Last week, National Public Radio’s “On Point” program highlighted credit cards, consumers, and a nation in debt. I was honored to be a guest on the show.
Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren, an expert on the credit card industry, was the main guest, however, and she had a lot of great things to say. (I admire Warren and her work, including the personal finance book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.) After hearing my story, she made an interesting distinction:
There are three kinds of people who carry credit card debt. One is like J.D. He makes a lot of money, but he just spends more than he makes, and I understand that. But there are two other groups.
There are a lot of people who spend more than they make, but the difference is somewhere else on the scale. These are people who really can’t make it to the end of the month on $40,000 a year. They can’t support the kids, they can’t pay their medical bills, and those are a lot of people who are carrying credit card debt…Credit card debt — a lot of it — is about medical debt, about putting groceries on the table.
And there’s kind of a group in between those two. Those are the people who when they were young and stupid, were young and stupid. They…ran up some credit card debt…said, “Boy, I’m in trouble here.” But the problem now becomes the card itself.
I’m not convinced that Americans are in credit card trouble because they’ve turned to plastic to make it to the end of the month. I believe that most Americans get into debt because of consumer spending and bad habits. If you practice smart personal finance from the start, you minimize the chances that any one disaster can leave you in financial ruin.
I suspect — though I don’t have numbers to prove this — that unexpected emergencies are often simply the straw the breaks the camel’s back, but that the camel was already bearing the a heavy load of consumerism to begin with.
A recent New York Times article about Americans in debt profiled Diane McLeod, who fueled her lifestyle with credit cards and other debt. This worked fine until “back-to-back medical emergencies helped push her over the edge”. From my experience, McLeod’s story is more typical than that of a family turning to credit as a last resort.
But maybe I’m wrong.
If you currently carry credit card debt (or have done so in the past), what’s your story? What got you started? How did the debt get out of control? What’s your plan for paying it off?
How did you get into debt?
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I was forced to borrow $5000 from my bank last May when my wife and I bought a new home, due to unexpected expenses that arose right after we moved in. I managed to pay the debt down to the last $400, then last month my wife was rear-ended by an uninsured driver. We had to pay the $500 deductible, plus get new tires ($450) and just two days ago, the radiator went up ($533). So basically I’ve fallen back a bit. Part of the “problem” is that we have $7050 in our emergency fund which we could have used to pay for the car repairs, but we find it too painful to touch that money. We are so focused on hitting our $12,000 goal by December that we’d rather use the credit card instead until the emergency fund goal is achieved.
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Young and stupid, plus just didn’t have enough. More of the latter than the former, actually, though – going through college was rough due to illness and losing a job I took to pay for the illness mid-college-quarter right before getting married, and sometimes the choice was rent, or groceries on the card. Then I graduated, went to work, had a plan to pay off all of our $20K of debt, got pregnant (planned) – and found out it was twins. Again, lost income and medical issues – more groceries on the card.
Then I got back to work (it took a while, since we couldn’t afford a babysitter), and we got out of debt.
The key sign that it isn’t consumerism in our case, I believe, is how quickly we paid down $20K in debt while increasing our quality of life. We simply have increased slowly and with only a small part of our increased post-college income. The challenge for us is that we are starting very quickly from very little money – so haven’t had a chance to build a cushion really yet.
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I got through three years of college without a credit card…then my senior year I decided I needed to build up some credit so I got a card with a $3,000 limit. I started out okay making some good choices…then I ended up with a $700 balance on the card. *Then* I made some really stupid choices and ended up maxing the card out (if I had had an emergency fund, I could have avoided using the card, but due to a huge unexpected expense being entirely my fault due to stupidity, my usual “emergency fund”, aka parents, rightly refused to pay.)
That was three years ago, and I still owe $1300 on that card- I went to grad school right after undergrad so haven’t been making much of a salary until recently.
I’ve just gotten married, and my husband has almost £2,500 in consumer debt (so about $4,000 USD…I’m American, but we live in England.) He acquired the debt through student living- he didn’t work at all during university (during term time at least- he did have summer jobs though) and his first year he literally didn’t have enough money to live on, hence the debt. (Although I’m sure some not-great spending choices are mixed in there as well.) He’s got student loans as well but in the UK they’re super low interest and payments are automatically taken out of his salary at the tune of £15/month, so we can pretty much ignore them.
