Millions of Americans, Sick of Drowning in Consumer Credit Card Debt, Decide on an All-Cash Lifestyle

Sometimes, you just have to rip it off - cut it up - quit cold turkey. No, we're not talking about drugs or Band-Aids. To many people, the fact that they have a card with a $50,000 spending limit is an eternal source of comfort. And it's a source of comfort that they seek solace of often. It's always there - a backup plan for life, no matter what one needs. The reason Americans run up staggering amounts of consumer credit card debt is pretty simple - spending money, you never realize how hard it is to actually make money. And yet, it can be surprisingly easy to run over a $50,000 spending limit in two years or less. The most heartbreaking part of living your life running up a credit card balances is that, you have no idea where all the money goes. You're just left there holding a bill that reads "Page 1 of 40".

While it does sound unfortunate that there should be all these people whose lives were destroyed by consumer credit card debt, the story does have a happy (ongoing) ending. Over the last year alone, fully 10 million Americans have completely bailed on credit cards. It might have been a tough lesson learning; but if it's taught this many families that they need to take back control over their lives, it might have well been worth it.

People who give up credit cards find that there's a funny way in which living their lives within their means affects them. If there's a big purchase that they have to plan for, they put money by for it over a period of time. And when they finally have what they need, they decide against it. When they have a large sum of money that completely belongs to them and they know that they have to give it up to buy something, it just doesn't seem worth it anymore. If there are 10 million Americans giving up on credit cards every year agonizing over every purchase decision before parting with a dollar, it's no wonder that America's recovery has been long and slow.

Sometimes, people just don't understand how they could work up tens of thousands of dollars' worth of consumer credit card debt when they've been careful to never spend on anything that could be called extravagant - no home makeovers, expensive shoes, or travel plans. For lots of people, just trying to keep up a middle-class lifestyle can make them lean on their credit cards hard enough that things could get out of hand. Once they manage their debt, give up their credit cards and take up an all-cash lifestyle, life can seem a little weird.

You always have to plan for exactly what you'll be doing through the day; you have to calculate ahead of time how much you'll be spending on groceries or lunch or travel. If something turns up in the middle of the day, you won't do it if you don't have the cash. As restricting and as painful as this seems to many people at first, it can be a truly liberating experience. It can be liberating knowing that you just won't spend what you didn't plan for at the start of the day. And that in a nutshell is what it takes to escape a life of debt. You need to know exactly what you will spend and never spend a cent over it.