I really believe that things are really, really, ugly and that it should be obvious, but because it has been going on for so long everyone thinks it’s normal and everything will be okay.
Or maybe I’m the crackpot. Wouldn’t mind. But I’m not.
Recently I’ve been thinking about how to describe this situation in numbers people can understand. The scale should be about accurate.
You make $60,000 per year, with a stable job but little ability for advancement.
You’ve been spending a lot more than you make, mostly by using the low introductory interest rate on balance transfers, paying off one credit card with another and back and forth. So far, the cc companies have been willing to let you get away with this, along with regular raises in your credit limit. But some day...
Every month you charge more and more. At this point, you are spending $100,00 per year. You are in debt about $240,000.
About $25,000 of your debt is to 15 year old drug dealer. You could stiff him, and if it came to blows you could take him, though he’d probably get a few good shots in. Trouble is, he has been working out, and he could sell your debt to someone else and use the money to pay off some of his friends to help him out.
You have some jewelry that’s been in the family for a long time and really don’t want to sell. Really, you can’t sell it until you get your spending under control, or it would just be gone.
Oh, and you have agreed to take in your parents in a couple years and pay all of their expenses, including medical bills, which at this point looks like it will add up to a bit over $2,000,000 over the next couple decades.
Yeah, its getting into bizaroo world.
I never thought I would live to see days lik this.