Buying on credit is so easy to do today. But, before you buy anything your need to ask yourself these 3 questions. They are:

• 1. Shall I use credit for this particular purchase?
• 2. Have I found the best credit “buy” that I could?
• 3. How is my credit rating?

In this 3 part series we’ll look at the questions one-by-one.

Question 1. — Shall I use credit for this purchase?

Before you answer this question, ask yourself and answer – several others:

(a) How will the payments fit into my family’s regular spending? If you haven’t been in the habit of budgeting (planning expenses before you spend), now is the time to start – before you take on installment payments. Will you have to go without necessities or other items that are more important to your family than this purchase? No one else can give you the answer. Sometimes it’s learned the hard way, by living with installment payments that are too big for your income. Sitting down together as a family and figuring all your living expenses ahead of time isn’t easy – but it might save a great deal of real trouble.

(b) How much will credit cost us? What’s the difference between the cash price and the price you’ll pay if you buy “on time”? Is it worth the cost to you to be able to make the purchase now on credit, and pay later? Or would it be better to use savings? Or to wait until you can save enough to pay cash?

(c) Will whatever we are planning to buy outlast the time we’ll be making the payments? Give long service? (It’s no fun to pay for “dead horses” !)

(d) Is this something that we will want as much when we are making the payments as we do now?

(e) Will it mean better family living? (Save time? Save energy? Give satisfaction to the family? Protect health? Make it possible for you to increase income?)

(f) Is our income certain for the length of time that payments will run? And do we have enough life insurance protection to cover the debt?

On to Question 2 – Have I found the best credit use “buy” that I could?