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Some people cant figure this out on their own and they don't keep track of it. I don't think they are idiots at all. Some people have to make a mistake to learn from it.
I made mistakes financially and are learning from them. Just dont make the same mistake twice.
No. I don't think they're all idiots. Being stupid doesn't help with personal finance. It's certainly one reason someone could end up with a lot of credit card debt, but I tend to think of people who either don't understand or can't suffer through long-term planning and delayed gratification.
No. I don't think they're all idiots. Being stupid doesn't help with personal finance. It's certainly one reason someone could end up with a lot of credit card debt, but I tend to think of people who either don't understand or can't suffer through long-term planning and delayed gratification.
Fortunately, most people with enough credit to get into trouble with are adults. They should have some idea of the benefits of delayed gratification and long-term planning. That's one of the lines of demarcation between childhood and adulthood.
I'm not talking about some poor person who lost his job, never earned very much so no savings, and is loading up credit cards with living expenses simply so he won't end up on the streets.
What I'm referring to is the person who has a steady income but chooses to overspend until he is drowning in credit card debt, then whines about it.
I have an aunt who is always complaining about how poor she is, yet she makes $50k per year, and she confided in me that she has $20k in credit card debt. The first thought that popped in my head was "why didn't you live within your means, idiot?"
I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for people who spend recklessly and acquire a debt problem.
Exactly. My SIL is one of those idiots. They make good money, but always have to buy the latest and greatest. And if one buys something, the other "gets" to buy something too.
About 10 years ago my husband and MIL bailed them out when they racked up $30k in cc debt (before we'd met). They live mortgage-free (thanks to an inherited home), but are back in debt of the same amount. Just bought a brand new SUV, a fifth wheel, and their son takes private lessons for the sport he participates in.
And yes, they whine. A few months ago they came to visit us (we are very close to their son) and she actually asked my husband to buy her plane tickets for her, since "they're broke at the moment". He said no, so she got MIL to pay. And while they were here, we treated them to a lot of things (meals, the zoo, museums), and she spent the week saying she'd "treated us" because she bought a $20 pizza the first night. Her wallet never came out again.
Speaking for myself, I understand basic math. I went to a good college. I studied and got good grades. When I was a Senior in High School, our school had this bright idea to make a mandatory new class called "Senior Seminar" and it was all about budgeting, balancing your checkbook, and other life skills that we'd have to know when we go off to college and live on our own. Most of use whined about it and some of us got waived from taking it even though it was mandatory. The point is that sometimes these classes are taught in schools but most students and parents resist because it's not like teaching the sciences, literature, etc.
I got into credit card debt around my last year in college. I ended up in about $20k debt. This was back in the mid 90s so the "good money" that most people were making was barely double that.
I got into that debt because I wanted to have fun. I wanted to buy things, go out, dine out, go to bars, etc. I figured that I'd be working soon and would be able to pay it back. I did pay it all back but it took me about 2 years. Looking back, I don't actually regret it because I knew that I'd be working soon and able to pay it off.
I have not been in cc debt since then.
I find that if your income is really low (under $50k) then it's hard to avoid being in credit card debt. But I also know folks who make 6 figure incomes that have a lot of cc debt. Those are folks who simply don't know how to live within their means and guess what...if by chance they happen to make a lot more money, they just buy bigger toys, eat more expensive food, buy more expensive jewelry, etc. the absolute worst are gamblers...the more money they make, the higher the gambling stakes and in the end...only the house wins.
I'm not talking about some poor person who lost his job, never earned very much so no savings, and is loading up credit cards with living expenses simply so he won't end up on the streets.
What I'm referring to is the person who has a steady income but chooses to overspend until he is drowning in credit card debt, then whines about it.
I have an aunt who is always complaining about how poor she is, yet she makes $50k per year, and she confided in me that she has $20k in credit card debt. The first thought that popped in my head was "why didn't you live within your means, idiot?"
I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for people who spend recklessly and acquire a debt problem.
Impulsive, yes. Idiots, not necessarily.
Some people can be very intelligent and knowledgeable and yet still be impulsive. It may seem strange, but it's reality.
if you accumulated $20k in cc debt by buying clothes and shht and going to lunch with friends everyday then yes you are an idiot
i would say though that some people use cc for emergency situations like car repairs, bill payments, stuff like that when they are short on cash and are trying to get by
if you make a good income and you have large cc debt then you are a monkey
if you accumulated $20k in cc debt by buying clothes and shht and going to lunch with friends everyday then yes you are an idiot
i would say though that some people use cc for emergency situations like car repairs, bill payments, stuff like that when they are short on cash and are trying to get by
if you make a good income and you have large cc debt then you are a monkey
The OP is clear about how the debt has been acquired that we are to give opinions on.
Some of my debt was from charging and I still owed on my car, a boat and a quad. I consolidated "all" debt onto my credit card a total of 17k. Once consolidated I hit it hard. Those days they were great for paying off debt, 0% interest and they didn't charge a fee offers coming in all the time but I'm sure they hoped I would either start using freed up credit, use the card, or miss a payment because if I missed a payment the interest rate automatically went back to regular interest rate.
I don't think they are stupid per say, just a kind of naive. I know some very smart people who spend way too much money and always have credit card debt. An engineer I know (smart guy) is that way. He's in his late 40s and doesn't have a cent to his name (says it's "so hard" to save even just a small emergency fund of $1000). Yet he goes out to movies 2-3 times a week, sometimes seeing the same movie twice. He's intelligent, he's good at math, there is just some disconnect when it comes to money.
That said, my grandmother (who didn't even have a high school education and was a housewife her whole life) was a really shrewd investor and great with money and budgeting. She was a great woman, but not highly educated or what most people would think of as intelligent (yet she had a lot of common sense, wisdom, and financial sense).
I almost wonder if financial IQ is a separate IQ in an of itself. You know they say we have regular intelligence IQ, emotional IQ, who knows, maybe there's a financial discipline IQ.
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