After being in the financial services industry for several years I learned much about ways that debt pierces its grubby claws into people. What most people don't realize, or blatently ignore, is that debt instruments such as credit cards, home equity loans, and other forms are created with the sole intent of kidnapping your income.

It's important to understand that the bank tellers and the credit card peddlers on college campuses are not the people who designed these things. They are just trying to earn a living selling them. So don't "go postal" on the first loan officer you see, okay. This has more to do with international bankers and the ways they get us to let go of our money.

We are led to believe that to be successful people we must earn six figures, own a mansion and a yacht, and have a house in the Hampton's. This thinking is imprinted in our brains via that box of disinformation called a television. Stay up late and watch some t.v. and you'll be bombarded with images of huge houses, expensive cars, exotic people, and a person promising you the world if you purchase his/her B.O.B. (business in a box). Face it, we are fed promises, false expectations, and are programmed to spend beyond our means. The financial institutions offer their solutions so that we can have that 4-bedroom house we'd otherwise have to save 20 years for, loans and revolving debt. Loans are debt instruments where once the balance is paid, it's gone. Revolving debts are those like credit cards where you pay off the balance and you can used it again and again, like a revolving door (hence the name). This is a bank favorite!

In case your wondering what credit really is, it's imaginary money. That's right! It's ONLY numbers on a screen and in NO way, shape or form does it represent real coins and cash. It is a promise to pay REAL money in exchange for hooey. The problem nowadays is that in our minds we equate credit with wealth (oxymoron). Here's where things get shady and show evidence of a legal scam.

Banks (all of them around the world) operate within a paradigm called fractional reserve banking. Basically, a bank only has to keep a miniscule fraction (percentage) of what it loans out in reserves (sometimes less than a tenth of a percent!). So it literally can loan out billions of dollars that it doesn't even have or can back up with real assets like gold and silver. If a family wants a loan for a house, the bank will try to qualify them for a loan (again, money the bank may or may not have). If qualified, the family "gets the house." They get a mortgage really; the bank owns the house. You can disagree, but if you don't pay the bank REAL money PLUS interest, what happens? Right, the bank takes the real property away. They loan out imaginary, unbacked numbers (credit), get paid real hard-earned money (mortgage payments), and can take away something YOU never truly owned in the first place. And, it's the same all around the world because if you look at the global banking leadership, you'll see that they are all the same people calling the shots. I can here the expletives flowing now.

Three years ago I couldn't go five feet down the block without getting asked if I wanted a home-equity line or refinance. Most of the people whose finances I straightened out were duped into thinking their homes had a magical ATM built into the stucco! They kept taking money out of their homes without understanding what they were really doing. To summarize, equity is ownership, and it's the difference between the market value of the property and the amount owed on the mortgage. When you borrow/"take out" the equity, you are cashing in some or all of your ownership in the home. And you must PAY IT BACK or risk losing the house!

This also applies to credit cards. A bank can open a line of credit for ANYONE, no matter how poor or un-creditworthy. You're a greater asset if you have no money and have lousy credit scores because the card(s) will be your main means of buying goods and services, and you'll never pay it off, always be over your limit, and most likely to be paying late if at all (I smell fees brewing). If you pay nothing then they can sue you and get your wages garnished, which obviously sucks.

So what do you do about it? As often as you can, pay for small purchases with REAL cash or coins, not imaginary money (credit). Also, stop thinking your life is dictated by how high or low your credit score is. People fixate on that number way too much! If credit is your main form of currency then you seriously need to get off the butt and do something else, because the credit crisis will only kill you if you charge your life away. If you're already in debt, hold on!

Let's say you owe on five credit cards and one of them is a big whopper of a bill. Most people pay the minimums to the smaller ones and a huge chunk to the larger bill. As a former financial analyst I'm telling you that it's better to pay off the smaller bills. The reason is you need to eliminate the smaller bills completely so that you can allocate more money to the big bill (larger payments equal paying it off faster). Besides, it's better to reduce the number of enemies and then concentrate on the one requiring the most energy. But whatever you do, pay on time and DO NOT use a credit card to pay off another card. There are better ways to consolidate debt without accruing nasty fees and interest.

I share this information with you all based on my experience and education not because I think I have all of the answers. That's ridiculous. But I know what it's like to owe several thousands, make many thousands, and lose everything, only to begin once more. The only way I bounced back for good is educating myself about money and credit so that I don't get taken advantage of by anyone EVER AGAIN!

If you read this long-winded but well-written rant and want to comment, please do so. Share your opinions, experiences, solutions, anything to help people understand that the credit fiasco is just a form of control to keep the cattle (us) in financial servitude. On a final note, one of my co-workers never knew what FICO stands for. He was familiar with my background and asked me about it. My answer, although technically incorrect, expressed how I feel about it. I said it stands for Fascist Instrument of Control and Oppression. And the scam continues...