*My* student loans, however, are American and so definitely cannot be ignored- I owe $50K for undergrad and grad school and pay $550/month. The exchange rate between the UK & US helps in paying it off (right now my student loan debt is only £25,000 over here). But I’ll feel a lot better when I have it paid off.
We don’t have any savings, though, so before I can even start paying down the student loans aggressively I want to build up a £5,000 emergency fund…add that to our £3,000 in consumer debt and it’s going to take us over a year to be in a position to concentrate on the loans. I don’t want to save for a house until we have the emergency fund in place and paid off my one private student loan (circa $16K/£8K) so it’ll be 2-3 years before we can start saving a significant amount of money for a house. And that’s assuming we’re both steadily employed throughout that time, which is far from certain at the minute. But I know we’re a lot better off than a lot of folks and for that I’m grateful.
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I won’t claim that it was all necessary expenditures that caused debt. But the vast majority of my and my husband’s debt is, actually, from the problems of basic living.
Both of us have severe health issues that affect our ability to work. My husband’s health got so bad that he had to be let go from work. I am on disability, hoping to work up to a part-time job in the next six months to year.
We’re slowly finding ways to work around it. But not only are we on a very meager budget, we have $100/month of meds not covered by Medicare, $476 of COBRA for my husband to keep his insurance (he can’t get private insurance thanks to some bouts with MRSA), and we spend hundreds, if not thousands, each year in over-the-counter lotions and ointments trying to keep my husband’s skin from driving him completely insane.
Still, I know, looking back on the last year or so, we could have skimped more here and there. 80% or more of our debt, though, I think is legitimate.
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I have rarely carried a credit card balance and when I do I obsess about paying it off. On the other I do have mortgage, a car and motorcycle payment. I use to ask myself can I afford the payment and not can I pay for it now? Until recently never saved any money, just extra money to spend. Luckily the motorcycle will be paid off in the next couple months 2 years ahead of schedule. Then I will start working on the car and will hopefully have it paid off before 2010.
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My debt accumulation started with credit cards in college and was fueled by the very earnest belief that someday, in the near-ish future, I would have a great job and make enough money to pay them off. As I’ve examined my spending habits, I’ve found that I have little qualms about using credit cards (pre-credit, it was check-writing) to pay for goods, but handing over cash makes me edgy. Somewhere in my psyche I’d rather keep the cash (which seems more like real money) and rack up credit, which I can “deal with later.” After marrying someone with a similar history (and marrying our debt as well), I’ve got my finances under control. We haven’t accumulated debt for several years and are steadily paying it down. We budget (I use the budget program with the envelopes) and know where our money is, and where it’s going. And I’m grateful for my previously skewed money habits because money management doesn’t scare (or bore) me anymore.
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Because my husband and I both really like to shop and it was easy to just drag the credit card through the little machine and “worry about it LATER”. We’ve been married 16 years and we’re still playing catch-up. Now we have to tell ourselves constantly that if we can’t afford it now, we won’t be able to LATER.
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I fall into the young and stupid category. Happily, I am no longer either
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I never even had a credit card until I got married, was never in debt, and always had a six-month cushion in savings “just in case.” After I got married, two incomes helped for a while, then I became permanently disabled. My savings was used up as we learned to live on one income.
Then disaster struck. Hubby was injured in the CA Northridge earthquake and out of work for seven months. During that time, I had emergency life-saving surgery while uninsured. We scraped by on disability checks, babysitting money and discarded scraps of food from supermarkets, but we did incur some credit card debt for unexpected car repairs, an emergency dental surgery and medical bills to get hubby working again. He was laid off three months after going back to work.
My surgeon forced us into bankruptcy when he began refusing the $100 monthly good-faith payments we were making and insisted on payment in full within 30 days. But when we filed, we withheld our credit card debt. We incurred it honestly, we wanted to pay it honestly. Dumb.
We’ve raised six children on one income, been unemployed for a total of twenty-four non-consecutive months, both been unable to work due to disability, declared bankruptcy, bought two used cars, bought one house and been unemployed three times. We’ve eaten scraps and discarded food. We’ve dressed our children in $1 pillowcases and bedsheets from Goodwill remade at home with creativity and a sewing machine. All things considered, I think the $15,000 credit card debt we carry and are working toward paying off is not a bad investment for the wonderful, self-sufficient, hard-working family I have.
