Wake up Penn, reading blogs can get you out of debt. Well, maybe not this one but according to The New York Times , American households are taking hold of internet blogs as virtual diaries on the path to financial prudence.
For example, one blogger, Leigh Ann, the self-dubbed “bulimic shopper,” chronicled how she purged herself of nearly $20,000 of debt. Other debt diarists detail, defend and chronicle their daily purchases, scrupulously tallying their expenses with the zeal of calorie counters or smokers trying to kick the habit. Very Bridget Jones meets Dave Ramsey .
Considering the state of American finances, it’s about time. Last year, the typical American household found itself approximately $21,000 in the hole–credit cards and loans included.
Yet unlike many bloggers, the new breed of debt diarists has opted to hold a mirror to themselves rather than leer at society from behind the safety of their computer monitors. Blogging can turn private shame into public knowledge; the guilt it harnesses can then encourage self-control. Only a very meticulous person to go through with it, but blogging for financial solvency is one smart way to hold yourself fiscally accountable.
On college campuses, debt is rampant. Your student loans, that $2.50 you owe your freshman year roommate, $100,000 worth of SAC debt , and last semester’s overdue library fines. According to psychologists, the American compulsion to shop may be a coping mechanism for stress. Shopping sprees can be another way of letting off steam before that job interview or final exam.
Instead, let the rage out on the virtual page, not on your credit card. Are you guilty of using one credit card to pay off another? Of opening a new Visa account just to get that free coffee mug?
Shred the plastic. Stop charging and take charge.
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