During the Great Recession, people and organizations have been forcing to reconsider how to manage their money. Banks are changing how it provides loans and mortgages, the government is creating laws to manage the banks, and individuals is learning how to save money. We as consumers can't do much about the first of these two; but we can work on our own spending and saving habits by making some small changes.
The most important financial step we should all have taken is to have gotten rid of our credit card debt as soon as possible. Credit cards have really high APRs that add too much interest to someones balance. They may charge someone up to 30% interest; therefore if you owed $1000 on a credit card at the end of one year you would owe $1300. Realistically, they are making a crazy amount of money on our debt, and that is why it is so important to pay that off first.
Aside from debt; spending habits are the next most important issue to address. Americans spend a lot of there money buying things they don't really need. Perhaps we should think about the things we truly need to have and then only spend our money for those items. For instance, clothing is something we all spend too much money on. Most of us has a closet full of clothes that we really could wear if we wanted. Eating out is another good example. We could start cooking at home more, for that would save hundreds of dollars a year on food costs.
There are so many more simple and easy changes we could make, so these two are really the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps, if we all did something small our country's, financial situation would strengthen. After a few years of fiscal responsibility, we just might get back to the time when they were more secure as individuals and as a nation.