The Addison Cafe

I was on a walk the other night with my wife and dog when I happened to glance at something moving in the street. I looked a little closer and exclaimed “look honey, a baby chinchilla!” I couldn’t think of a reason why a baby chinchilla would be in the middle of the street by itself, so feeling bad for the little guy I coaxed him near my hand and picked him up.  Thinking that maybe he was some kid’s pet that escaped, I went up to the nearest house and rang the doorbell. A father and his two little kids answered the door and after asking them if they or any neighbors had lost a pet chinchilla he replied “no” and after a short pause, said “Ummm…that’s a rat”.  Ah hehe ha ahhh…. Yeah. So it turns out I picked up a dirty, sickly street rat with a hunchback that resembled (at least in my apparently poor opinion) a baby chinchilla with a hairless tail. Needless to say my wife requested that I “wash my entire upper torso” as soon as we got home.

So what does petting a hunchback street rat have to do with finances you ask? Let me tell you another story and you will understand…

College kids love pizza. Somehow the credit cards gods have figured this out and every year would show up on my old college campus and offer a free pepperoni pizza (a $5 value btw) to anyone who would sign up for a credit card. Did they offer any education or financial tips regarding credit? Nope. They just handed out cheesy pizza while flashing even cheesier grins and inevitably starting the downward spiral of the debt cycle for already-poor and unsuspecting college students. They appeared to care about the students, befriending them with food and laughter, all the while dishing out 18% credit cards. You should have seen the swarm of students willing to sell their very souls for pizza. The sad thing is that “free” offerings like these are often the sparks that start the fires of debt and stress in people’s lives.

So be careful when accepting “free” offers from “nice” people, they’re probably just a dirty rat.