You made my point. They can't roll with the punches (what I am calling a "true emergency") because, as you said, their lives already are total "emergencies."
Even a person on welfare can, over the course of a couple of years, save $30 so that, if a killer hurricane comes, they can gas up their car and get out of town. Which did NOT happen in Katrina.
By "true emergency" I do not mean *anything* that sends a particular individual over the edge financially. I mean an event that would be difficult to address even if the individual had been completely responsible in spending, saving and planning.
"Most of theses peoples lives are emergencies...they were close to the edge as is and something bad happened..."
In other words, they had lousy planning, the inevitable happened, and NOW they have an emergency--one that would not be an emergency if they hadn't insisted on living close to the edge to begin with.
"I don't say I know all the answers but I usually left the office whispering...... there but by the grace of God go I."
In other words, you're also living above your means.
You said: I ran a debt negotiation office for years. Your wrong. By saying "Considering that true emergencies occur very infrequently"
Most of theses peoples lives are emergencies...they were close to the edge as is and something bad happened....they just can't get off the mat. I have spent many nites crunching numbers with these folks trying to square a circle. I was amazed at the sacrifices they would try to make to keep themselves from filing BK.
I don't say I know all the answers but I usually left the office whispering...... there but by the grace of God go I.
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Too many people live their lives so as to "create" these "emergencies." A catastrophic illness in the family is one thing, but far too many people refuse to live sufficiently within their means. They never put anything aside, because they bought too nice a car, too large a house and too many goodies of different kinds. The temptation is there for everyone, but it has to be resisted. We still live in the same house we bought in 1988. Our income has much more than doubled since that time, even with my wife working part time so that our kids are properly cared for. We took out a 15 year loan, refinanced once, and resisted the urge to "move up" as our incomes increased. We reasonably priced new cars when our old ones give up the ghost. We eat out occasionally, but even when we do, we don't go to the high-priced places. We give generously to our church and other charities (and while this helps at tax time, it is still a net reduction to our bottom line). While this is not the image most attorneys wish to convey, we are happy to be reasonably comfortable. It would take a lot for us to have to go back into debt, and it could happen, I suppose.
Live within your means. Pay the credit card off each month, and well before the due date, IF you have to use it. Save for what you want, then pay cash. Try not to want so much. It isn't as exciting as the lifestyles many lead, but it sure makes it easier to sleep at night.
Good to hear from someone who knows something about it.
I'll pipe up here and identify myself as someone who's filed bankruptcy in the not-so-so-distant past. Yes, I know that's almost like inviting all the @$$h0!es to come out of the woodwork and condemn me, but I'm not known for being too much less than frank, so let the jerkos flame away.
We spent many years doing charitable work overseas at a low level of income, out of a strong desire to do our part to help people and make the world a better place. Unfortunately all of our training and experience was in a technical field, which meant our knowledge and skills were totally out of date when we returned to the US after years of serving overseas.
In spite of years of low income, we had thousands of dollars of cash when we came back... (we've always lived very frugally) but employment opportunities were very limited, especially for someone who had been out of the field for a long time, so I attempted to start my own business. As hard as I tried, it was a disaster and we were already deep in debt before we pulled the plug and I managed, months later, to come up with a job.
That lasted less than a year (with most of our "extra" money going to try and pay down the debt) before I ended up unemployed again, and this time, there was no job. Second interviews, companies that seemed to like me very well, but never an offer.
After a couple of years of things like manual labor that just about nobody else would do, telemarketing for $10 an hour, unrelenting disappointment on the "real" job application front, daily harassment from creditors and still desperately searching for a way out, I ended up desperately depressed. I considered suicide before I considered bankruptcy.
In the end I dragged myself out of severe, hopeless depression (that alone took almost a year) and started my own business again. After the first experience, that was the LAST thing on earth I wanted to even attempt, but with no other options that could support my large family I gave it a shot, as it seemed the only way I would ever work in my field again, or make more than about $10 an hour doing work I could hardly stomach going to.
I'm still only making about $20,000 a year to support a large family, and we barely scrape by, but things are better than they've been for a long time. I can't say enough that's good about the bankruptcy process - it gave me hope that I could have a life again.