On how one pays down debts...

Perhaps I've always been rather adverse to short-term debts like credit cards, that I don't have much experience at all of carrying balance on credit cards from month on month. I must confess too, that I can't quite comprehend the thinking behind those who would willingly to do, even with full knowledge of how much they are going to pay interests on credit cards, given the exorbitant interest rate on card balance. With all these, I always find it oddly interesting reading articles on how people pile up debts that seem to be beyond their power to pay back, then complain about how they get buried by the debts.

It's true that everyone's situation is different. For those who have lost their jobs and who have exhausted all other income source, credit cards could become the only way to pay for even just food, let alone anything else. But for those who have the ways and means, and supposedly the intelligence to gauge the appropriateness of whether they should put purchases on their cards, they should know better. I have no sympathy to those in the latter category.

Such is the case in the no-sympathy-from-me category, for the woman who racks up debts of $46,000 with her now-divorced husband on things like golf trip, all while they have comfortable jobs and feel that they have deserved it. Sure, we all work hard and we deserve a pat on the shoulder (even by ourselves) for working so damn hard. But going on a $10,000 trip to golf resort on credit card, without a worry in the world of how one would pay for it when the monthly card statement comes, is total reckless. And then, for this woman's attempt to pay down all those debts in four long years, we are supposed to congratulate her? I'm sorry, but I can't do that. If she can do that (racking up big, unnecessary debts) once in such reckless way, she can do it again. Being debt-free for six months is nothing to boost about. For all we know, she could very well do that again, since she has worked so hard to pay down those debts, right? She could easily go on another spending spree, because, guess what, she deserves it!

One thing is for sure: This woman says she works for an "international consulting company." I, for one, would not hire such consultants under any circumstance, given how reckless she has been and how she can't even get her own house in order. What kind of confidence does that exult, on any advice that she's going to provide for her clients?

My husband has always said, I'm a liberal conservative. It's an oxy-moron, in Washington's parlour, but is one that makes total sense to me. While I might be liberal in quite some social issues (but not to the extent of gay marriage), I'm much more fiscally conservative that most of those self-proclaimed fiscal hawks in GOP or Tea Party (if we can indeed find one in these parties). The trend these days, of celebrating those like the woman mentioned above, is totally beyond me. In the more civil, prudent days (perhaps before the advent of the web), one would quietly toll away to get oneself back on one's feet. With the web, everyone wants their 15-minute worth of fame, even if it means showing the world one's own dirty laundry. It's a complete turn-off to me that would never fly.