"Going American"

My family recently hosted a wonderful young man from France through a foreign exchange program. Although we don't speak any French so we occasionally had to try more than once to understand each other, we made it work; and the cultural exchange of information along with a new friendship were well worth the effort.

One day he and my husband were discussing debt and he told my husband that in France the only debt people take on is for big items like cars and houses. (Sounds awfully familiar.) He said that it would never cross his mind to take out a loan for something small like a TV. He actually said that if someone ever talks about taking out a loan for a small item they call it "Going American." I don't know that it's such a great thing to have our country associated with frivolous debt. I can only hope that over time if more and more people are smart about debt that phrase will lose it's meaning and go out of vogue.

European vs. American Financial Institutions

According to a broadcast on NPR, the European banks are blaming America's current financial crisis on too little regulation, too much debt, and not enough savings. Europe sounds like me!

Regulation: You have to have a good understanding of what is happening with your money to be able to manage it. If you've worked in business you've undoubtedly heard the old adage, "what gets measured, gets managed."

Debt: In order to get and/or remain debt free, we must spend no more money than we make, and preferably less than we make.

Savings: It's important to have money set aside each month for all known expenses, and equally as important to have a long-term savings plan to send your offspring off to college, and to someday be able to quit working.

It's a good bet that the government won't bail you out to the extent that they're bailing out the banks right now, since your collapse doesn't jeopardize the global economy. So maybe we as individuals should follow the example of the European banks rather than the American banks.