正如我不时在这里讲话的那样，我一生中很早就毁了我的信誉。我在18岁时得到了一张卡（这只是预先碰撞，当少年递给一群有趣的钱似乎是个好主意），并在几周内将其最大化。我什至从未开心要付账单的想法，并以我父母的邮箱中累积的危险信号和迟到的通知来度过一生。最终，他们变成了收集的电话，宗教避免数字对我来说就像我的鞋子一样自然。我对我的可管理但不幸的信用卡债务（最初只有500美元，最终以兴趣的两倍超过两倍）来治疗，这是可以避免的滋扰，就像野餐一样。
尽管如此，就像我对签证一样愚蠢，我希望我的信用文盲已经停止了。我希望我可以说这是我无法支付账单的开始和结束。但是回顾过去，我现在认为我从18至22岁的一生都是永恒的臭味。I accrued small debts like you wouldn’t believe — parking tickets, moving violations (which I often didn’t pay, which eventually led to me getting arrested for driving on a suspended license with suspended tags), tiny student loans, and anything else I could be dumb about. I don’t have a degree to speak of, but I have about 8,000 dollars in (subsidized) student loan debt. This is negligible compared to a lot of people I know, but considering I have nothing to show for it, the number still stings. I could have gotten out with nothing, but I was dumb and preferred to take out loans instead of working more hours at my part-time job.
And the thing was, I was never a debter. I am not a shopping addict, I don’t hoard anything, and I was never going bank-to-bank trying to get credit (one card was more than enough). I was just lazy and dumb, and lived in this weird limbo where I deluded myself into believing that my debts would just go away. I pictured a distant future in which I was wealthy enough to pay them off all at once, despite having no degree or real job prospects. (Yes, I now know how ridiculous all of this sounds, and if you’ve never experienced that particular mentality, it’s hard to imagine.) Looking back, I wish I could punch myself in the face, because nothing I ever did felt even briefly worth it — I don’t even have a nice piece of clothing from my extended period of destructive financial YOLO.
直到我得到一份真正的工作（22岁），我才开始考虑自己的债务。我的薪水很谦虚，但仍然足够，如果需要的话，我仍然可以赚钱，而这是我第一次从事大孩子的工作，我感到有动力把我的狗屎放在一起。我的第一笔业务是照顾四年前的整个信用卡债务，到那时，从收集机构到收集机构都反弹，并跟随我进行了四个地址，其中包括法国的两个地址。我很害怕打电话给他们，但是他们（我现在知道）友善，热情好客，准备做任何不吓我的事情。我们安排了一个付款计划，一年之内，我的信用卡债务就消失了。
当我付其他东西时，我仍然有很多工作要做，即使我降低了债务，也很长一段时间才能再次获得可观的信用评分。这是一个令人沮丧的过程，但是在许多方面，我受到了经验的启发性和动机，并通过缓慢而痛苦地看着这个数字。随着我赚更多的钱，我更加努力节省和付款，只是因为我知道该方程式的另一端生活是什么样。我鼓励您这样做，如果您的信用评分很糟糕（或不存在或未知），因为它确实改善了生活的各个方面。在这里，如果您想踏上这一旅程，我学到的关于信用和债务的七种最重要的东西。
1.答案总是比避免避免更好。当您有避免的债务时，您倾向于陷入温和，持续的恐慌，阻止您采取任何行动，就像您想象的另一端公司/银行/政府会责骂和让您感到尴尬疲惫的父母。但是他们的工作非常简单：通过任何必要的方式从您身上赚钱。弄乱这项工作的最简单方法是让您感到害怕，疏远或尴尬。因此，他们非常甜蜜，耐心和宽容，并且没有提及他们过去两个月每天都在试图抓住您的事实。他们会尽力使对话感到镇定和富有成效，并且对过去并不对您大喊大叫。他们知道，如果他们必须收集某些东西，那是因为您不会（或无法）支付它，并放出没有帮助任何人的具体原因。所以打电话，因为这不会令人不快。
2.不良信用使您成为永久的孩子。Nothing is more humbling — no matter what you have accomplished in life — than having to accept your overwhelming financial untrustworthiness in front of authority figures. I’ve had a book on bookshelves across the country while sitting, humiliated, in front of a banker who had to tell me that I was only eligible for the 300 dollar-limit “rehabilitation” credit card, because the bank couldn’t trust me not to run it up and default on my debt again. Paying that measly card on time every month for the past 15 months has been a satisfying and ultimately positive experience, but it certainly stung to accept that it was my fate. I’ve been rejected for several things that I should have been eligible for, once even in line in a crowded Banana Republic (!), and the experience never gets less shitty. But accepting that the world is going to treat you with training wheels and condescension is just part of accepting your crappy credit, and the sooner you get over yourself, the sooner you can work on changing it.