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I’m in the “young and stupid” category. Got my first credit card sophomore year and always had a balance on it after that. Got more cards along the way, too.
Over time, my balances grew steadily but I somehow always thought I was very close to paying them off. The all-time high was $14,400 last summer. I’ve paid that down since, and pay my cards off every month unless I have a specific reason not to.
My other big debts are student loans (45K) and two mortgages (both shared with my bf–240K and 14K). I’m glad to have these, since the alternative would have been renting with no college education.
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Not everyone gets into debt via credit card spending and bad habits. We were debt free when we moved to the US 3yrs ago. As a family of 5 though, we needed two cars to be able to get about here, so we took out a car loan for one (unaware that the US financial system considers us to be 18yrs old with no credit, despite the fact we’re both in our 40′s.) The interest payments have been excruciating.
During the past year I’ve had us on a plan to eliminate this debt. Just as we’re at that point, our single income is in jeopardy and we may need to live on that money. It’s a pain, but somehow we will move forward and be debt free again. I’m determined!
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I disagree. I think many fall into category number two, with costs of necessities– healthcare possibly the highest among them–not keeping up with income.
I have looked up the stats that support that belief and that show how healthcare (and other, but healthcare is one of if not the worst in this regard) costs have risen so drastically in comparison to income and that demonstrate what a larger percentage of our incomes healthcare costs make up, compared with even the very recent past.
Housing, high cost of education, etc. are contributers as well. Of course many people have problems with over-consuming and poor budgeting, but many exist in that middle category, far too many. It’s not too hard to find stats that offer more info. I don’t think one can simpy hazard an accurate guess *without* looking at statistics.
I don’t know if you’re looking for broader info by surveying readers or if you’re just curious about your readers. I don’t think surveying your readers will give anything but info on your readers and your readers alone, who are likely not an accurate representation of the country at large.
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I had to say I loved the comment by “Geek.” And I totally agree with you J.D on “I agree that personal finance writers — including myself — don’t do a good job of addressing those with low incomes.” It’s one reason, among many, I’ve mostly stopped reading such blogs and am not involved with that community.
But as far as: “It’s a weakness. I’m not sure how to improve it,” I think a first step would be to not make unresearched conjectures about why people are in debt, and look more into the facts and become better informed about the issues that contribute to that middle groups mentioned in your post.
This is a consumerist culture, to be sure, but it’s also one that is quickly self-destructing due to a combination of poor health often caused by environmental/societal reasons and exorbitant costs of healthcare and other necessities.
Another step would be to address a variety of populations including those whose pf needs and circumstances may vary from the norm you know and write about. Maybe actively seek for interview subjects or guest post authors who can shed some light on these other perspectives. Maybe speak to some who study such issues, interview those who through their work are familiar with a different segment of the population, people who can provide facts and stats to support the info. they present.
I suggest this only because you expressed a desire for better addressing a wider segment of the population–which is a move I really support and think would also make you stand out among other pf blogs (not that you already don’t, but in a different way), as, like you said, many do share the weakness of looking at things from a somewhat limited perspective in this regard.
All the best,
M
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m,
In regards to whether most personal finance bloggers write about low-income… I totally agree with you. I love regular PF blogs but most don’t apply to me and my husband. My fatigue means I can’t do a lot of the frugal tips offered on these things.
That’s why I finally started a blog myself about being low income (disability and unemployment) and still managing to get by/pay down debt. So far the response has been good but time will tell if it catches on.
I know there’s plenty of Americans out there with health issues or who are just low-income. And certainly there are plenty of people who want to be frugal but between a job (or two) and family, they don’t have much extra energy themselves. I think if more folks who were low-income could share their survival techniques, we’d all get a lot out of it.
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It all started when I left my ex. I was in a positive financial state but needed some new things to start life on my own. So, I spent $5K on new furnishing for my new apartment. Not a lot of money, but I did it.
Then I applied for $3K for credit with my bank to pay for a car. I never bought a car.
Then I went back to school and didn’t move into a cheaper accommodation for a full year after doing that – so instead of paying ~$500 per month (which is what my budget would have sustained), I paid $1K/ month over one year.
I had $20K in RRSP money that I borrowed from myself to pay for school, and $15K that I borrowed for student loans.
