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Pastimes : Ask and You Shall Receive -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gregor who wrote (627)	9/3/1998 7:31:00 PM
From: Kenneth Kirk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14396

I've been consumer-debt free for about 1 1/2 years; just a mortgage left and I've been making extra payments on it. But, I find the credit card companies are not as friendly to me as they were before. I had a First USA Visa for years. Once I got it paid off I just used it for convenience, paying off the balance in full each month. So, they started giving me these short deadlines to pay, then charging me really huge late fees when my payment arrived a few days late (even though it was paid within two weeks of the bill). The late fees were larger than the charges I had that month! Needless to say, I cut it in half.

To: gregor who wrote (627)	9/4/1998 10:59:00 AM
From: Jane Hafker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14396

Gregor, my favorite proverb has alway been, and will always be, "The King needs an army to guard the castle. But the poor man sleeps with his door open." Now to greedy Americans, they would laugh. But look deeper. It says a whole bunch about peace of mind, freedom, etc. Debt for Americans who have a prairie legacy in their DNA is like a debilitating disease. It is in their nature to pay bills on time, period. To owe a bill, even a small one, is a feeling of strange dread. So, debt to have these things we don't need carries the curse of not being able to really enjoy them unless they are paid off in full or you stay stoned, drunk or "medicated" as the growing hordes around us seem to stay. Then, IF you are really Christian, and have too much, you could tend to wonder about the inevitable comparisons will be in heaven with those who gave it all up, and I mean all, everything, period. The Lord being the Role Model. So, being out of debt is a blessing in itself, and fighting the urge to keep accumulating long after we have way, way enough just puts us closer and closer to the center of the path of which brother Bunyan speaks. The sad truth is it is very impossible to keep accumulating without building barns to store all the excess. Seems silly looking at it. This is a sermon for me.