Credit Card Debt Management

Ah, the good old days of the 1980’s. There’s not a ton to miss about that decade, and it was certainly not impervious to its fair share of financial trauma (skyrocketing mortgage interest rates and a bona fide Wall Street crash, for starters). However, when I watch the Cosby Show, I grow nostalgic in a major way.

In a rerun that aired today, the family has a good laugh at son Theo’s plans to move out when he is 18 and become a self-supporting model. He already owes money to everyone in the family — even a quarter to Rudy! His promises to repay them are greeted with great skepticism. Furthermore, advances on his weekly allowance are already “backed up until his 50th birthday,” as his dad puts it. Bill has to have a heart-to-heart with his son that goes something like this:

“Son, this is your family, and we may not mind loaning you money, even though you’re not qualified to repay, but when you get in the real world, it’s not going to be like that.”

When is the last time you had that kind of talk with your kid? There are some simple things you can do to instill financial common sense into your child. For starters, don’t be afraid to talk about money around your kids. It’s a fine line — you don’t want to scare them, but you also don’t want them to take everything for granted. If they want a luxury item that you can’t afford, ask if they have money to buy it. They just might, if they’ve diligently saved the weekly allowance you might give them once they’re of age. If they’re still tots, they can collect money they find lying around and keep it in a clear container where they can watch it accumulate. Take them shopping at yardsales or thrift stores and let them buy one thing with their money, to instill a pride of ownership and a work ethic.

Also, loan them money when they’re older, but consider tagging on interest and late payment fees. Some parents even start taking taxes out of the weekly allowance. Talk about a dose of reality! At any rate, today’s message from the Cosby clan was a sobering dose of reality that kids just can’t find on the television anymore.

It was an era when TV was done right, full of important social messages without sacrificing entertainment value. It may have been the principles of Bill Cosby himself shining through, but I like to think it was a theme running throughout 80’s TV programming. There just didn’t seem to be as many shows on the air back then focusing on people getting stuff and kids demanding stuff and neighbors getting jealous over each others’ stuff. What is up with that?

The obsessive, status-driven consumer culture slyly crept in during the 1990’s, sort of before we even realized it. Unfortunately, it’s slow to disappear and is directly responsible for a lot of the problems this country is facing now. So please, for the sake of the children, set the right examples of fiscal responsibility, don’t make finances a taboo discussion topic, and turn on some old Cosby Show reruns for good measure.