When I was your age...

So finally had the talk with my grandparents about the great debt repayment venture. I expected them to be proud of my current efforts. But the response was mixed. It started with "Why on earth did you ever use a credit card in the first place?" and ended with tales of life in the Great Depression. My grandmother's father was a pastor and she was one of three brought up on a preacher's meager salary. She said she couldn't believe that after three years of teacher she brought home more money than her father for 25 years of preaching. There are valuable lessons from the experience of our grandparents. I don't honestly know how anyone who was not working for the government survived the Great Depression.

The question: How did I get into this mess? is pretty easy explain. I needed to get started, I don't have wealthy parents and I don't have a trust fund.

Everything including a functioning car, furniture and all my work suits is because I have a credit card. I have a job because I sold my car back to the bank to live off of it. From my education to my position in my office to my ability to speak Spanish fluently (and therefore make some money tutoring) all comes from debt. Some of it is so called "good debt" like my college loans, some of it is "bad debt" on my credit cards. I will say that there were some dumb buys on my credit cards, but I can't consider all that debt bad. It's helped me get good things not least of which is the job that helps me pay it off.

And I am learning the lesson that my grandparents want me to know. If you don't have it don't spend it. I can see now that there are times in the past where my lifestyle should have looked a little bit more like it does now, low-key and frugal. But at least I am there now.

This sort of thing does not come naturally to America's young people. Very few of us have "the talk" about the power of credit cards and just how long that type of loan with interest takes to pay off. Too many of us figure it out the hard way. At least my debt was under $6, 000 when I finally had the wake up call.

The wisdom I take away from listening to tales from the Great Depression is that in hard times you do hard things. This is a hard time and I am doing the hard things I need to do to put me on more solid financial footing. I have a second and occasional third job. I am putting $200 a month toward debt more consistently than I ever have before. My parents did hard things to make sure I went to college and that I had that care as the one thing of value I owned. Our grandparents did hard things to support their families.

And now it is our turn to do hard things.