Since more and more Americans love their credit cards, they would consider it the main part of their life. They use it for buying any kind of goods and services.

Convenience is the major reason.

Some also like the idea of having every transaction documented. Monthly statements can help them with budgeting and financial planning.

But are Americans too familiar with their plastic to even try to understand how it works and whether it will affect their lives in any way?
Jody Farmer, vice president of marketing for creditcards.com said, “People did seem to know the interest rate, but beyond that they just seemed ambivalent.”

GfK Roper published a survey on basic aspects that consumers should know about their credit cards. Ninety percent of respondents said they believe their debt is as much as the national average.

More than 9 out of 10 Americans don’t even know how long it would take to pay off their credit card bill if only minimum payments were made.

Five Biggest Credit Card Traps according to Laura Rowley of Yahoo Finance are:

• Credit card companies can increase interest rates any time for any reason
• Ridiculous over-limit fees may be assessed monthly until the balance falls below the limit
• Late payers can find themselves charged with the two biggest unnecessary money-makers for credit card companies: late fees and penalty interest rates
• Unfair practice of charging the card balance with two-cycle billing interest
• One late payment on one credit card can affect the interest rate of other cards

All these seem to be a part of the lives of average Americans. They all wouldn’t matter if Americans can learn to get a hold of their finances, starting with eliminating their credit card debts and living on cash as often as possible.

American dreams can turn to an American nightmare. Most people think they achieve one of their financial goals when they come out of the title company after signing mortgage loan papers and closing escrow on their first home. There is a sense of fulfillment.

Yet, like the saying, what you don’t know may kill you.

If you live in a residential property that you purchased, you can confidently call yourself a homeowner. However, statistic shows that less than 2% of Americans hold title to their home. And the mortgage companies own the rest.

Why?

As long as you’re making monthly mortgage payments, you are actually owning your real estate piece by piece with the risk of losing the portion you have paid if you can no longer make those debt payments. And mortgage payment is almost always your biggest paycheck eater.

Well, everyone I know who is a homeowner makes those payments. That’s right and you don’t want to be like everyone.

Think how you would feel when one day you’d actually hold the title to your home in your hand and never have to answer to mortgage companies anymore.

Trust me, 30 years are too long. Not to mention the interests you’ll paying out of your hard-earned paychecks.

Conservative wisdom never grow old. There are ways to pay off your mortgage based on common sense strategies. Here’s some tips:

• Cut your spending and buy only what you absolutey need;
• Save like crazy, I mean, look for bargains, coupons, discounts;
• Find some ways to make extra income, preferrably things that you like to do
• Use carpools to go to work
• Buy groceries and cook your own meal
• Don’t have to catch up with the latest fashion

Use the extra available fund to pay off the principal. Your loan balance may seem overwhelming during the first few years but beat that monster one dollar at a time. After thousands of punches, you will see that the monster is getting smaller and weaker and ready for your final blow.

At last, kick it out of your home once and for all.

Live free…

This post breaks the ground of this site’s main objective - informing and educating fellow consumers in their journey from debt to wealth. Consumer debt facts in general can be seen on the home page of payraise-debtfree.

When you as a consumer has the right education, you can start taking your financial life back by completely getting out of debt and building personal wealth.