The Reality of Financial Stress: Question

I used to get a generalized sense of anxiety around the end of the month. I’d have to drop what I was doing and hurry to check the credit card statement’s due date (they used to change the due date all the time–probably to make people late in paying so they could collect late fees). Sometimes I’d have to hurry to get on the phone or the computer and make a payment. I was used to this routine and never thought much of it until we stopped using credit cards. It took a while before that anxiety stopped coming around. I realized that payments made for services are not nearly as stressful; service providers often give grace when a payment is late and sometimes just roll the balance due over to next month’s bill. Creditors aren’t nice that way–they’ll take you for all they can get. Don’t miss that stress one bit!