Did you ever wonder how they set the speed limit on those hairpin turns on an old, country road? A buddy of mine used to work with the state highway department. He told me a story about how it was done.

Apparently fifty to sixty years ago, when they built old, country roads, the roads needed curves because the farmers didn’t want to give the state the right of way or deed the state a portion of their land.

As time has passed the landowner has less “say” in the matter. The result has been straighter, safer roads for us as a society to travel. The road was near completion. It was time to determine the acceptable speed at which the tight turns should be navigated.

Believe it or not, they would simply use a pitcher of water, filled to a certain, marked level. The driver would maintain a constant speed through the turn. The passenger would watch the water level in the pitcher. When the water spilled onto the dash of the old truck, they knew the speed was too fast.

The next time, the driver would slow down five miles per hour and maintain that constant speed through the turn. Again the passenger would watch the water. This went on and on, until they could drive through the turn without any water spilling onto the dashboard of the truck.

With this example in mind, did you ever wonder how we get ourselves so deeply into consumer credit debt and not realize it? Then we have to negotiate a tight curve or trouble along our life’s pathway.

Think about the old pitcher of water sitting on the dash of that old pick-up. Now relate your debts to the water level, filled to a certain mark, as we drive along our life’s roadway.

Think of the water in the pitcher as our comfortable debt level.

This comfortable debt level is about thirty-five percent according to the experts. This would cover our mortgage and vehicles. We need housing and a way to get back and forth to our places of employment.

As our life happens, we add little pieces of debt here and there. We might be carrying a few, little consumer credit accounts. Think of these as small, shot glasses of debt, sitting on our dashboard. As time passes, we add more and more shot glasses of debt.

At some point, we realize we’re having trouble meeting the payments. So, we innocently consolidate the debt. We pour all of the shot glasses into the pitcher. The level is now past the original line and almost filled to the brim.

We add a few more little shot glasses of debt, because we keep taking short cuts (credit cards; easy credit). The consolidation hides the obvious from our awareness. Then we hit the sharp turn in the road. We lose a job; we experience a sudden illness, requiring us to stop working for awhile or we go through a divorce.

Our pitcher is full when we hit this curve. The over abundance of debt spills onto the dashboard. We haven’t even added the extra shot glasses of debt to the pitcher, yet. We’re in trouble. The House of Cards falls, sometimes into bankruptcy.

We didn’t even realize what was happening to us, along the way. We were too busy living. That’s what throws people into bankruptcy more than any real tragedy that happens to them. Good people, simply not staying aware.

Much of the text of this article originates from the book No Balance Due. It’s available at bookstores and most internet bookstores like Amazon.

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