Debt Does Not Have to Define You

You have probably never told anyone how much debt you are in.  If you did, they would probably understand perfectly why you are in debt; it is the same reason that everyone, including your interlocutor, is in debt, namely everything costs money.  Teachers and journalists lament that no one reads anymore, but well-written stories and thought-provoking articles are trapped behind paywalls while we can get a virtually unlimited supply of yappy, thoughtless videos for a small monthly fee.  Therefore, we should count our blessings that, this past fall, the New Yorker published Said Sayrafiezadeh’s short story “Minimum Payment Due” on its website for all to read.  The unnamed narrator of the story lives through an experience that is painfully familiar to many of us.  In Sayrafiezadeh’s literary imagination, credit card debt is one of those terrifying, nameless, featureless forces that relentlessly pursue the protagonists of Kafka’s works.  At the end of the story, the protagonist presumably gets swept away again in the seemingly endless cycle of debt, but that does not have to happen to you.  If you are ready to address your credit card debt in the new year, contact a Miami debt lawyer.

Speaking Openly About Your Debt to Another Person Can Be the First Step Toward Breaking Free

The protagonist of “Minimum Payment Due,” like so many New Yorkers and their Floridian progeny, spends money to see a therapist, but as he lies on the couch in the therapist’s office, the words fail to come out.  He knows that credit card debt is the cause of his anxiety, and he hints at this until the therapist figures it out, but when the therapist asks him how much he owes, he cannot bring himself to say the exact number.  As a result, the reader does not find out; the most we know is that the protagonist’s credit card balance is a five-digit number, and by the end of the story, he appears to be on the verge of charging another $500, the first of a series of recurring payments, on one of his credit cards which, presumably, still has that much available credit.

You should read this story, since doing so costs nothing.  When you are finished, you should acknowledge out loud that the narrator of the story is not you.  You are not doomed to repeat his mistakes, even if your financial history closely resembles his.  Then you should tell someone, whether it is a friend, a therapist, or even a complete stranger, how much you owe.  Simply saying the number will make it less scary.  It will empower you to call a lawyer and discuss your options for discharging the debt in bankruptcy court.  It may even empower you to call the credit card company and initiate a discussion about settling the debt for less than you currently owe.

Work With a Debt Lawyer About Debt Repayment Resolutions

A South Florida debt lawyer can help you achieve your New Year’s resolution of addressing your credit card debt that has been piling up for years.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Miami, Florida to discuss your case.

Sources:

newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/25/minimum-payment-due-fiction-said-sayrafiezadeh

cnbc.com/2024/12/29/credit-card-debt-explored-by-sad-sayrafiezadeh-in-new-short-story-.html