Keeping your credit in check
Reliance on credit cards tends to grow “in tough economic times like these,” says Andrea Coombes in MarketWatch, but really “it’s in times like these that we should take more care than ever” to avoid incurring too much debt. This isn’t easy. First, we like to splurge—in a recent survey, 42 percent said they’d splurged on themselves in the past month, many “because I deserve it” and more still because “it just feels good.” But try to separate wants from needs. Then, treat your credit card like a checkbook, mentally or on paper subtracting each charge from your checking account (not your savings). Shop with a list, and stick to it. And “don’t say to yourself, ’I’ll charge it now and pay it off next month.’ Just don’t.”
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