However, in four years, I still racked up $40K of debt, meaning that I actually spent (gah!) $65K on consumer spending. When I look back over my expenses I can pick out a few large ones:
- flights to and from NZ, plus visas, etc (~$4K)
- flight to Australia and travel (~5K)
- flight and luggage to Calgary from Vancouver (500 bux)
- trips within New Zealand ($2K)
- laptop computer ($3K)
- school tuition and courses and books and movie rentals (I was a film student) for three years – $15K
all of which accounts for $30K.
There is still another $35K which I can’t account for, but the most I can think is that it was for living expenses, food, parties, and interest. If I think about it, I didn’t have an income from August of 03 until August of 06, so three years on zero salary (save for some small part-time jobs), and living and travelling is a pretty good deal.
I’ve got my debt payment down now, and if I just pay the minimum plus a tinch more, I’ll be paid off of my debts in six years. Although that being said, I’m hoping to get a bit of a part-time job to make that six years shrink a bit. I’d like to do some more travelling, but before I can travel, I need to pay off this debt.
So overall, my “reason” for spending, in a nutshell, was that I honestly didn’t think I would live past the age of 30, so I didn’t figure I would need to worry about money past then. Now at the ripe age of 32, I think “DAMN!”< but I guess I can attribute it all to being young and stupid.
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Out of debt now and without Credit cards.
Use to have debt from.
Mortgage (120K) – Sold house and now renting, but may have one again some day.
Student loans (50K between 2 people) – paid off in 9 years combined.
Car (14K on 2 cars)- paid off in 4 years, now only pay cash for cars.
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Young, stupid, and substance abuser at 17.
Clean, sober, debt free, and retired at 57. I had to learn the hard way.
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It is truly amazing on how quickly your credit score can plummet. What is even more amazing is how long it takes before it will start to creep up again. Trying to do the right thing and pay off debt should be a log more rewarding to consumers.
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Making music is a money pit.
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I’m happy to say that I am debt free. It wasn’t always this way…I supported a dead beat artist husband for 10 years, which lead to $18k in debt in the form of a balance on my home equity line of credit.
Fast forward…my birthday 2006. He announced he was leaving (don’t feel sorry for me…it was the BEST birthday gift he ever gave me!). I drew up the divorce papers, had him sign them, and 3 months later I was free.
Then I found JD’s blog and started to unravel my debt load.
Today I am debt free and have about $7k in an emergency HSBC savings account earning 3.5% interest. My 401k is fully funded. I have a ROTH IRA.
And I will never, EVER, support anyone like that again. Hard lesson learned.
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Most of my debt was due to eating out too much and buying things for my house that I thought I needed, but were really just “wants”. In past relationships I have been overly generous as well with treating for meals, vacations, and various other purchases. I’ve since been working on BALANCE and determining if something is a NEED or WANT. It’s a work in progress, but it’s coming along.
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we were young and fabulously stupid. we were in love. they were two great years. they were also very expensive.
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Right before College Graduation, my bank offered me a “Career Starter” loan for a significant amount of money, but for a very low interest rate. I used some of the loan to pay off another school loan at a higher interest rate, but used most of the loan to travel and party the summer after my senior year. Dumb!!!
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Getting into debt is the best thing that ever happened to me financially.
I used to spend money frivolously and foolishly. I saw credit as “free money”. Before long I was playing credit card roulette, using one loan to pay off another. Credit counselling helped me to get back on my feet.
Now I consider myself a financial planning expert because I have learned to associate debt with pain.
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I just got out of debt – my last paycheck on Friday was the first paycheck that was ALL MY MONEY.
In 1992 when I graduated from college I started using my credit card (with a $500 limit back then) to furnish my new apartment. As the limit rose, so did my spending. In 1994 I got a second credit card. In 1998 I went to grad school on loans, which came due in 2000. In 2005 I bought a new car with a car loan.
The combination of 2 credit cards, school loans and a car loan resulted in me owing, at one point, a grand total of over $65,000.
I paid off the small credit card first, then I cashed in an old pre-Roth IRA and almost paid off the second one (ouch, tax hit though). With frugal living and tax refunds, I paid off the school loans in early 2007. In fall of 2007 I sold the car and paid off the car loan. That left me with a few thousand on my remaining credit card, which I paid off completely 2 weeks ago.
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We went from a two income family, to a one income family, and haven’t really changed our lifestyle accordingly. Bad, bad move! We are overcorrecting now though.
