Page 56 - Book1E

Expenditure always rises to meet income.
—Cyril Northcote Parkinson
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get college degrees in marketing and advertising. They learn how to sell a product, and there are many ways of doing it. They might entice you to “buy now and save,” convince you that “you deserve a break today,” or that a few things “are priceless” but “for everything else, there’s MasterCard.”
Nike, Lucky Brand, iPod, and others have successfully created a brand that sells itself just by its name. That’s a real accomplishment, and what every product manufacturer hopes to do. It costs a lot of money to create a brand, so
they have to make up the cost in sales.
American culture is a culture of “more is better.” The American dream involves pos- sessions. Self-worth is often determined by what a person has or how big or how new
the possession is. People want to believe “you can have it all.” Well, you can, but only if you have a reasonable definition of “all.” What gets a person into trouble is not being able to decide what his or her “all” limit is.
What should you do?
Try looking at your self-worth through what you don’t have—that is, the debt you don’t have. You may find that “all” can be much less than you thought. You will be much more satisfied when you truly own the things you have instead of the lenders owning you.
Credit as Status
Credit card companies have developed their own well-thought-out marketing schemes. One very effective scheme was the introduction of credit cards that give consumers social status. Most people get sat- isfaction from being rewarded for good behavior. That is what Gold and Platinum cards do. When a Platinum credit card is handed to a merchant, it tells the merchant that the holder has earned the right
Managing Your Debt