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I would say those who can meet their mortgage and car payments have jobs,decent jobs,their spouse work and they have multiple credit cards to tie them over.
I may be able to pay off my car and mortgage each month if I put my grocery,gas,drycleaning
,utility bills on my MC/VISA/
So ,should you include me in your statistics of most americans can or cannot pay mortgage and auto loan?
There are so many bills we can put on our credit cards and then make minimum payments.
There was a time in my life I dont have a car,when I first got out of school,I rode the bus to work and coming home,I take the subway,not having a car saves a lot of money,of course,I am not free!
Many years later,I moved to NYC where it would be stupid t o have a car when I live and work in the city,so once again,I save some money.
But I would say for most folks,you do need a car,with car comes auto insurance,AAA,gas,repair,license.
With house,comes homeowner insurance,repair,more water,gas,electric bills.
But that the American way,we live better than the rest of the world,by tapping our future income via MC.V minimum payments each month
I would say those who can meet their mortgage and car payments have jobs,decent jobs,their spouse work and they have multiple credit cards to tie them over.
There are so many bills we can put on our credit cards and then make minimum payments.
Anyone who's using credit cards to dance around their spending and debt has some real problems.
Rule #1: YOU HAVE TO SPEND LESS THAN YOU EARN!!! Yes, "even if". No, not "except when". If you are regularly spending more than you make, you have to cut something, and there is always something to cut. I'd refer you to Dave Ramsey.
Anyone who chooses (and, yes, it is a choice) to spend more than they make is choosing poverty.
Statistics and polls are snake oil in my estimation. I discount all of the "facts" that are spread around online. The only one I trust though is "a 100% of people will eventually die".
Then again, 98% of internet facts are wrong.
:-)
That's not true.
As Abraham Lincoln famously once said, "Everything on the Internet is True."
Ah, yes. The first pedant has arrived. How quaint.
The first comment to your Bloomberg piece provides some perspective:
Quote:
To the Editor:
In his examination of the claim that a large share of Americans could afford an unexpected $400 expense, Strain brings some healthy skepticism. But he misses the forest for the trees. The hard truth is at least 40% of Americans are struggling financially, and not having $400 in the bank is just one statistic that makes this point. Indeed, a third of respondents to a Federal Reserve survey rate their local economic condition as “poor” or “only fair.” A third of America is almost 110 million people.
We can do better.
Let’s follow Strain’s lead and examine the data closely, focusing on regular working people -- the half of U.S. households living on $60,000 or less. In that bracket, 1-in-5 (33 million people) wouldn’t be able to pay for an unexpected expense at all. Another 1-in-4 (41 million people) couldn’t pay some other bills if they had an unexpected expense. The data show these pervasive challenges are more pronounced for people of color and women.
Looked at another way, the relative stability of Americans in the top half of the income range obscures the reality for the rest of the country. If your income is above $60,000, you are a staggering 4.5 times as likely to pay all your bills despite that emergency.
Our research and that of others has shown repeatedly when an individual is worrying about finances, it affects stress levels and job performance. It has also shown that savings is the foundation of financial security; access to quality savings tools is essential to achieve the relative financial stability enjoyed by the top 50% of Americans.
No matter how you look at this data, there’s significant reason to ask what we can do to enable people to build a little savings for planned and emergency expenses. It starts with recognizing that no one benefits when a third of the country is living with chronic financial anxiety. It requires that we go beyond a stale posture of “people need to make better financial choices.” Sure, we all do. But what else can we do, structurally, to support people in reaching financial goals?
There are surprisingly straightforward ways employers, financial institutions and government can make financial security possible -- like making it easier for workers to deposit a small part of a paycheck to a savings account, or creative savings features on prepaid cards, or leveraging windfall moments like raises and tax refunds.
In many ways, we share Strain’s optimism. We find hope because when people are given the right tools to save, they make the decision to do so.
We have a collective interest in accurately representing research findings. But this shouldn’t distract from the most important call to action implied in the Fed’s report: Let’s end chronic financial insecurity in the US, and reap the benefits for individuals, families and communities, the workplace and the nation.
Timothy Flacke
Executive director
Commonwealth
Buildcommonwealth.org
Allston, Massachusetts
June 24, 2019
Ah, yes. The first pedant has arrived. How quaint.
The first comment to your Bloomberg piece provides some perspective:
Thank you, I strive for quaint. It beats pomposity any ole' day.
In some ways I agree with Mr. Flacke, people who have trouble saving $400 need help. But then he says continues to speak about "tools" and "support" to help people save. I suggest people who can not prove to the IRS they have a savings balance of $1,000 dollars be "supported" in the efforts to save by having half of their expected tax return deposited into an account set up for them (or by them) for their future emergencies. I know, people depend on those tax returns to try to catch up with the holiday bills, but it is for their own good.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,687 posts, read 81,510,683 times
Reputation: 57948
Quote:
Originally Posted by jnojr
Anyone who's using credit cards to dance around their spending and debt has some real problems.
Rule #1: YOU HAVE TO SPEND LESS THAN YOU EARN!!! Yes, "even if". No, not "except when". If you are regularly spending more than you make, you have to cut something, and there is always something to cut. I'd refer you to Dave Ramsey.
Anyone who chooses (and, yes, it is a choice) to spend more than they make is choosing poverty.
Yes, when you get a raise or promotion, rather than buy a new car, people can put at least part of it as additional amounts above the minimum on credit cards, increase your savings or retirement account contributions, and/or add a hundred or two on the principal if you have a mortgage. Too many look at it as extra money to spend. Most employers now offer automatic deposit, in addition to the retirement account withholding. In our case we can deposit in up to 5 different accounts. I like to increase the amount before I even get the raise so I don't miss it.
Thank you, I strive for quaint. It beats pomposity any ole' day.
In some ways I agree with Mr. Flacke, people who have trouble saving $400 need help. But then he says continues to speak about "tools" and "support" to help people save. I suggest people who can not prove to the IRS they have a savings balance of $1,000 dollars be "supported" in the efforts to save by having half of their expected tax return deposited into an account set up for them (or by them) for their future emergencies. I know, people depend on those tax returns to try to catch up with the holiday bills, but it is for their own good.
Good luck, Rg
Be careful what you wish for. Do you really want our government deciding who’s responsible enough to receive their tax refunds directly?
Thank you, I strive for quaint. It beats pomposity any ole' day.
In some ways I agree with Mr. Flacke, people who have trouble saving $400 need help. But then he says continues to speak about "tools" and "support" to help people save. I suggest people who can not prove to the IRS they have a savings balance of $1,000 dollars be "supported" in the efforts to save by having half of their expected tax return deposited into an account set up for them (or by them) for their future emergencies. I know, people depend on those tax returns to try to catch up with the holiday bills, but it is for their own good.
Good luck, Rg
And how do you suggest this forced savings to be administered and who is to pay for it?
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