Foreigner's Finances

One of my original goals for Foreigner’s Finances was to personally learn more about how different nations view money.

I’m fascinated by the topic of money in general. The fact that everyone uses money everyday, but relates to it differently, fascinates me. Throw in international differences and customs and there are some interesting facts and opinions to be found.

Today we’re going to narrow down the international money topic and take a look at how different Asian nations handle credit cards. I’ve managed to accumulate some interesting facts about six of the Asian countries to give you an idea about how they react to credit and plastic.

To give my American audience some perspective, I started off with American credit card facts so you can compare to the Asian countries.

Enjoy!

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Bad money situations do not appear out of mid air. Poor education, bad luck, or lazy habits are just a few of the many problems that can lead to a difficult money situation. But one thing is for certain: complicated and dire money situations are tough to navigate.

Massive debt can be incredibly constricting and cause a lot of stress in one’s life. It’s difficult to escape a poor money situation and, unfortunately, too often the bad habits continue because the individual avoids taking action due to the size of the problem.

What an individual who is suffering from debt needs is clarity.

With bills piling up and not enough money coming in, the situation can seem complex. It may seem like there is always someone who is demanding more money, yet, there is no money available. The credit cards help for a while, but even they have their limits. Deep down inside, the person may want to fix the problem, but they just can’t seem to get themselves in a place where they are able to tackle the situation.

This is where meditation comes in. Yes, Foreigner’s Finances is going to get new-agey for a minute.

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My financial turnaround began a little over a year ago. After reading some articles online about personal finance, I was persuaded to head to the local library to pick up some personal finance books.

It was the summer before my senior year and I was having one of those, “oh my god, I’m graduating in a year moments”. Life transitioning moments like a graduation, marriage, birth of a child, or purchase of a house are usually the sparks that lite the change in many people’s personal finance lives.

In hindsight, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. As soon as I was finished with the first book – it was The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach – I was hooked. I wanted to tell everyone what I had learned and have them be as interested in personal finance as I was.

The trend I began to notice in the personal finance books I was reading was that every now and then certain facts, graphs, or insight would show up that would stop me in my tracks and overhaul the way I viewed money forever.

These moments are much more much life-changing than a friend or family memeber just saying, “hey, you should pay off your credit card debt.” They are moments of clarity, of education.

Today, we’ll dive into some of these facts of clarity when looking at information on credit card debt and how much paying the minimum is really costing you every month.

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