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How does one go about protecting themselves from their place of employment closing with no notice?
You live on less than you make, preferably a lot less. That may mean riding a bike instead of having a car. It may mean renting a room instead of having your own apartment. Skipping the expensive cell phone for the good enough one. Working a 2nd job or side gig in addition to the one you have. Using birth control religiously if one is sexually active but isn't able to support a child, etc., etc.
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Originally Posted by pknopp
Guy graduates from college with six figure debt.
1st mistake was getting a BA with 6 figure debt. That's insane right there.
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Originally Posted by pknopp
Lands a job.....things going well.....buys a house....boom. Doors locked and he is out of a job.
Mistake #2. Bought a house while having 6 figure student loan debt. When you have 6 figure student loan debt, you treat it like an emergency. You don't go buying a house. You rent a 1BR apartment at most, or maybe even have roommates. I have a friend who got his M.D. at age 38 with 6 figure student loan debt. He rented a 1BR apartment in a so-so area for just over 1.5 years and drove an economy car until he had the debt paid off.. Actually, he drove the car until it was 11 years old with expensive problems that weren't worth fixing.
Or you know, we could see how successful these programs are run in another countries using evidence based testing and incorporate them here.
As another poster said, we can't even get the people who advocate such programs to admit they are rife with corruption. Instead, they hurl all kinds of epithets at those of us who criticize them.
Please....we all are not going to be able to save enough to pay cash for our houses. Fake solutions are not to be taken seriously.
Right. That is why you don't buy a house without at least a big down payment. Until then, you rent the smallest place which may include roommates) you can tolerate for as long as you can, if owning a home is your goal. This guy worked 3 jobs and rented part of his house so he could pay his mortgage off in 3 years (in the expensive Toronto housing market)....and yet he got a ration of sh*t for it by a lot of commenters. Now in his early 30s, he doesn't have to worry too much if he loses his job. He treated his debt like an emergency. Perhaps he went a little too extreme, but if most people had 1/4 the drive this guy did, they'd be in very good shape.
People were not able to sell in 2009. It took many well over 3 months to find another job.
Right. Which is why even annoying financial experts like Suze Orman advocate 6 month emergency funds in addition to having what you need for the down payment and closing costs. Even Suze has said that the problem she sees with most people is they get a job and act as if nothing bad will ever happen to them (never get sick, never lose the job, etc.). Everyone knows we have a tough economy, yet it doesn't translate into a change of behavior....which just fuels the vicious cycle.
The economy collapses under your scenario. Maybe our economy should be built upon another model and I agree BUT it is not.
So again.....real world here, not your make believe one.
Um, actually, the economy collapsed under the debt scenario anyway because eventually people can't pay back their debts. It was propped up by more government spending, and if that isn't brought under control, we'll have an even bigger collapse.
Our savings rate has increased to about 5.5%. If the savings rate increases gradually by a percentage point or two every year, the economy isn't going to collapse...so your comment is nothing but hyperbole.
Right. That is why you don't buy a house without at least a big down payment. Until then, you rent the smallest place which may include roommates) you can tolerate for as long as you can, if owning a home is your goal. This guy worked 3 jobs and rented part of his house so he could pay his mortgage off in 3 years (in the expensive Toronto housing market)....and yet he got a ration of sh*t for it by a lot of commenters. Now in his early 30s, he doesn't have to worry too much if he loses his job. He treated his debt like an emergency. Perhaps he went a little too extreme, but if most people had 1/4 the drive this guy did, they'd be in very good shape.
Right. Which is why even annoying financial experts like Suze Orman advocate 6 month emergency funds in addition to having what you need for the down payment and closing costs. Even Suze has said that the problem she sees with most people is they get a job and act as if nothing bad will ever happen to them (never get sick, never lose the job, etc.). Everyone knows we have a tough economy, yet it doesn't translate into a change of behavior....which just fuels the vicious cycle.
He's not extreme at all.
The way I see it, if you can't afford to pay for a house in full, plus any essential repairs, plus at least several hundred thousand dollars on top of that in case of medical emergency (if American), you can't afford a house!
Um, no. It actually isn't. But if you can't comfortably afford one (i.e. put down 20% and have a 6 month emergency fund), then by all means, do not buy one.
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Originally Posted by pknopp
A recently hired pharmaceutical rep also has to have a reliable car. Few have that kind of money just out of college.
Reliable, yes. But that doesn't mean "new".
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Originally Posted by pknopp
We didn't "need" QE I, II and III either but we did it. What does Dave Ramsey have to say about those Socialist welfare programs?
Agreed on QE. I'm pretty sure Dave Ramsey was not in favor of them, but I don't know that for sure.
All the Americans that are employed in a Union job at their local Defense Plant are very much in favor of government social programs. The petroleum companies selling thousands or tons of fuel to support the biggest military in the world also favor social programs. The latter are even more important than the former because they send the money directly to the investor/speculator classes and do not waste it on the workers.
The objection is to not spend money on keeping people well if they no longer serve the well off workers or the plutocrats. These are, given history's lessons, the Retired, Veterans (injured more then the rest) and, most specifically, those that are cursed by choosing poor parents, bad locations and all the other reasons to just quit trying to climb the cliff into "respectable society". The so called taxpayers will do everything possible to keep the wall surrounding poverty intact. Some of these people will support corrupt police forces to reinforce the wall as in Ferguson, Mo a couple of years ago. The people outside the wall of poverty will even support huge tax cuts for the people with more money than they will ever see. I guess they are betting on winning Powerball and don't want to pay taxes on their winnings.
What we are seeing in the opposition to social programs, except those that benefit from them, is a massive example of applied selfishness that is exploited by the hyper wealthy for their benefit at the long term expense of the lower income opposition. The "well off" workers are patsies for the hyper wealthy and always have been.
Such BS.
I would love to have a social program to teach the importance of marriage before children and how to maintain healthy relationships with others. Funny how programs like that don't exist in poor areas. Yet when we were arguable a poorer society 50 years ago, we did not have a 40% out of wedlock birth rate.
Statistically a cheap car is not good for a 30K miles a year sales road warrior. Repairs will eat him up. (Statistically many get car allowances for this kind of mileage)
But you can still get a decent used car for 10k to 12k and pay it off pretty quickly. Or you can take a different job if the expenses incurred by said job make the job not worth it.
We have moved the target. So we are dismissing the idea that people should be paying cash?
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No, YOU actually moved the target when you baldly stated that a house was consumer debt. The previous poster specifically defined his/her terms and didn't list a house as consumer debt.
No, we should fund what we want to create BUT unfortunately life is far from perfect and it would be impossible for charities to cover the health needs of a country and people shouldn't have to beg to see a doctor.
It's sad that there are so many that claim the U.S. is a Christian based country but then tell the poor, too bad you are sick.
Actually, the U.S. used to pay for health care with private money or charity without any insurance or government intervention to speak of until World War 2. We spent much less of a % of our incomes on health care back then, too. Insurance alone is eating up 1/3 of the cost of health care spending.
Insurance and government intervention have actually jacked up the cost of health care.
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