3.您赚多少钱都没关系。由于我的信誉，我在财务上有资格，因为我无法获得很多事情。即使是现在，当我在纸上的赚钱比我一生中的赚钱还要多，我也无法将自己的租金收入超过40倍。我是否有银行对帐单，CPA的收入信，甚至是我的税款都没关系。重要的是，他们认为我不会停止支付租金并搬到布宜诺斯艾利斯，这很可能是我的情况。幸运的是，我一生中有几个人信任我并拥有出色的信誉，所以我能够解决这个问题，但是根本缺乏独立性是一个艰难的现实。如果我自己想要东西，至少暂时必须为他们支付现金。
4.谈判，谈判，谈判。Here’s a secret I have learned in my (sadly) extensive experience with debt: Something is always better than nothing. If you can only pay a certain amount, hold firm (but kind) with the person on the phone and explain your situation. Say you want to pay, and give the amount you can realistically commit to (because a lot of times their automated estimates are way, way off), and don’t waver until they meet it. Pretty much without exception, I have done this for my debts, and I’ve always paid once we met the right number. Sometimes it takes a few phone calls, and a bit of time, but once it’s clear to the organization that you are not going to do more, they will take what they can get. They just want to get that money, and they will eventually work with you.
5. Bad credit creates power imbalances in relationships.With parents, with roommates, with significant others. It doesn’t matter if they won’t take advantage of you, or lord something over your head, or decide not to help you. The point is that you don’t have the power, or the choice. I trust all of the people in my life implicitly and endlessly, but having to go to one of them and ask them to sign on a dumb medical thing so I can pay monthly instead of in one giant chunk is not fun, and creates a palpable feeling of inequality.
6.不要在不保存的情况下还清一切。You have to prioritize your debts based on interest rates, your current income, your savings, and your day-to-day life. I have very low-interest student loans for example, so I will not pay the maximum that I could, because I am in the process of saving a comfortable, necessary emergency fund. Once I have six months’ worth of living costs saved and put away, I can and will pay more, but for now — particularly starting my own business — saving is a priority. And I will绝不无论我的情况如何修复您的信贷并偿还债务永远不应以您的人身安全网为代价，也不应削弱您节省的能力。
7. Nothing gets better until you acknowledge it, and own it.I used to be all secretive and squirrely about my terrible history with credit and debt, for a wide variety of reasons: It’s not attractive, it’s embarrassing, we are really hush-hush about money in our society, I thought it would make people judge me professionally, I didn’t want people to think I was a spending addict, etc. But once I accepted the truth about my history, and the things I would need to do to change it, it felt like an incredible weight had been lifted from my day-to-day life. Yeah, I have bad credit. Yeah, I was really bad with debt for a while. No, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it’s my reality, and only getting worse by my refusal to acknowledge it. Not paying close attention to my finances allowed me, without ever spending that much, to shoot myself in the foot repeatedly and squander any attempts I made to save.
现在我拥有它。我从不躲过电话，我从不撒谎，也从未尝试过绕过系统。我没问题说：“我的荣誉不是很好，所以我将要要使用辅助人”来做某事，或者承认尽管没有学位，但我有学生债务。这不是理想的，不。但这是我的生活。还有我的钱。归根结底，即使有些人因此会判断或审判我，我也宁愿诚实和愉快。因为他们的意见没有出现在我的银行声明中。
觉得您永远不会省钱成为一个真实的人？Steph Georgopulos也是如此。在其中阅读我为了钱而做的一些事情。
