Another lesson I learned was that if you pay your bill on time (even if not in full), they will increase your limit.  The next step was $1,000.  Then, it was $2,000.  After maxing that out, they finally got smart and stopped raising my limit.  But, this is and another bank sent me a credit card.  I had finally arrived, hadn’t I? 

To make a long story short, I graduated college with $8,000 in credit card debt and $12,000 in student loans.  I owed $20,000 for an education that cost me about $14,000 total.  How did that happen?  I bought things I didn’t need, to impress people I didn’t know, with money I didn’t have.  In the end, it took me four years to pay that debt off.  Being a recent college grad, and having such a large debt to pay off had a great impact on my financial freedom since I had to focus all my surplus income to paying off the debt.  Proverbs 22:7 says “Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.”  Speaking from experience, truer words were never spoken.  Ultimately, that Kit Kat bar cost me about $8,000 in credit card expenses and interest.

If you are reading this and thinking that you too have sold your financial freedom for a Kit Kat bar, I want to encourage you that it is not too late.  When we look at our physical bodies and find we’ve eaten too many chocolate bars we go on a diet.  Decide today that you’re going to go on a financial diet.  When we diet we consume fewer calories than we expend.  The same is true with a financial diet; you have to spend fewer dollars than you earn.  You also have to exercise, and in this case, you may need to exercise restraint from impulse purchases.  The good news is, you can get out of debt, but it takes hard work and the long term decision to change your financial lifestyle.  Start today.