I am in debt to the tune of about $19,000. It is all credit card debt. Most of it was incurred years ago when I lost my job and we needed to pay bills and had crazy home repairs. It has been hell trying to pay it back. I was once in debt for about $25,000 so some of it has been paid off but there is still a long way to go. But that's a problem that I have.
What I have a problem with is this friend of mine, he and his wife. They were once in crazy debt, more than I am, but it was due to frivilous spending. Eating out many times a week, buying expensive cars and other gadgetry for themselves. They got way in the hole and then filed for bankruptcy. Now free from the debt, they began living high on the hog, just throwing cash everywhere. Still pretty irresponsibly, but at least it wasn't on credit. About five years later, they could get credit again so they binged (they never really stopped). Bought two brand new cars, a house, and began spending wildly. Two years later, they were deep in the hole. Bankruptcy again. (I would find out later that the guys wife had actually filed a few months before I even met them so this was technically a third time.) They got rid of the cars and the house and somehow managed to move into a fairly expensive apartment complex. He got a second job for about a year because his wife was out of work. As soon as she started working again, they are back to blowing money. Big screens everywhere, expensive cameras, gadgets, macbooks, vacations everywhere. They just now bought a giant 5-bedroom house somewhere.
My irritation is that I may as well have done the same thing as they seem to not have suffered for it. Meanwhile, I am trying to do things the "right way" by eating beans and rice and paying off my debts, driving hundred year old vehicles, not being able to take vacations of more than 200 miles, etc.
What has been the advantage, if any, of me trying to slave to pay my debts down? What has been the disadvantage of their continually filing bankruptcy when they get into trouble?