MONEY MATTERS
About Debt, and What I Learned Along the Way
The second of a 4-part series about my personal experiences with money
In my first post about money matters, I shared what I learned about money from my parents, and later in my adult life. This second post is about debt. All aspects of it.
I can cut up my life into three different learning areas — the first part being the years I lived with my parents, the second part the adult years until I met my husband, and the last part obviously my life with him.
Debt in the years I lived with my parents
I’m sure my parents had debt, but I knew little about their financial situation, other than money was always tight. You know, I don’t even know whether all those houses we lived in (we moved around a lot) were rentals or whether my parents were house owners.
What I know for sure is their debt never came from bills they didn’t pay. Those always got paid, but there were bank loans, cars bought on down-payment, as well as furniture and other bigger stuff. Strangely enough, there was always money for one annual vacation.
When I came to Europe and lived with my mom (I contributed to the household once I had a job), she confessed she had…
