Is this just an excuse to shoe-horn in a photo of Lin-Manuel? Maybe. Change my mind.
First, some advice to all those Department of Education types out there: try shoe-horning in some high school classes about personal goddamn finance. Yeah. Because it shouldn't take someone 36 frakking years to finally have a light bulb moment about how their credit card works. Forgive me if the following is really obvious to you, but I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one who didn't get it. I'm just infinitely grateful that I have a stable income and could afford the errant credit card interest charge without going hungry.
No, I don't have the bank coming after me for late payments on a maxed-out $25,000 account or anything. I just did some back-of-the-envelope calculations the other day and decided that I'll try my damndest not to even leave a small charge on there for more than a month at a stretch because DAMN do you pay for it in the end.
I feel I really should have made the connection earlier. My parents introduced me to the privilege of having an investment account several years ago, way before I was paying a mortgage or monthly bills for much of anything outside of student loans and car insurance. When you have money automatically dumped into your portfolio with every paycheck, compound interest is your FRIEND. I know this. We all should know this. It's why you do investments. The interest percentage might remain the same, but the more cash is in the bucket, the harder that percent will work for you... as long as the Orange Moron doesn't completely fuck the economy. (Which is kind of what's happening right now and why my Roth lost money last year. Bastard.)
You also learn how to live on less money than you actually have. It's a wonderful lesson as long as you don't gaze at your paystub too hard, fantasizing about all the Marie-Kondo-inspired Amazon shit you'd buy with that extra $240 a month. *sigh*
But on the card, compound interest is an evil demon that not only makes you pay for the ability to charge things, but adds your interest payment to your total, making you then pay interest for the original charge PLUS the interest charge's interest. It's banking alchemy and it BLOWS. It's also how banks make money. Fortunately for them, way too many Americans were never taught how this sinfulness works and they charge crapola all the time. Unfortunately for the consumers we constantly live outside our means and we will probably be buried in the cardboard box from our 70" curved smart TVs when we finally kick it due to heart disease.
So, just a heads up. Don't run up charges for extra levels in Angry Birds, microblading, or sky-diving classes. Pay your credit card bill in full. Vote for people who will reform education. BUDGET.
Then buy plane tickets to get out of the country with all the money you saved. Get some stamps in that passport. Fucking go.
