I Have Been In Debt Since I Was 16. [or, Don't Waste Your Time and Money on Dead End Relationships]
I have been in debt since I was 16. My parents did a good job of teaching us kids the value of a dollar, how to budget, and how to balance a checkbook. We were given Debt Sheets for purchases that our parents deemed unnecessary expenses, or at least expenses that they shouldn’t be held responsible for. Examples would be video game systems, expensive school trips, our vehicles, our auto insurance, and our monthly gas usage. I don’t blame them for this, it was in fact an important thing for us to learn. Even the purchase of our first vehicles at 16 seemed fair, there were 3 kids who all turned 16 within 5 years of each other and it would be pretty unrealistic to expect our parents to fund those vehicles without reimbursement. As I neared my 16th birthday, my parents noticed that my best friend's brother was trying to sell his 1992 Ford Escort Wagon because he had gotten a ticket for a loud muffler and didn't want to pay to repair it. On my 16th birth...