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 ...
If the government can use trillions of dollars of our money to bail out banks and car companies and such, why can't we give this poor woman a mere $20,000 a month?
It's heartless I tell you, heartless. And it's all Obama's fault.
If she didn't have the upper class connections, she'd be called a bimbo.
I'm surprised "the bimbo queen" didn't have money with Madoff - fits the drama... Is she too ditzy to fail? Should taxpayers step in when the boyfriend bolts?
She’s already a hooker, one boyfriend who pays her credit cards. She just needs to broaden her clientele, accepting more clients.
Good, no. Great! I’m a big fan of the Stein.
It would do everybody some good to read this... the entire article. Thanks for posting it. I wouldn’t have gotten to see it otherwise.
Guess he needed some filler to make his, by now, stale personal crusade stretch to 1000 words: rich people waste too much money, they should be taxed more; if they grew up respecting money and what they have, they would be satisfied with less.
yitbos
“She wanted me to tell her what to do.”
His answer should have been simple. Hey lady, start ACTING YOUR WAGE!
If you would like to be added to the “Live like no one else, so that you can LIVE like no one else” list, feel free to Freepmail me.
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