Good news about our spending habits from one of the 3 main credit bureaus.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that new figures from TransUnion show the average American credit card balance only increased by a negligible amount in 2008.
This is the first step to us attacking our debt. Nobody ever got rich paying Visa or MasterCard on a balance to maintain a certain lifestyle.
The only exception to the rule about racking up debt involves entrepreneurs who have to fund a start-up with plastic. For example, they may need to buy equipment to create a return on investment.
That's different than walking into a store with a "gotta have that" mentality. How many "gotta haves" are sitting unused in your closet, basement, attic or storage space?
Clark has 22 to be exact. He recently made a move to donate old slacks to charity and discovered he had 22 pairs of nearly identical khakis hanging in his closet. 22 pairs! Who needs that many? And they were all slight variations on basic beige -- not a single other color in their midst. Ridiculous, as the consumer champ says.
No doubt he saw many of them on sale and just couldn't resist a bargain. Clark is ashamed to admit it, but it's true. We as Americans need to rethink how we spend and consider our needs versus our wants.
