Shopaholic. Shop ‘til you drop. Retail therapy.
Each of these playful phrases has made its way into everyday speech, the ‘aren’t-we-naughty’ connotation giving us licence to go ahead and have fun and spend – even if we have to pay later.
There’s nothing amusing about overspending, however. The instant gratification of purchasing now with the swipe of a credit card is an illusion; the real road to happiness, it has been suggested, is through living debt free. According to author John Hallward, whose book The Happiness Equation: The Human Nature of Happy People relies on Ipsos survey information, individual happiness relies less on annual income than the level of personal debt. In an interview posted on www.creditcards.ca, he indicates “the key isn’t necessarily to have a high income, but instead to … avoid debt and live within one’s means.”
How many of us are doing that?
Not many, according to recent Statistics Canada data. Between 2006 and 2010 Canadian consumer credit (excluding mortgages) rose 43.97 per cent, from $330,179,000,000 to $403,491,000,000. As of 2005 (the most recent data available), Canadian households cumulatively owed $25,775,000,000, a 58.4 per cent increase over the $16,275,000,000 owed in 1999.
Easy credit and attractive promotions such as store “points” or air miles have many of us swiping our charge cards more than ever before, and more of us opting to make the minimum monthly payment on the balance. Many families, sooner or later, find that they are falling so far behind that climbing out of debt seems hopeless.
Fortunately, there are resources available in the community and online to help those who need to get their spending habits back on track.
This month, Catholic Family Services is launching two six-week support group workshops for men and women separately. The men’s program will look at how shopping habits affect marital and family relationships, while the women’s program will examine shopping triggered by stress. In addition to the special sessions, which take place Wednesday evenings at the CFS offices, the organization’s walk-in clinics provides services such as credit counseling, money management coaching and debt management programs. There is also an e-counselling option at www.cfshw.com,
Another online resource is www.normoredebts.org offered by the Credit Counseling Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting families with financial education and debt repayment.
Money can’t buy happiness. But misusing credit is one way to put a down payment on unhappiness. By taking advantage of the resources available to us, we can choose which direction our fortunes will take.
