Replace Your Credit Cards with a Debit/Check Card

Being in debt really means living beyond one's means.  It's the cause of many of life's struggles and of considerable unhappiness. It often creates stresses that ruins relationships, careers, and one's health.

Having to pay off a debt often results in regrettable decisions - those that try to increase one's means at the expense of one's skills and dreams.  Debt consumes a lot of energy and diverts one's attention from one's life.  There is something about being in debt that casts a pall over one's life and there is something about having no debt that is freeing, calming, and invigorating.

Here are some snippets from a talk that Warren Buffet, one of America's most successful investors and someone who rarely speaks in public, had with some University of Nebraska students

• My advice for you is if you can't afford it, don't buy it.
  
• Begin your careers with modest savings, rather than debts.
  
• Having anything to get ahead of the game instead of behind the game is enormously important.
• The best way to prepare for a financial future is to get the full use out of your talents. They can't tax what's in your head.
• It's better to enter a low-paying profession you enjoy rather than a lucrative field they might not like.
• "The information revolution argues for a terrific future for the world and especially for this country."

Where credit cards charge interest and sometimes have annual fees, debit or check cards have neither and deduct funds directly from one's account.  It's easy to always know where one stands financially.

Dave Ramsey, a well-known financial radio talk show host and author, has materials to help individuals get out of debt.

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