I just won $22,000!!!
Well I didn’t really win it, and the money isn’t technically mine, but I do have access to it. That $22,000 is my combined credit line for my two credit cards. As a young male I am really thankful that these companies trust me with this kind of cash! Let’s see… I could use a new pair of skis, a nice rain coat, a new cell phone, how ’bout a designer watch or a car! Let me just pull out my credit card!
But wait a minute, here. Why do I have so much money at my disposal? I’ve built my credit since I was able. As soon as I turned 18 I signed up for a handy “starter card” to get me trained on using credit. My limit of $250 was raised to $500 in six months after I paid my bills on time. Six months later I had $1,000 to spend. Fast forward two years and that figure jumped ten fold on that particular card. In the mean time, I signed up for JetBlue’s snazzy TrueBlue points card to help me earn free flights sooner (three round trips already!). My credit on that card doubled in two years.
I’ve been responsible and paid my bills off entirely every month. I don’t buy stupid stuff I don’t need. And very rarely do I buy things I couldn’t have just used my debit card on.
But, to me, this is a comment on what’s going on in our country right now – the crisis in our nation’s capital, on wall street and in the pocket books of everyday Americans. How can I, a measly 21 year-old college student, have so much cash so readily available to me when these giant firms can’t find the money to fix their own mistakes?
