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One can have any number of credit cards...that does not mean they have to use them. I'm 60 and got my first credit card about 10 years ago. I have several but none of them have balances. If I cannot pay for something I don't buy it. Simple.
I don't know what you mean by 'planning' ...
Until I was able to actually start saving money, I didn't even know what 'interest income' meant on my 1040!
That begs the questions:
1- Why wasn't there a need for credit cards?
2- Why did you get one?
3- Which generations is responsible for creating "the convenience"?
Take that drive down the highway I talked about and observe; my anecdotal observations are just as accurate as Your " Iknow too many people who refute.....". Go ahead and book a tee time during week days during work hours and count on one hand how many boomers are out there versus YOUR generation. While you're at it, gander at the number of new cars in the parking lot.
My world IS your world. Try an unbaised approach and you'll get your eyes opened. Talking to your peer group doesn't cut it; of course you're all gonna cry the same river.
You're on here squawking up a storm while "illegal aliens" are out there starting up landscaping business's in YOUR neighbourhood; they're smart enough to know you kiddies don't wanna cut your own grass, tote your own dirt, wash your cars and clean your pools.
Take a drive into a commercial strip plaza of roll-up door business's and I guarantee you'll find at least one shop selling chrome wheels and huge tires for your 4X4 off-road, jacked-up, pick-ups and Escalades (that'll never see dirt) and ask about their LEASE plans for those wheels and tires.
You morons put the damn things on a lease plan to look good in the hood.
It ain't my generation creating the market for this chit bud.
Let me add..
Buy a USED car ? No way..ain't happening. New or bust and if they can't afford to buy a new car then just lease it as you said.
Starter homes with 3 and 4 bedrooms ?
Student loans now cover books/tuition/dorm AND your social life ?
Entering the world at 21 with nearly $100K in debt, no job and an entitled mentality (everyone's a winner..where's my trophy ?) is why you're bashing the previous generation.
The GI bill put me through school. I had a rusting out Mustang as my first car with about 4 different colors (replaced panels but I loved that car though ). Interest rates were 15-18% for mortgages, CC rates were over 20%. Couldn't get ANY loans with those rates and a low salary. Had to exist on cash or layaway because there was no such thing as "easy credit" people.
I didn't have it easy until about 10 years after I had been working a while and the economy improved. Didn't complain though..just adapted and made my way through life.
Speaking of which, that offered...
- Low-cost mortgages
- Low-cost loans to start a business or farm
- Cash payments for tuition
- Living expenses to attend high school, college and vocational programs
- One year of unemployment compensation
But I thought that would be pre-baby boomer generation taking advantage of all this? If anything, it is the Baby boomer generation that will be adding massive costs to social programs in the near future.
That begs the questions:
1- Why wasn't there a need for credit cards?
Because people only bought what they could afford. People saved to purchase things. That's what I did..
2- Why did you get one?
Advertising convinced me of the "need" for a credit card (credit rating).
3- Which generations is responsible for creating "the convenience"?
I don't know, since I got one relatively late in life. I don't really know when they became available to the general public. If in the 70's or 80's then it would have to be my parents generation (greatest..LOL) since a lot of boomers were only in their 20s during the 70s, and not in a position to wield any power.
There have been credit cards for a long time. Only the wealthy had them; carte blanche.
There was a time when credit card interest was tax deductable!
After the idea was sold to the general public, the tax deduction was eliminated. Can't have the peons enjoying the same perks as the wealthy, now, can we?
There have been credit cards for a long time. Only the wealthy had them; carte blanche.
There was a time when credit card interest was tax deductable!
After the idea was sold to the general public, the tax deduction was eliminated. Can't have the peons enjoying the same perks as the wealthy, now, can we?
LOL..I still remember my first CC. It was from Chase Manhattan Bank and had a limit of $500.
I know what was required very well. For my dad it was killing live animals, bleeding them out, processing them, and selling them. Thurs-Sat he'd be gone driving the truck to deliver his product. For my mom, it meant taking care of the office work and getting her hands dirty to help out my father. I worked with them every summer through high school and college to help them out and help pay my way through school. When my sisters were born, my family lived in the projects. Believe me, I understand what hard work means.
And if your paying 30k in income taxes your not struggling. I'm very glad that your doing well, but your not going to be able to relate to the college grad who's making $10 an hour. You probably can't even relate to the current cost of living and understand how close many Americans are to not being able to support themselves.
Unless you lived through the great depression, you have NOT experienced worse economic times. Yea there may be more technology now, and more "things", than before, but that does nothing for quality of living if you can't afford a roof over your head, gas in your car, and food on the table WHILE WORKING.
