Wednesday Factoid: Debt

Today's Wednesday Factoid is: Are you in debt? 

Well that's a personal question, isn't it, survey??

My relationship with debt is weird. The "real" answer is I've never been in debt, at least not considerably, because I've never taken out a loan for anything substantial. I've never bought a car or a house, I didn't have to have student loans (got through school on a scholarship, had living expenses paid for by parents), and I've never had a medical issue that required me to take out a medical loan. Those are really the main things people go into debt for.

When I turned 18 my mom opened a joint credit card with me to help me build credit. It's kinda cheating. I literally have never used the card and it is still active 23 years later. But that card, which my mother did use, is really the reason I had any credit as a young woman. My mom ran a pretty high balance on it but always paid on time.

In 2014 I called my bank about something and ended up agreeing to the pitch for a new credit card (which is like a once-in-a-lifetime thing, actually saying yes to "are you interested in this offer??" but I figured hey, why not). So I've had one just in my name since then. I use that card mostly to buy toys.

Yeah, seriously. Toys and cartoon stuff, and also gifts for others.

I generally run a balance on it month to month and pay most to all of it off once a month, but I'm always charging new stuff to it. Almost entirely recreational stuff.

But!!

Technically, if you ask the actual financial records attached to me, I have debt. One is the balance on the card I'm still carrying with my mom, and the other is associated with a car I cosigned with my friend Jeaux for. In both cases the other party is the one paying and is the one who spent the money.

Since I rent my house and do not have a car, I have no other notable debts. Whee!