As the economy shows signs of further decline, the financial experts will tell you 24 hours a day that the reason for the economic downturn of the last few months is due to global factors such as rising oil prices. With the primary focus on banks lending policies over the last decade being heavily brought into focus, I am left pondering whether there is another so far undetected demon amongst at that has been wreaking havoc with our lives for the same decade. I am talking of course about the humble flexible friend, the credit card.



Whilst watching Oprah on some obscure Sky TV Channel the other evening and I have no idea when the original programme was aired but the show featured something that is very close to my heart, the dreaded curse of how continuous borrowing can and often does end in such unavoidable sorrow.

Now of course there are benefits to the little plastic friends, they are a handy way to shop safely online, book flights and accommodation securely and there are reward schemes such as air miles that have obvious benefits.

However, the vast majority of people are sliding down the greasy pole to debt and misery by not using credit cards in a controlled way. The couple on the Oprah show, were an extreme example, yet the basics of what they were doing can be seen every day in shopping centres all around the UK. They had reached the point where there was no equity left in their home and because of continually consolidating excessive credit card borrowings against their mortgage they had eventually reached the point of being a sub prime lender's dream customer.

The mortgage deal was the worst the financial expert on the show had ever come across and if they did not sell up, they would be repossessed at the next mortgage payment rise. Their credit card borrowings were in the tens of thousands and all they had to show for all that spent money was a house with no equity, three cars on the drive on finance an empty closet because the stress had caused the wife to spend recklessly then get rid of the evidence and suffice to say the marriage was in meltdown.

One of the hardest things to come to terms with about admitting that credit cards, if used incorrectly are a suicide route to ever becoming wealthy is that it strikes hard at the very foundation of what we are taught about living in today's instant gratification society.

There are certain processes you simply must go through before you can even begin to think about becoming wealthy and one of the most basic starting elements is getting back in control of your finances and working your way up from there.

As Jim Rohn points out

If someone is going down the wrong road, he does not need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.That does not make you a bad, stupid or silly person, it simply means you did not know a better way because society is designed that way.

Pick up a great book today and get started on positioning yourself for wealth.