Today I was at a workshop for teachers. Although I'm a soon-to-be-retired administrator, I will continue to work a few days in the fall as a consultant, focusing on supporting new teachers.

At lunch I sat with a group of first year teachers and the conversation turned to vacation plans. One young teacher, XX, shared that she and her husband were taking their three-year-old son to Disneyland… a very nice plan, I thought, until XX shared that they were charging the whole trip because they had no savings AT ALL. However, she said they “deserved a great vacation” because they had worked hard all year.

A few minutes later, XX confided to me that she was concerned about how much they owed on their credit cards (“four figures and growing daily”). She didn’t know where it would stop but she knows it has to since they want to buy their first house. XX was proud that each month they paid a “far more than the minimum payment but the balance never seems to go down.”

I told XX to consider connecting to SA as there are many people in her situation who have succeeded in doing exactly what she wants… getting out of debt and taking control of their finances. Sometimes, what we need is moral support to get out of the cycle of digging deeper into debt. She seemed interested and said she would “check it out.”

Coincidentally, I just saw a piece on CNNMoney.com about ten success stories of families who “cut bad plastic habits.” Here’s the link:

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/pf/0806/gallery.sans_pla...