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Unemployment. Long periods of unemployment are what got us. We’re in our early 50s and managed relatively well, if not magnificently for a while. We had an investment go south, but we were young and dumb. We lost our house when my husband went a year without finding a job; as fine a degree as can be studied and bought, this man now drives a truck 27-28 days a month, home just three.
Then came the health issues, multiple, chronic, more than one of us, and that has made my earning ability plummet.
Life happens, kiddos. We lived beyond our means in the smallest of ways, and I can pinch a penny till it squeals, but sometimes, survival depends on it. If that compounds with foolishness and medical issues, then it’s no longer a matter of self denial and one of getting through a month that’s way longer than the money.
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we’re credit card debt free this month I’m trying very hard not to even use it although it would get paid off before the end of the cycle were we to use it.
how did we get into credit card debt, we were being normal, dinners, vacations, school books, tuitions and everything in between.
we’ve fixing it for the past 15 months
DebtFreeCrusader
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A mixture of a relatively short period of unemployment (with a zero-balance emergency fund), a few vacations I really couldn’t afford, and stupidity (eating out way too much, charging a brand-new bed amd mattress, offering to buy concert tickets for me and my friends ["I'll buy the tix and then you can just pay me back!"], etc. The highest balance was almost 13K (pretty bad for someone who makes under 40K a year). It’s now down to a little under 3K on a no-interest card; I should easily be able to pay it off before the zero percent interest ends. Then comes the fun part (really!)–being able to put the money that I’m using each month to pay off stupid crap into an emergency fund instead!
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I had no substantial debt until my last couple of years of graduate school. My funding ran out, and I declined a TA assignment thinking that if I put that extra time into my research I would finish sooner. Sadly, I stupidly didn’t apply for student loans but used credit cards instead, thinking that as soon as I graduated I’d get a job and be able to pay it off quickly. Well, it took another 18 months to finish my degree, then several months of total unemployment before I finally got a job that barely paid enough to cover my minimums. Now I’m almost $50K in debt
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funny you should ask — i was planning on writing a post answering those very questions at my own blog
i started accumulating debt freshman year in college (young and stupid), starting with my first credit card. i was able to pay off my monthly balance for about 3 months. then suddenly as i began to carelessly purchase things left and right, my balance got out of control. as my spending increased, so did my debt, and i found myself being only able to pay the minimums. gradually i found myself applying for more and more credit cards, accumulating more and more debt, and not being able to pay off the balances.
recently, i had it. so i took out a personal loan at an interest rate lower than my most recent credit card, paid off the credit card with it, then canceled my last credit card. now i no longer have my own credit cards.
i now pay off as much of the loan as i can monthly and times in between, determined more than ever to get my debt habits under control. if i were to make the minimum payments, it would take me several years. i plan to pay it off with income from my full-time job (and hopefully from potential income from the side somehow!) within a year, or a year and a half at most, realistically.
i agree that it isn’t necessarily using plastic that is the problem — but rather bad consumer spending habits as you mention.
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Where do I start? Making bad choices, getting a loan to pay off credit card debt and then instead of tearing up the credit cards maxing them out again, then getting another loan and the vicious cycle starts all over again. Here I am, I could retire, I’ve got the years and the age and alas because of poor choices, I’m unable to. Now my dh and I have a plate full of debt; we’re under CCCS, but still things are tight.
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Legal fees over my daughter. I’m surprised that no one else has mentioned this. I tried mediation and everything else and so we’re off to court now. I’m expecting to rack up about $30K in debt from the process and it will take 2-3 years to pay off. Ouch.
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I have a stupid story to share with you: I have spent the last 8 years of my life trying to survive. I got out of the Army in 2001 w/ about $20,000 worth of debt. I had a car loan and a few credit cards to pay off. I moved in with my Dad and looked for a job. I decided to go to a career school to learn how to become a medical assistant. I took out a student loan for $11,000. Big mistake. I didn’t qualify for financial aid because I made too much money in the Army. Can someone explain to me how $18,000 a year is too much money for a single guy? I am still paying off this student loan. It’s down to about $6760. I spent 8 years trying to pay off my credit cards. I used my credit cards to buy food & gas when I didn’t have money. All of my credit cards went to collection agencies because I made late payments/no payments. After I graduated, I tried to be a medical assitant but I hated it. I really hated it. I’ve done all sorts of odd jobs for 8 years. And I went to community colleges and used the G.I. Bill for extra money. I paid off my car loan in 2006. I have one credit card that still needs to be paid off: it’s about $300. I’ve never had enough money for rent, loan payments, food, gas, and other expenses. I have been working hard to earn money and most of my money is spent on bills. My entertainment is: going to the $1 movie theatre, picnics in the park, and watching TV.
