While there’s very little doubt that Americans are sinking deeper in debt, I haven’t heard much controversy about why people are going backwards financially.  The Washington Post just ran a story on a study about the trend of high consumer debt, and I feel the need to comment.

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Americans have a continuing love affair with debt.  I’m not sure when all this stared, but it seems that the marriage between consumers and debt began with the arrival of the first “gold card” about 25 years (or so) ago, and has only strengthened.

But if you’re faltering in your indebtedness, I’ve come up with a sure-fire guide to keep you up to your eyeballs in debt:

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I’d like to thank Clutter2Cash for hosting the 22nd Festival of Frugality.  I was fortunate enough to have my post How Goodwill Saved My Computer selected for the festival.  The whole festival is worth a look, who knows, it could even save you some money!

Scott Adams is the creator of the comic Dilbert.  He’s a pretty clever guy, and like everyone else on the planet, he’s gotten into blogging.  He has a tendency to throw out some rather controversial topics, such as gender pay disparity or the war in Iraq.

This time he got his readers to help him make a few stock picks.  I’ve struggled when deciding if I should invest in stocks, mutual funds, real estate or something else entirely.  I haven’t invested yet - I’m currently paying off some debt - but let’s just say my cashless experiment with fax stock picks didn’t go so well.  So I thought, why not look to the funny papers to get some hot stock tips?

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The problems started when our computer began shutting down without reason.  I have to credit my spouse (who gets credit for most of this) with tracking the problem down to a broken power supply fan.  The fan wouldn’t run, the supply would get too hot, and the computer would shut down automatically.

But the problems didn’t end there.  In the midst of that, our monitor - which was on it’s last legs - finally died.  I’m trying to get out of debt, so I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of dropping another $200 on a new monitor, not to mention whatever the base might cost to fix.  What was I to do?

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My second carnival entry (on the importance of setting small financial goals) ever is up at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.  Check it out, there are plenty of articles this week, making for hours of financial insights that you won’t get anywhere else.

As some of you already know, I’ve set some ambitious financial goals for 2006.  But I’ll be honest, I’m not getting where I want to go quite as fast as I want.   I keep pretty good track of where I’m at financially, but I knew something was missing.  Something was keeping me from moving forward quite as fast as I could.  But what?

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Every misspell a page or type in what you thought was a valid domain name just to see an annoying screen full of ads pop up?  What you have probably found is someone exploiting “type-in-traffic” perhaps coupled with what internet millionaire Bob Parsons calls add/drop abuse.  Here’s how it works:

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I try to stay positive.  I really do.  But sometimes optimism about things can be unwarranted.  Like if I were to take out a 6-year loan on a car because I was just sure my increased home equity could pay it off if I lost my job.  That sounds crazy, right?  Well just read the reasons why I’m depressed below and you’ll see why I think many people might be doing just that - and why I’m worried about the economy:

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I’ll be honest, I don’t enjoy shopping.  It usually means fighting store crowds, not finding what I want (usually) and spending money on something I end up disapointed in.  I can’t get rid of all the store trips in my life, but I have found four ways to reduce my shopping stress:

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