My first lesson in managing credit was at the expense of my younger brother because we were close in age and we shared a lot of our lives. He got married at a young age and in the interest of giving his family the best of everything, he ran up his credit cards to the maximum and had trouble making the payments. Once you fall behind, the extra penalties and high interest rates can make it almost impossible to pay them off.My dad was still alive back then and he stepped forward to help out my brother with a personal loan. My dad made him give up all the credit cards and live on a budget. He had to pay back my dad out of his paycheck every week for almost three years. It was a tough lesson for my brother but he was lucky to have my dad here to help him.
Since my dad passed away several years ago, I’ve always felt that if I was to get into financial trouble there would not be anyone in my family today that could step up and help me out. Most of my brothers and sisters lived a careful and modest lifestyle, and although they are successful in their own ways, none of us has the deep pockets that my parents had when we were children. So I have been extra careful with my credit cards to keep the credit card payments up and not ever get behind.
The good part of that is that if there was to be an emergency in my family and I needed money, my credit history is very strong and I am sure that I would qualify for personal loans from traditional resources, like a bank or online finance company. So I take comfort in that.