"You are evil and must be destroyed..."

As a grown up, I realize that in the course of life, I have learned many valuable lessons. Some of them were taught to me by my mom and dad. Some of them I learned in school and through experience. Many of them I learned from my aunts. Now I am an aunt and my oldest neice recently started kindergarten. I know that they say everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten. I believe that there are some things one cannot learn in a classroom. These are things that can only be learned from living. So for the next 362 days, I plan to to give some tiny words of wisdom to all of the neices and nephews in the world, or really to anyone who will listen. They might not work for everybody, and you might not agree with all of them, but each is a rule that I either try to live by or wish I did.

# 4 Credit cards are EVIL.

First I would like to say.... DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD. However, I am smart enough to remember turning 18 and receiving my first credit card application in the mail. I told my parents that I was an adult and that I could have a credit card, and oh look how much I have been preapproved for. They smiled and said, "ok. Go ahead and fill it out, but be careful." I thought that I was the coolest person in the world. If I was at the mall with my friends and they were all shopping, I would just put 40 or 50 bucks on my credit card, no problem. I'll pay it off every month.

Let me just tell you that the end of every month very quickly turns into paying the minimum payment each month, and that very quickly turns into a minimum payment of more than a hundred dollars every month. Then before you know it, you are getting another credit card with a lower interest rate and using it to try and pay off the other one. Then an emergency comes up and there you are with extreme balances on both cards. Trust me,the price of convenience is certainly not cheaper.

Please, hear me. If you have a credit card, CUT IT UP, and call and cancel your account. If you don't, please listen to me, or your parents when they tell you it is a bad idea and that they are still paying off their first one. At the very least, if you insist on having one, never be late with a payment, because what you don't know is that one late payment can up your interest rate 5-7%. Also, call every six months and ask them to lower your interest rate. Sometime they will and some times they won't, but it certainly never hurts to ask.