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I've been divorced twice (no children). I've been shown the door 3 times in my work career. My net worth isn't what I'd like it to be due to the divorces but I didn't commit financial suicide over my decisions. The difference is that I'm a 5%-er professional and can recover quickly from my bad decisions. The High School C student with a semester of Community College and a repetitive task job doesn't have that capability. I have tons of margin. Somebody like that has virtually none at all. It's why the poverty rate in single parent households is so awful. If you pick the wrong guy, pop out a few kids, and the guy vaporizes, you're screwed financially unless you're one of the rare few with the intelligence and drive to juggle getting yourself on a career track with children underfoot.
If you're that single mother living from paycheck to paycheck struggling to stay afloat, you're going to have to pick between food on the table, rent, utilities, car payment, car insurance, and all the rest of the bills we all have. Your credit rating is going to be horrible because you can't possibly juggle all that and keep the late payment blemishes off your credit report. When your car dies, you're forced to the buy-here, pay-here used car lot. There's probably a GPS tracker and remote ignition disable box installed in the car.
On the whole honesty thing... I'm affluent. I can afford to be honest. it would have to be a life-changing event to tempt me. A few million bucks. Somebody who is really struggling can be honest and moral but is going to have a much lower threshold. My couple of million might be $5,000.
exactly , not everyone who has one the of the big three is devastated . those who are can usually be back tracked to find it was a bunch of poor choices and bad decisions over their life time.
don't forget assets play no part in your credit score so an employer does not know if you are a low credit score individual with no money , lots of money or an honesty issue . you are just in with the group for the ride whether it apply's or not once you have poor credit . no credit history may not do you much better since no answer as far as your ability tio pay and want to pay is still no answer .
eventually one of the big three get all of us , DIVORCE-ILLNESS-JOB LOSS .
it is all the other choices and decisions you made along the way that determine how you come out when the big three get you . we all don't end up committing financial suicide because of better choices and decisions .
most of those who failed think they are the exception and things were unavoidable but had some one else been them the outcome may have been quite different .
low credi scores also throw you in a group that has a BIG QUESTION MARK OVER THEM AS TO HONESTY .
the auto industry has proven to congress that as a group lower score individuals tend to be less honest in certain situations then the higher score group.
you will be penalized just by association here .
.
This post is such a good one. I'm old enough that just about everyone I know my age has had at least one of these three things happen. Including me. I'm planned well and I'm OK. Its just like you say. It devastated those that never thought to plan on any of it happening. We're human beings and nothing is for sure and unfortunately you have to live defensively. Its expensive to have to think about planning and so many funner ways to spend money.
The difference is that I'm a 5%-er professional and can recover quickly from my bad decisions. The High School C student with a semester of Community College and a repetitive task job doesn't have that capability. I have tons of margin. Somebody like that has virtually none at all..
It's a reasonable point and it's true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD
It's why the poverty rate in single parent households is so awful. If you pick the wrong guy, pop out a few kids, and the guy vaporizes, you're screwed financially unless you're one of the rare few with the intelligence and drive to juggle getting yourself on a career track with children underfoot..
Yes, this is why who you have kids with and the circumstances into which you bring them into the world are such a big deal. Unfortunately, since the last half of the 1960s, the message has been: It's mean and uncompassionate to stigmatize single moms. Single parenting doesn't really hurt the kids that much and we should subsidize single parents. The result: In 1970, we had an out of wedlock birth rate of less than 20%. Now it's about 40%. Now, even people on the liberal side of the aisle are admitting that conservatives were right to make a big deal out of single parenting:
...a wealth of research strongly suggests that marriage is good for children. Those who live with their biological parents do better in school and are less likely to get pregnant or arrested. They have lower rates of suicide, achieve higher levels of education and earn more as adults. Meanwhile, children who spend time in single-parent families are more likely to misbehave, get sick, drop out of high school and be unemployed.
And this from Slate Magazine's relationship advice columnist, Emily Yoffe:
....perhaps in our desire not to make moral judgments about personal choices, young women wholly unprepared to be mothers are not getting the message that there are dire consequences of having (unprotected) sex with guys too lame to be fathers.
We simply have to send the memo from all corners that having kids without being married is a big deal. Unfortunately, until recently, only conservatives have been saying that.
I've said it in other posts. We'll never have a strong middle class with a 40% out of wedlock birth rate and high divorce rates. If we're serious about reducing income and wealth inequality, we're going to have to figure out ways to reduce the out of wedlock birth rate as well as reduce the number of divorces.
But the bottom line as far as an employer is concerned is that they don't want to have to deal with employees who have a lot of personal problems that make them vulnerable to temptation. Can you really blame them?
