30 Days of Truth, Day Sixteen: Things I Could Easily Live Without

As I said on my previous post, I generally try to get by with as little as possible.  I come from a family of pack rats, so I've seen first hand what can happen when a good purge of your possessions isn't done once a year (at least).  Pretty soon all your belonging start owning you.  So instead of focusing on all the little things I tend to just not use I'm going to write about three big things: student loans, credit cards, and my car.

My student loans are a huge burden on me both financially and emotionally.  I won't get into how much I owe, but its more than the average student from Iowa.  When I was in undergrad, loans for school were very, very easy to get and financial aide officers and school officials would more or less say, "the interest is so low and you have 30 years to pay it back, so just take out whatever you need" so I did.  I now know I didn't need as much as I took, but its too late.  The fact that I owe so much is one of the main reasons I am so hesitant about graduate school...I know what I want to study and where, but the idea of taking out more loans makes me physically ill.

"Debt, n.  An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave driver."

~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

I currently only have one credit card but I don't ever carry a balance.  I've had large credit card balances before, but as with the student loans, I regretted the debt so I got rid of them.  I pay cash for everything and save for big purchases (I like to use smartypig.com).  My new motto is "if I can't afford it now, why would I be able to afford it a month from now?"

The last one is probably something most people in the Midwest would find odd, but I really hate to drive.  It stresses me out and I just don't care for the expense.  One of the things I look most forward to about living in NYC is that I won't need a car!