Posted on 01/25/2009 3:52:00 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Deep in Debt, and Now Deep in Worry
By BEN STEIN
NOT long ago, a woman in California called me for advice. She is divorced, with two children, and has a series of interlocking financial problems.
She lives in a lovely home in a stylish inland enclave. It has an interest-only mortgage of about $2.2 million that requires a payment of $12,000 a month, very roughly. It was last appraised at $2.7 million, but who knows if it’s now worth anything remotely close to that price.
The woman, whom I’ve known since she was a teenager, has no job or other remunerative employment. She has a former husband, an entrepreneur whose business has suffered recently. He pays her $20,000 a month, of which roughly half is alimony and half child support. The alimony is scheduled to stop this summer.
She has a wealthy beau who pays her credit card bills and other incidentals, but she is thinking of telling him she is through with him. She has no savings and has refinanced her home repeatedly, always adding to indebtedness and then putting the money into a shop she owns that has never come close to earning a dime. Now she is up all night worrying about money. “Terrified,” as she put it. She wanted me to tell her what to do.
What could I say? I did the best I could, but I had to tell her that she was on very thin ice.
Ever since, I’ve been thinking of the troubles of this sweet woman, consumed with worry about money.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
I thought this was from the Onion!
Peter Schiff tries to tell the world to stay away from financials because they are toxic. He gets beaten down like the red headed step child.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYX1AgEV0vo
** I thought this was from the Onion!**
Agree - stupidity posturing as satire!
That *sweet*, high-priced hooker should have thought before she bought the mansion.......whose money and which lending institution???
Raising her children.... and a new beau paying her bills? Loverly, just loverly.
This women must be terrorized out of her mind if she calls a fool like Ben Stein for financial advice. Ben Stein should be laughed off the air and be sued for every dime he has made by lying. This Financial Genius is a lying fool.
Lets see.
Lives in a home she can’t afford: Check
Gets a payout she doesn’t deserver(Ali-money):Check
Someone else pays her bills: Check
Has a losing Boutique: Check
Is currently living off someone but wants to punt him so she can get something better: Check
Refinanced her home every time she needed more walking around cash: Check
Whooo boy. What an entitled See you next Tuesday.
Here’s how this works in the rational world:
1. MOVE. Eat the loss or do a short sale.
2. Deal with the fact that husband #1s largesse doesn’t belong to you any longer
3. Dump your losing business
4. Stop spending money
5. WORK! Pump gas, run grocieries, WORK!!!. Your current and former job of leeching off a man is about lose significant value when the court allows prior husband to stop paying you.
6. Make current boyfriend’s toes curl as he’s your only income stream of significant value.
Sounds like her brain is between her legs.
I pity her first husband.
Satire, right?
the poster child of an Obamabot!
“Learn a useful skill that Americans really need, like law or plumbing or medicine or nursing.”
Like we need more lawyers...
She called Ben hoping he would bail her out.
In stories like these, I think the unmarried boyfriends who foot the bill for such lifestyles are more foolish than the woman who is the subject of this story.
Ever since, I’ve been thinking of the troubles of this sweet woman, consumed with worry about money.
That’s easy. marry her and assume the debt. She won’t have to worry any more.
Jesus, I went to see if this was Scrappleface, but it really is The Matrix that most people are enmeshed within.
He worries for this lady who has no real job, no real skills, no real education, no real productivity, and who lives off of other people's money in a house that I could only dream of living in?
I worry for the America that let our education sink this low.
Ben denied his own son the most valuable thing his father taught him - live within your means. At 20+ it may be too late.
And his “lady” “friend” was looking for a handout, as were the others in their Christmas newsletters. He was probably the only one to get that version of the story.
Gee, Ben. Maybe you should have counseled your son instead of some "whore" who can't run her own life.
I think Ben has lost it. I saw him on Glenn Beck and he said the Govt. could keep printing as much money as it needs as long as we are in a deflationary period.
Deflation my ass! The idea that the CPI for last year is only one percent is just a blatant lie.
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