And while I applaud you for working for X number of years, yet nearly every American, including myself, will be working just as long, if not longer. I applaud all of the stories of overcoming from you Boomers, I really do. I just want to hammer home the concept that we are operating in a broken economy.
A reasonable post.
The broken economy thing is right on the money! BUT the economy had it's up and down cycles across the board for us as well that cycle repeats itself like a swinging pendulum and it will always be so. Nothing new on that front. Buying today should be done with a plan of failure tomorrow as it has always been so.
I can relate very well and so could your parents. Their business didn't just grow on a tree for easy picking did it? They saw high interest rates on borrowing of money requiring them to consider very carefully before replacing mom's 7 year old washing machine I'll bet.
My working career saw everything in it from spending time on the end of a shovel to sacrificing and taking THREE trades apprenticeships at lower pay rate along with 4 years of military service BEFORE even thinking of getting married and buying a house I could afford the payments on. Those were the halycon days of coughing up at least 15-20% of the purchase price as a down payment.
Have you forgotten those wonderful years of double digit inflation that saw our mortgage rates bloom into the hight teens and even low 20's percentage points? Gas crisis? Real estate plummet?
Your posts offer a more reasoned outlook at the problem facing your generation today and aren't filled with: "you had it easy and you need to admit it to us before we can move on and face our problem".
The O/P's casting his eyes backwards only serves as a "feel good" moment. What useful purpose does it serve other than to make everyone aware his diaper is full by flinging the contents around the room hoping it hits someone who'll rush in to change the damn thing. That AIN'T gonna happen.
I find it VERY hard to believe that a desert war is 'harder' combat than a jungle war.
It couldn't be that we are more competent now because of all we learned about battlefield medicine in Nam, could it?
No, I don't know the exact number of troops KIA during the last ten years. It is not reported on the news, as it had been during Nam. I'm not too far off the mark, though, am I.
Depending on how you count the numbers, around 7,000 have given their lives and 52,000 have been wounded in OIF and OEF. I'd say more than double is pretty far off the mark, but it's understandable. Most people checked out when we were at the 3,000 mark back in 2004/5.
We did make a lot of improvements in battlefield medicine after Nam. We also made substantial improvements during this conflict, particularly in head tramau. We have learned many useful things that are now being applied to sports medicine. (Learned the hard way unfortunately.)
As far as comparing a desert war to a jungle war, I really have nothing but love for my fellow veterans. No, I'm not particularly impressed that the boomer generation had to suffer through that long, horrible war (sarcasm) because hey.... I'm in the middle of my own war at the moment, which is longer ... I've pretty much spent my entire life doing war year on, year off. You can understand why the boomer whine doesn't play well in my head, can't you?
That begs the questions:
1- Why wasn't there a need for credit cards?
2- Why did you get one?
3- Which generations is responsible for creating "the convenience"?
Credit cards have been around for decades - at least Before credit cards it was ledgers and store credit. Before that it was IOU's on a handshake.
I'm not going to get into who states they had much harder combat than another....
I'll wager to say, the civil war vets have you all beat....
But more concerning, we have more vets coming home disabled because
of improvements in medicine. You are dying less, but have tripled in
disabilities.
The cost of that to the nation is going to be enormous over
the years...
I hope you will enjoy more than minimal financial compensation that
past generations have been afforded, and understand their travels
when it becomes unobtainable to yours....
But when all else fails, remember there is strength...in numbers
I really appreciate this post, polly, especially since I was being snarky about your generation. You're right... the Civil War veterans probably endured the most. I'm proud of my g-g-grandpa's service in the Cavalry even if he did ride for General Lee's Army.
As for the disabilities, if I don't get disabled myself (still doing fine... but I've got months left on this tour, and I'll probably do one more after this before calling it a day), I plan to make sure that this nation never forgets what my brothers and sisters in arms did after 9/11. It's easy to run your mouth. It's a bit harder to run toward the guns after an attack.
I hope Obama is right when he says that the nation will stand by them and honor their service.
Buy a USED car ? No way..ain't happening. New or bust and if they can't afford to buy a new car then just lease it as you said.
LOL !!!
I was 58 years old when I bought my FIRST NEW CAR! Yep, only two years ago, which, I might add, is already paid off. (can't stand making monthly payments)
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). Interest rates were 15-18% for mortgages, CC rates were over 20%. Couldn't get ANY loans with those rates and a low salary. Had to exist on cash or layaway because there was no such thing as "easy credit" people.
Yep, only two years ago, which, I might add, is already paid off. (can't stand making monthly payments)