Charging ahead

I was never what you’d call good with money. I am 25 years old, two years removed from college, and I owe more to credit-card and student-loan companies than I will even make in the next three years.

It was a sunny day when I walked by the college green and the guy yelled, “Free T-shirt when you sign up here!” Of course, I stopped to check it out. The T-shirt was a gift for filling out a credit-card application, one of many such applications to come my way.

After leaving for college, I tried to shelter my parents from what I really needed: their financial help. In desperation to keep my father worry-free about money, I started a credit-card collection. I was destined to say yes to 0 percent interest for one year and 9.9 percent after that. You name it, I charged it. I felt financially independent, when in fact I was becoming a slave to credit-card companies. I was establishing a cycle in which I’d live in for the next five years.

Now, I owe $28,000 in student loans, $20,000 to seven credit-card companies and $11,000 for my car. It took being overdue and overdrawn on all of my accounts to realize I might have had to file bankruptcy at age 24. All because it seemed more important to be on my own than to burden my father with my money needs.

If you learn anything from my mistakes, it’s to keep your parents in your financial loop. I could have learned from my father or talked about finances. Instead, I felt I knew what I was capable of, and that he was better off without needing to worry about me. I don’t ever regret going to college, no matter what the cost.

But here are five things I did that you should never do:

1. Never let your friends and significant others borrow your credit cards. They may give you cash for what they bought, but you never get around to putting that cash towards paying off the balance. You’ll end up spending it. (And that’s if you can get them to pay you back at all!)

2. Never pay for everyone’s meal on your card and collect their cash.

3. Never use your credit cards for small purchases on a regular basis. Try to use cash instead.

4. Never run your balance to its limit. Your payments make little dent in your debt, and you’ll never have credit available for true emergencies, like when your car breaks down.

5. Never get more than one or two credit cards. Only keep cards with low credit limits. A $500 limit gives you the freedom to purchase what you’d like without paying for it for the rest of your life.

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