Overspending can be very stressful when it comes time to pay your credit card bill. However, it's the added interest that makes overspending just that much more expensive.
Spending your future income
One survey of 21- to 35-year-old college graduates found that this group owes an average of $30,000 in student loans. The several hundred dollars these graduates pay each month to pay off the loan is money that can't be saved or invested for the future. It can't be spent on other necessities, such as emergency car repairs or household expenses either. It's money that's tied up until the debt is repaid.
While debt for education is considered "good" debt because it's an investment in your future, all debt obligates your future income because of the payments that must be made. So make sure you use debt wisely-eliminate "bad" debt (debt for depreciating assets, such as car loans and credit card debt) and limit the "good" debt to reasonable amounts.
Paying the price of debt
Interest payments on debt work against you. New college graduates carry an average credit card balance of $3,000. Let's say you're lucky—or better yet, careful—and you accumulate only $2,200 in credit card debt. Your interest rate is 18% and you pay the minimum amount each month on your card ($40) without any further purchases on your card. How long will it take to pay off your balance? Did you guess five years? Try 10. It will take almost 10 years to pay off the debt. Your total cost will be $4,680 (original balance of $2,200 plus $2,480 in interest).
Getting into debt is easy
It's easy to run up a credit card. How many times have you gone to dinner, put the whole bill on your credit card, collected money from friends for their portion of the bill, and then found that money gone by the time the bill arrives in the mail? How easy is it to buy another sweater on sale, not so much because you need it but because it was a good bargain? Pretty soon you've built up a large balance on your credit card. You could easily charge $2,200 on your credit card in two months, but it will take 10 years to pay it off if you only pay the minimum balance each month. Two months versus 10 years. Now that's downright scary!