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Wasn’t a straw on a camels back that did me in……
My Odyssey of debt (45K-medical/25K-CC/5K-college) started with a Motorcycle accident and deteriorated from there. When I bought that bike, I had 0 debt, 730 FICO, a small business, some savings, owned a car, finished 5 yrs of college. I spent years managing my money/credit diligently.
After the accident, I couldn’t walk for 5+ months, so I moved in with my parents and closed my business. When I could work again, I was stuck in the Ohio hills-in 6 mo. NO ONE would hire me- NO JOBS there.
By this point, I was spending to survive, using my savings up, and mooching off family.
I moved to Austin TX,(better job market)- and spent months competing w/PHD’s for $7/hr jobs. I had to improve my bad situation, so I took construction job training. Now, I was living on my cards out of basic necessity.
Then, one day a CC wouldn’t accept a partial payment- all or nothing(!). They threatened me for the last time- I hung up, & never paid a bill again. Really. I was devastated by how little it took to trash all my years of financial responsibility. It also made me cynical when health issues started requiring creative, or unethical solutions- with no insurance or credit, good luck getting care.
Since then, I have built a career in Solar Energy,and make pretty good money (84K this yr). I would love to fix this. I’m trying to figure out the best solution right now- that’s how I found this site. I don’t have kids or anything, so there is no reason I can’t get ahead- just gotta learn how, I’m out of practice.
Thanks for letting me vent. I hope you all see that sometimes, bad things just happen. reading the other stories was really eye opening.
StaceyJW
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My husband and I lived in Silicon Valley. No one would hire us, even after he finished his degree. He finally got a job, but that left us $10K in the hole every year he kept it. We didn’t think we could afford to move, and everyone told us that moving would be “running away from our problems” or that there aren’t any jobs anywhere else. Finally, we realized that it’s cheaper to be unemployed if you live someplace cheaper. We weren’t getting jobs there, so it didn’t really matter.
Best decision we ever made.
We also have student debt, but we’re both still in school (me a BA, he an MBA), so we don’t have to make payments yet.
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Hmmm. I did it in a variety of ways! (American Overchiever!) I had a student loan that took me years to pay off, but I did it; it wasn’t enough to fully finance my education, but it WAS enough to put me behind a financial 8-ball. And then I acquired the most expensive, useless appendage possible: a husband who didn’t want to work. Oh, he didn’t start OUT that way – I’m not THAT stupid. But he lost his job, he had to work different little jobs, temp – and the less he worked, the more he liked it; he wound up with one part-time job, while I had a full-time job and three part-time jobs. And he spent. And didn’t consider the bills HIS responsibility. DIDN’T EVEN FILE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT the last time he lost his job! NO, it was less “shameful,” apparently, filing for BANKRUPTCY than it was applying for the unemployment he’d paid into the system – bankruptcy because I couldn’t carry all the expenses for both of us. I never defaulted on the car payments (although I don’t drive), never behind on the rent/mortgage, but he just wouldn’t get a full-time job. Wouldn’t apply for medical, to which he was entitled, either through the temp agency OR the VA, to which he was also entitled. I just couldn’t afford him any more; when I left, I took one cat, my clothes, my sewing gear and a second-hand frypan which had been a gift to me personally. I didn’t take a plastic spoon or a pillow with me; I slept on the floor of my apartment, under some of my fabric. I left everything else with him, everything that I’d paid for. I had some medical issues which led to unexpected credit card expenses; I’ve spent the last two years basically living on plain bagels, paying off that card, and the last payment should be THIS MONTH. (Yes, there are certainly cheaper ways to eat, more nutritious ways to eat. See “MEDICAL expenses,” supra.)
I had two close friends who wound up doing a credit card crash-and-burn over medical expenses; one went bankrupt, one endured years of grinding deprivation to pay off the bills – and the medical expenses they both paid were for OTHER PEOPLE.
There are a lot of people who get into financial trouble by being over-indulgent; there are, I think even more who’ve gotten into financial trouble without being indulgent in any way, shape, or form – except medically.
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