Yea and groceries cost like $8000 a month doesn't it. If you're telling me you didn't save even $200 to buy food for one month, then you're pretty damn sad. Living paycheck to paycheck when you make a decent amount means you need to learn to SAVE.
Americans don't save. It's a given. You gotta be cheap asian like me to start saving. I make a rule. spend 60% of what you make at most, save 40%. Don't even touch the 40%. I end up saving way more than 40% usually.
PricklyPete
Lifer
- Sep 17, 2002
- 14,582
- 162
- 106
And you are an idiot when it comes to grammar. I agree that having a balance on a high interest loan is not the best way to use your money...to blindly label these people as idiots pretty much makes you sound the same way.
Originally posted by: Homerboy
Originally posted by: SouthPaW1227
when your married with 2 kids, send me your budget and we'll talk
How hard is this? Don't buy what you can't afford. That is all there is to budgeting on the basic level. Savings is another aspect if you have leftover funds each month. If you couldn't afford the kids, those should've been left outta the budget too.
All I'm saying is paying CCs interest rates is murder. There ARE other ways.
You're right. My newborn didn't need those diapers or formula. My 2yr old didn't need anything either. I wasn't buying freaking gold watches and new cars. In fact I SOLD my car and started riding the bus.
Your ignorance is painful
well... I honestly sympathetize with your hardship, but perhaps you could go with washable cloth diapers and breastfeed to save a few pennies here and there...
BlueWeasel
Lifer
- Jun 2, 2000
- 15,944
- 475
- 126
Blindly? Spending more than you can afford is pretty idiotic. IT's an impossibility if you used cash only, but given its a possibility with CC you need to limit yourself. And if you can't? You're as good as an alcoholic or a drug addict.
Its not so easy for some. There payday may barely cover food, shelter, car, insurance and gas.
If there are any emergencies....they have no reserves so they must use credit. These are the ppl that will be effected most by this, people that dont spend beyond there means and are struggling to make ends meet.
You may not see these people in your neighborhood but there are plenty of them in this country.
Homerboy
Lifer
- Mar 1, 2000
- 30,890
- 5,001
- 126
sometimes breast feeding is not an option. Sometimes children or the mother don't do well. Honestly, my wife probably could have breast fed, and actually very painfully wishes she would have at this point, simply for the health of our child. However at the time she tried it, she just "couldn't" do it. And I know the next thing people are going to say is "well she should have due to cicumstances, health of child etc, but YOU try telling that to a post-partum mother. I triple-dog-dare you.
So let's see, a quick calculation... if you have "enough to live off of savings for one month", that means that you make at most what, 13 months worth of expenses, which means your savings rate is at most 1/13 < 8%. Ouch. I feel for you, homerboy. We have no kids (yet), but I understand that you'd want second, but it sounds like things were pretty tight for you in the first place. Sounds like you're employed now, though, that's good. Best of luck, dude.
And to stay on topic... increasing min payments sounds like a Good Thing(TM) in general for reasons stated above.
And to stay on topic... increasing min payments sounds like a Good Thing(TM) in general for reasons stated above.
The people that is going to hurt the most are the ones already in trouble (as said, the ones making minimum payments now)..
that said, I owe $16 on my (1) credit card. If we can't pay cash or afford to pay off the card each month, we really probably don't need it.
that said, I owe $16 on my (1) credit card. If we can't pay cash or afford to pay off the card each month, we really probably don't need it.
So say you carry a $6K balanace on a 0% card
Your minimum payment jumps from $120 to $240
Thats a big deal with no warning.
Homerboy
Lifer
- Mar 1, 2000
- 30,890
- 5,001
- 126
The full story is a bit longer if you really care...
It went like this:
Great job GREAT money, savings, spending, pretty much w/out worry.
Wife gets pregant; everything is great with the world and I'm living the american dream. ~10% into savings, 10+% into 401K... White picket fence and all. (admitedly we dipped into the savings to put in a new driveway so that didn't help).
~1 month later BLAM company goes bankrupt; laid off.
unemployed for ~month; land new job that pays A LOT less but just pays the bills, or most of them but allows nothing for savings for impending new baby and impending medical costs.
~2 months at new job they deceide to close our remote office for no apparent reason... back to unemployment, pending baby, vanished savings and same bills looming.
All in all it works out to the same sob story, just I "yada-yada" the middle part of it. Regardless, we were saving when we could, and it did hellp us out signficantly by buying us a months+ of less debt but the entire situation snowballed and couldn't really have been worse (ok I guess it could have been MUCH worse with some sort of car accicent or whatever, but you get my point).
We're not PERFECT with our spending now or even when we were horribly desperate, but we were by no-means frivolous in waht we bought or did. What the people (read: kids) in this thread need to realize is that no matter how well yor plan for ANYTIHNG is laid out, it is breakable... and often too easily.
Now... whos hiring part time?
waggy
No Lifer
- Dec 14, 2000
- 68,143
- 10
- 81
i got lucky and inherited a lot of money and made smart decisions.
heh started a business at 15. hired some very smart people to work for me. outsourced help on the Y2K (yeah go lazy programers!) to the goverment, etc. sold that got a another job got laid off and didnt bother getting another heh.
I worked 12+hour days, worked part time at Lowe's, other computer related jobs to make it work.
I tend to agree that if you are paying the minimum balances on credit-cards, you're likely in a financial bind to begin with -- or you do not understand how paying minimum balances is about as effective as flushing 95% of your payment down the toilet.
With that in mind, I see nothing wrong with credit cards companies increasing their minimum payments. Since apparently a lot of Americans cannot take a responsible approach to paying off their credit cards on their own, they must be forced to.
Yes, there will be those rare instances where someone accumulated debt due to circumstances completely beyond their control. To this small percentage, I sympathize. But for the rest, just consider this increase in payments as a "helping hand" in managing your debts.
With that in mind, I see nothing wrong with credit cards companies increasing their minimum payments. Since apparently a lot of Americans cannot take a responsible approach to paying off their credit cards on their own, they must be forced to.
Yes, there will be those rare instances where someone accumulated debt due to circumstances completely beyond their control. To this small percentage, I sympathize. But for the rest, just consider this increase in payments as a "helping hand" in managing your debts.
In saying all that, lets assume you are in a bind.
You have a lot of CC debt and are just making minumum payments for those cards.
They know they have to pay $xx per month.....to double that with no warning seems incredibly unfair.
Its like a bank renegotiating your mortage or car loan without your consent, suddenly you have to come up with twice the amount every month.
You have a lot of CC debt and are just making minumum payments for those cards.
They know they have to pay $xx per month.....to double that with no warning seems incredibly unfair.
Its like a bank renegotiating your mortage or car loan without your consent, suddenly you have to come up with twice the amount every month.
I'd ignore southpaw and his "advice". Fed fund rates right now....TODAY....are 3.25%, ant that's the rate the Fed charges banks. Prime rate, which is OUR interest rate, is currently 6.25%.
Of course, southpaw MAY be a bank so he's getting the Fed or selling AAA-rated bonds, and therefore getting that 3.25-4.48% rate. But of course he's not.
After all, as you and others have pointed out, in today's economy, having an unlimited access to 3% money would give one the HUGE opportunity to borrow and invest at a much higher rate of return......and essentially live off the interest differential between the borrowed funds and the invested funds. But I suppose, despite his profoundness in his postings, he's just not smart enough to grasp and follow through upon.
Source today's current Bank Rates.....Bloomberg.
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