Investopedia.com recently wrote a great article on Financial Phobia, the honest fear that occurs in some people when it comes to dealing with personal finance issues.
When going through college, especially in my freshman and sophomore years, I had a bad case of financial phobia. Bank statements, credit card bills, phone bills, utility bills… they would all come in the mail every month, and every month I would take them straight to the trash can.

I knew that I didn’t have the money to pay them. I knew that I would only make the minimum payment, often on the very last possible day or even late, and often only when they called to collect.

During high school I got off to a great start using my credit card with discipline and paying it off completely every month. I was quickly rewarded with higher credit limits, more credit card offers, and retail credit card offers (i.e. Sears, Best Buy, Robinson’s May). Then sure enough, just as quickly as the offers had started coming in, they stopped. Before long they turned in to collection telephone calls, and my credit suffered accordingly.

I guess that’s pretty much why I’m here. Luckily, it seems that I have accepted my fear, and I am certainly making strides in overcoming it.