Posted on 04/20/2016 7:58:31 AM PDT by pabianice
This is people, not the government. We love to spend in America. We know we should do other smarter things with our money, but we spend it anyway. It’s a consumer culture. Only America can buy so much crap it becomes a form of insanity.
I actually read all of that article. To his credit, the guy admits he screwed up by living too high and in the wrong city (New York).
Once he sank, there was no way to make it up.
That’s the real problem. Once you hit the skids, there’s no coming back without radical changes in your life.
Americans are woefully ignorant of how to handle their personal finances. This is a failure of the educational system. I was lucky to avoid the trap. I did so by always living below my means, and never borrowing to buy things that disappear (food, entertainment) or depreciate (cars).
When I wanted luxuries (motorcycles, for example), I saved the money first and then bought them. Old-fashioned, but it still works. I built financial security first, then enjoyed its fruits.
My clients (later, even my tenants!) drove nicer cars and had more toys than me. Others who were doing well bought nicer homes than me. Now I’m retired and most of them are still working.
This is what happens when your hard earned wealth is “redistributed”.
Yeah, the republicans are the enemy, not the Muslim Marxist and his new Syrian terrorist cells. Get the republicans, not the Hussien befriending the mass murderers running Cuba for 60 years, it’s the republicans.
Ans: all of them. On the other hand, net worth for the middle class has declined dramatically. Ovomitcare is the massive welfare bite that will bust the middle class, as planned.
That's a fact, Jack.
I know this is off-topic some, but watch “Far Beyond the Stars.” It’s a story in the Deep Space 9 series, in which the characters appear as scifi magazine writers circa 1955. As it was in reality, they crow over getting 3 cents a word for their work.
I see that as a result of the easy money policy of the Fed which has turned our savings into sawdust. Keeping the interest rate at or near 0% makes saving money for retirement a cruel joke, and when those savings are in a 401K they're under constant threat of a market "correction".
All that money goes to Wall St where they pump it into stocks and return a retainer to their favorite politico.
At some point the big money decides to call in their "profits" and the bottom falls out of the market.
Public employees, on the other hand. have guaranteed pensions based on salary. Any like pension in the private sector has gone the way of the Dodo.
To be fair, it was in 1983 when Social Security was first taxed, passed by bipartisan Congress and signed by Ronald Reagan.
From "What I Saw After the Crash"
($451,578 in 2015 dollars)
The MOST amazing thing to me is that there are some, even some who post on FR, who still seem to believe that WORKING people are better off now than ever before. I simply cannot grasp how anyone can think that. My father used to support a family of six on about what my monthly electric bill is and we did not go hungry. The sales tax on a fast food lunch now is MORE than what a nice meal PLUS tax cost when I was 22. Rent on a cheap trailer in this part of South Carolina is nominally equal to my GROSS pay in 1967 and I was driving a new Mustang, renting a three bedroom brick house and partying like a madman but I also had better health care coverage than almost anyone has today and it cost me less than four dollars a week. Before someone brings up unions let me add that I was NOT a union member. Union pay was at least seventy five percent higher than mine.
you may be the only one who hasn’t observed it
most of this country is living it every day and mad as hell about it
You just explained hubby and I. We worked like dogs, lived within our means, bought houses we could afford and drove 10 yr old cars. I’m driving a 10 yr old car right now.
Now we can live the life we always wanted to. I am surrounded by relatives and people who did just the opposite and are barely surviving. They all ask me for money when they need it. I try to explain to them that borrowing from me will not help them because when it comes time to pay it back it will put them in an even worse situation. They think I’m just being hateful and mean. Guess they expect me to just give it to them so I usually tell them no. I have a good friend who borrowed $600 last month and is supposed to pay me back in a week. I expect it to end our friendship. Whatever. She has blown through more money in the last 10-15 years than we’ve ever had and is destitute now.
On that note, there was someone in my life that I really didn’t want to be around any more.
So I loaned them money. Haven’t seen them since.
She won’t do that. I know her. She’ll come back at me with a payment plan and then when I say no she’ll be peeved. She’ll give me my money back but will be all butthurt about it.
It’s not my job to take care of financially stupid people.
I’m just bout done with everyone. lol
Get yourself away from those leaches. Family or not.
We’ve got the whole boxed set that’s sat for years. I will see about that episode.
Cross tabs by age, race & national origin? How many of the impoverished arrived here recently, are not citizens and are illiterate in both their own language and English.
I have a policy of $20 max, it’s a fair enough amount to see if I can trust ya.
$400 hasn’t been an emergency for me since I was 11.
I lives as you and SM and retired at 46. Zero percent interest hurts but whatever.
SS kicks in in6 yrs so I’ll be ok
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