How I Got Into Debt
The Five Cent Nickel has written a post asking people to share their debt reduction story. After you read my article, go check it out at - Debt Reduction: Share Your Story. Before writing my debt reduction story, FCN's story inspired me first to write my debt accumulation story. After all, any good debt reduction story needs to be preceded by the horror story of how you got into debt in the first place.
When I read a lot of peoples' get out of debt story they are pretty linear tale. Person goes into debt, struggles with their debt, and then becomes obsessive about paying it off. Of course, this story is pretty rare too, because most people never get to paying it off.
My story is a little different. I have been on the debt roller coaster - gone into debt, paid it off, gone into debt, paid it off.... So I don't think that I can just tell the story of paying off my debt, I need to again describe how I got into debt, and then began paying it off. I will write my debt reduction story in part 2 to this post.
Student Loan Debt
As I wrote in my article on my student loan debt, this is when my debtor life began. A year before I graduated from high school my father passed away. My father was the sole wage earner in my family so it was a difficult few years to get back on our feet. This time coincided with me going to college, so I had to pay my own way through school, both undergrad and law school. So, by the time I was 18, I was well on my way to getting over my head in debt.
At the time, I did not think twice about taking out these student loans. I just assumed that everyone took at loans to pay for college. And, just thought that my salary would be so much higher for having gone to college and law school.
I often wonder if my father did not pass away whether he would have provided better advice.
Credit Card Debt
During undergrad and law school, I had a tendency to put emergencies onto my shiny new credit card that Citibank was nice enough to give me 
The emergencies typically involved car repairs, Christmas gifts for the family, books, and way too many pizzas. By the time I graduated law school, my wife and I had racked up $20,000 in credit card debt.
Again, during law school, our attitude was that we could afford to run up credit card debt because as soon as I got my first law firm job, we would be able to EASILY pay them off.
Car Loans
Since I was 23, I have always had a car loan. Up until that time, I was fortunate to drive cars that my parents gave me. But, like my parents, I never thought about buying a car with cash. So, since age 23 I have always bought cars with credit.
To this day, my wife and I both lease cars. I have to laugh because I leased my car one month before reading Dave Ramsey's Total Money Make Over. Once my lease ends, I will be paying cash for my next car.
Home Mortgage Loan
After the birth of our second child, we finally decided to purchase our first home. After all, EVERYONE had been telling my wife and I that we were making the worst financial mistake of our lives by renting an apartment. Well, lucky for us, we bit the bullet right when the housing market topped out. Now we enter into the housing market with a $300,000 home mortgage loan.
Store Credit
The last type of credit that my wife and I have used is store credit. We loved those zero percent financing deals offered by Best Buy and furniture stores. I mean how can you turn down being allowed to buy a $3000 Sony HDTV with no money down!!
Now some of this debt is paid off. In fact, everything except for the home loan mortgage and student loan debt is paid off. But, not until about a year ago did my wife and I change our attitude about debt. Since that conversion a year ago, debt looks much different now.
I would love for you to share your debt accumulation story in the comments below. Also, feel free to ask any questions.
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