(sponsored by DebtHelp.com)
People who I talk to in email are getting really, really tired of my current mantra: I HATE tax season. I hate tax season for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Bigdog is a tax preparer, so I become a single parent with an uncommunicative spouse until April 15th. This inevitably leads to a monster of a fight over nothing, which is what happened this weekend. But beyond the toll on my personal life, I hate tax season because it is the time of year that I have to wrestle with my own financial irresponsibility in some cases and deal with handing a large chunk of money to a government I neither support nor trust right now.
This year has been a real struggle because we had to fill out all of the financial aid info for Sticks’ college applications and start to deal with the question of how we are going to pay for college expenses. It is my goal for Sticks to be able to steer clear of student loans — I have no desire to see him come out of college up to his ears in debt. It drives me crazy to hear stories of kids coming out of college with student loan balances equal to a home mortgage. There has to be a way to get an education without falling so far in debt.
The thing is, I’ve had to file bankruptcy. It was many years ago and stemmed from a home mortgage that had fine print that turned my finances upside down along with my life. It was, without a doubt, one of the most humiliating, heart-wrenching, life-changing events I ever endured. This was in the 80′s, the time of conspicuous consumption and high interest rates. Had I understood the myths about debt better, I wouldn’t have found myself in that situation.
Here’s a key myth, busted by DebtHelp: You need to work with a professional company to get out of debt. Had I understood that to be false, along with its corollary: Your financial situation is hopeless and debt problems will haunt you forever, I would have been much more savvy about how I handled the credit I had and how I took care of it.
I did overcome the bankruptcy and to this day do not have any credit cards. This is not to say that I don’t have credit; I just choose not to have cards because of the outrageous interest rates and my own lack of self-control. I operate much better when I have to have money in my hand before I spend it.
Now it’s tax time and for some, big money is due to the IRS. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by that, please do yourself a favor and read through the tax help information to learn about ways to handle paying the IRS without having to go into debt or bankruptcy to do it.
Take the money stress off your shoulders by learning new ways to handle and manage debt…It’s incredibly freeing.
Technorati Tags: debt, money management, taxes, IRS, student loans, bankruptcy, finances
