Debt is like a cold, ruining future plans

The sniffles and money owed can both turn into a serious infection if left unattended

It’s easy to catch a cold and it’s tiresome when that cold then turns into something more serious, such as a sinus infection or even pneumonia.

But just as a little thing can become a big thing when it comes to our health, so too can small debt infections become full-blown diseases, rotting your resolve and ruining your plans for the future.

It may be no big deal to carry a $200 balance on your credit card when the option is to leave your car in the shop because you don’t have the money to pay for repairs. If you don’t spend another penny until that $200 balance is gone, you’ve applied the right medicine to a short case of the debt-flu.

But if you let that $200 balance spread to $350, $500, $775, you’ll soon find spending viruses and buy-now-pay-later bacteria of all kinds clamouring to gobble up your good intentions.

In no time at all you’ll have a fullblown case of debt misery, and it’ll take nothing short of surgery to get yourself financially healthy again.

It is so easy to let the infection spread. A sneeze here: Oh, look, that pretty dress is on sale. A cough there: I’ve got most of the vacation money socked away, I’ll just put the rest on my card and pay it off when I get back.

The next thing you know you’ve hit your limit and your oh-so-kind credit card company has given you another $1,200 worth of room. Nothing short of an amputation is going to fix the problem.

No, I’m not suggesting you cut off your fingers! But how about cutting up your cards? You don’t have to cancel your accounts, just remove the temptation to spend by elim- inating the plastic until the account is back in the black. Then you can order a replacement card and go back to using your credit cards as a convenience, as opposed to being held hostage to high interest rates and all kinds of stupid fees.

What if you never seem to be able to say no when the consumer bug bites? Then don’t take your cards with you unless you’re shopping with a list for specific items.

Before you head out, write the amount you plan to spend on a piece of paper and wrap it around your card. As you shop, deduct what you’re spending from the amount you wrote. You’ll know exactly how much you have left to spend.

When you get home, don’t wait for the bill. Go online and pay it off.

There are times when credit is useful. There are even times when you can’t see how to get from here to there without racking up some debt. That’s the cold. Let that debt fester, let it continue to grow, and you’ll find yourself dog-sick and in need of some major medical intervention to cure your debt malaise.