Clever Dude
- Leave a Comment

David at Money Under 30 has a good post about a surprising number: The Freshman $1,500. He writes about the pitfalls of getting a credit card before you can manage the responsibility of your spending, and the effects of your spending.

I actually waited to get a credit card until I was 20 years old and moved to the main Penn State campus (I went to a satellite campus). My $12,000-15,000 in credit card debt when I left college was in 3 years, not 5! (I changed majors and went an extra year). What in the world did I buy? I know I bought textbooks, a new computer, a few upgrades to that computer, another new computer, a few guitars, and other various items, but I don’t have any of that stuff anymore except for 2 guitars.

However, with all that credit card debt, which started about 9 years ago, I probably only paid about $1,000-$2,000 in interest and balance transfer fees. Why? Because I always had a card with a 0% interest rate.

But now I have 1 month of credit card debt left to pay off of the original $20,000. The total debt ballooned when I bought new furniture after college, and other stuff. It will be liberating. Maybe I’ll go buy a new plasma TV on credit to celebrate! 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kyle says

    September 6, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    Good post – It is amazing how easy it is to rack up the credit card debt. It is so easy to just slide the plastic and worry about it later. I ended up only paying with cash when I wanted to get out of debt. Made a huge difference psychologically.

    Reply
  2. Tim says

    September 6, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    yeah, i’d get a plasma tv with money i got from a payday loan company.

    Reply
  3. Kimberly says

    September 7, 2007 at 2:22 am

    My husband and I finally paid off all of our debt, about 30,000 worth.. which included student loans and a load of crap neither of us have anymore at the beginning of the year… It WAS liberating for sure!!! No monthly payments except normal bills is a very odd but fantastic feeling!

    Reply
  4. David says

    September 11, 2007 at 9:45 am

    Thanks for the nod to my post!

    It sounds like you and I went into similar amounts of CC debt around the same time…you were lucky to have those 0% cards though. The reason I paid so much in interest is because right around my senior year of college my cards got maxed out at and stayed that way through a few years of low-paying jobs. As long as they were maxed out, I couldn’t get lower rate cards and was paying 15-18% interest on about $18k of debt.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Are you feeling the call to be a Clever Dude? Then, let's get down to brass tacks and explore what it takes to be one. Get ready for an in-depth look into the anatomy of someone who exudes cleverness!

There's nothing like hearing you're clever; it always hits the spot!

Best of Clever Dude

  • Our Journey to Debt Freedom
  • Ways to Save Money Series
  • Examine Your Motives Series
  • Frugal Lunch by Clever Dudette
  • An Illustrated Frugal Lunch
  • I'm Tired of Buying and Spending
  • 50 Tips for New PF Bloggers
  • Other Personal Finance Blogs

Build your SEO education and get a Web Development Certification at WTI today!

Check an easy essay service and find a professional online assistant to write your academic papers

United States Blogs Directory

Footer

Links From Our Partners

Free Coupon Codes: where you find the best discounts.

Compare business electricity prices with Utility Saving Expert

Copyright © 2006 - 2021 District Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
Disclaimer: The Ads expressed herein are exclusively those of the Advertiser. They do not necessarily reflect our personal or professional beliefs.