Living without the plastic cushion
Wed Jul 1, 2009 | | Posted in Credit Cards
There is an article at MSNBC.com titled “Living without the plastic cushion” by Eve Tahmincioglu updated 6:45 p.m. ET, Wed., June 17, 2009.
Eve tells a story about Lisa Brough who, the article says, was forced into a debt-free life by medical disaster. Her husband has Huntington’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder, and has been unable to work since 1999. The couple, who have three children, saw their finances suffer as a result. They ended up with $50,000 worth of credit card debt as Brough worked two jobs and still struggled to pay the bills and the high property taxes on their home in Westchester County, N.Y.
In 2005, she took drastic measures. She decided to sell her $350,000 home, pay off all the family’s debt, and move to lower-cost Cary, N.C., where she was able to buy a house for $164,000 in cash.
Since then it’s been cash and debit cards only for Brough, 50, who has no debt of any kind.
How does she do it? She buys secondhand furniture and electronics, gets her husband’s medicines from Canada at cut rates, has a $10,000 emergency fund and thinks long and hard before she opens up her wallet.
Moral of the story
Lisa Brough experienced hardships that most consumers don’t in their lifetime. Still, Lisa was able to start living within her means and be debt free for the rest of her life. Let that be a lesson to us all.
You don’t have to go through all the things that Lisa went through. You can change your lifestyle – especially your mindset about your personal finances – and live a debt free life where there are no financial worries.
Read the full article Living without the plastic cushion.
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Information contained herein is general in nature, and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Talk to your financial adviser.
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