Let's say you're a sleezeball and are addicted to staying in credit card debt and receiving daily debt collection calls is a way of life for you. Is it possible to still live a decent life as long as you have a job and save a portion of your pay checks each month.
I can't imagine such a scenario is plesant at all but can it be accomplished? Basically can one live with a bad credit score and do little to nothing to improve their financial game.
Actually, not only do I believe it is possible, but for many the implications of bad credit is liberating. The term "bad credit" implies that good credit is good. But this is not necessarily the case. With credit, there is a psychological separation between the purchase of an item and the exchange of funds.
Those with bad credit must rely on financing purchases through earnings--not a bad thing.
I am living a decent life with bad credit .. I have no debt and I have money in the bank but my bank would not give me a loan recently without me handing over the title to my car .. there was a need for me to establish a bit of credit so I was told ..
you may not have a job if you ever need one . most company's today use background checks , credit scores and drug testing to cut the herd down . you may have trouble with auto insurance , getting an apartment or anything else that involves a look in to your character
Hmmm, could that be part of the reason so many Americans have dropped out of the labor force?
today getting an apartment , getting a decent job , your auto insurance and anything else that requires a judge of character for those who don't know you will base it on a credit check , back ground check and any other info out there they can judge you buy .
generally how you treat your financial life is REFLECTED IN WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON .
those who spend more than , usually think less than . . employers feel if you can handle your own money responsibly what are you going to do with money or company resources you don't pay for .
most folks are in financial trouble not because of the event that blew them over the top . usually it is bad decisions and poor choices leading up to that even that broke the camel s back .
so employers are leery.
I have already poked a hole in the notion that a credit check provides a good measure of character. Since when does someone who repudiated their debt with a 15-year-old BK have better character than someone who didn't repudiate the same amount of debt but can't pay if off due to low income and punitive cost of living?
today all these reports are used as filters in the job market . there is no reason an employer would want to spend any time at all trying to sort out who has legitimate reasons for a poor score or no history .
just move on to the next applicant and you don't have any digging to do and to waste time on . as they say no answer is no answer so the fact there is not enough credit history does not give an employer or insurer any insight in to who you are .
nothing beats using credit responsibly and having a top score . i have not paid a dime in interest in decades ,i just pay off the cards in full and have a score in the 800's .
Are you aware there are credit scoring models being developed to address the market segment of those without conventional credit scores?
eventually one of the big three get all of us , DIVORCE-ILLNESS-JOB LOSS .
it is all the other choices and decisions you made along the way that determine how you come out when the big three get you . we all don't end up committing financial suicide because of better choices and decisions .
most of those who failed think they are the exception and things were unavoidable but had some one else been them the outcome may have been quite different .
low credi scores also throw you in a group that has a BIG QUESTION MARK OVER THEM AS TO HONESTY .
the auto industry has proven to congress that as a group lower score individuals tend to be less honest in certain situations then the higher score group.
you will be penalized just by association here .
.
I have demonstrated that a dishonest tax cheat can coast with a good credit score while an honest poor person can put themselves in tax hell with indefinite low credit scores. (out = put)
I've been divorced twice (no children). I've been shown the door 3 times in my work career. My net worth isn't what I'd like it to be due to the divorces but I didn't commit financial suicide over my decisions. The difference is that I'm a 5%-er professional and can recover quickly from my bad decisions. The High School C student with a semester of Community College and a repetitive task job doesn't have that capability. I have tons of margin. Somebody like that has virtually none at all. It's why the poverty rate in single parent households is so awful. If you pick the wrong guy, pop out a few kids, and the guy vaporizes, you're screwed financially unless you're one of the rare few with the intelligence and drive to juggle getting yourself on a career track with children underfoot.
If you're that single mother living from paycheck to paycheck struggling to stay afloat, you're going to have to pick between food on the table, rent, utilities, car payment, car insurance, and all the rest of the bills we all have. Your credit rating is going to be horrible because you can't possibly juggle all that and keep the late payment blemishes off your credit report. When your car dies, you're forced to the buy-here, pay-here used car lot. There's probably a GPS tracker and remote ignition disable box installed in the car.
On the whole honesty thing... I'm affluent. I can afford to be honest. it would have to be a life-changing event to tempt me. A few million bucks. Somebody who is really struggling can be honest and moral but is going to have a much lower threshold. My couple of million might be $5,000.
I'm poor and honest. (That got me into a tax lien some years back, which I could have avoided by not reporting SE income.)
I don't feel any temptation because I feel like a victim and value that status highly, and because I believe victim cred is dependent on honesty - a dishonest person is a victimizer, not a victim.
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