I enrolled in Gary Conn's COWpetition today and Garry Conn’s Make Money
Online Classroom. I am anxious to see how a Blog is started and takes on
a life of it's own. In this stage of my Blog I have an idea of how to generate
some income but no set path or plan.

As I explained in an earlier article, I enjoy blogging, visiting and interacting
with other bloggers. It can be fun and serious at times but my original
intention was to just let the members of my programs and companies
know how I am progressing with my Home Business and the tools I am
using to promote it. As you can see, it is evolved into more than that.

As part of Gary's Classroom assignment, he would like for students to submit
an article about Credit Cards and have it submitted before May 19th. Not
to disappoint the teacher...  




The Love and Hate of Credit Cards


My wife loves credit cards and I hate em'.

This is a typical scenario I hear about at work from my buddies and read in
magazine articles, newspapers and online blogs. Recently my friend at work
in the Jazz Air Hangar was on the cellphone with his wife and I could tell the
conversation was getting a bit "heated". After he flipped his phone closed
he began walking around in circles muttering to himself.

"What's the problem, Pat" I asked him. "She goes out this morning and buys
all these clothes and charges $420 on the card and I'm trying to get it paid off,
Jeez!" He yells.

Does this sound familiar to you? Similar instances are happening around the
world probably a million times a day.

My first run-in with Credit Cards was when I left the Commercial Fishery when
the Government of Canada closed the "Cod" fishery. The backbone and livelihood
of Newfoundland Fisherman since the province of Canada was first discovered.
This was the start of a declining industry especially for the owners and operators
of fishing vessels. It would and is becoming a "big" company operation and the
small business man (me) would be pushed out.

In 93' I retrained as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer and being at the top of my
class landed a job with Jazz Air LP which was Air Nova at that time. This meant
moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. This was the first move away from
Newfoundland and her parents. After working a couple months we bought a
house and were given a "$5000.00 limit" Visa credit card.

My wife's eyes light up when she saw the shiny new card and couldn't wait to
use it. I had reservations and thought we should cancel it but she won the debate.
To make a long story short, within a year and half we were up to our limit with buying
furniture and making up for my initial small salary working as an Aircraft Mechanic
apprentice. 

As my salary increased I managed to get the "card" paid off but since then it has
been an up and down battle keeping the credit card bills to a minimum. A credit
card can easily take over your life and push you into bankruptcy if you can't
control it. On the other hand my wife's sister and husband use it everyday and
pay off the balance every month. They don't pay any interest and build up points
for travel and hotels.

I can see a big change in the last few years where staying in a Hotel , booking
a flight, renting a car, joining an online business and endless products and services,
require a credit card. The struggle for most, like my me and my wife, is to keep it
under control.