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Nope having a few hundred in your savings account after bills is NOT broke, having a few hundred in the bank when your bills are due "Might be" broke.
If he has to use a credit card to be able to buy food and gas every month, he's broke. He's beyond broke. Same for if he needs financial help from family members.
Let's be realistic Geoff. There are damned few people with an 800-ish credit score, unless this ocean is on another planet somewhere.
If you pay your bills on time and aren't carrying balances on credit cards, you have an 800-ish credit score. Any financially secure 60 year old with retirement savings and an emergency fund is going to have that kind of credit profile.
Actually there is not, since women live longer than men on average there is a much higher percentage of men who never get to see retirement age. when a woman drops dead clutching her chest at 58 everyone is surprised(unless she was morbidly obese or something), if a 56 year old man keels over on the toilet nobody is surprised(unless he is of the Keanue reeves, Johnny Depp variety of 50+)
This creates an imbalanced male/female ratio in the 60+ dating pool(more widows than widowers) and the widowers who managed to build a large savings, pay off their house etc etc etc also have the option to marry much younger(I know it happens in reverse also but not in nearly the same numbers even though older woman younger man makes more sense logically because of the whole women living longer thing).
Basically the dating dynamics reverse when you hit your 60's and from there the dating pool only gets more and more woman heavy.
Men don't get to 60 and suddenly keel over with a heart attack or do a Logan's Run-style euthanasia. The actuarial tables say a male nonsmoker age 60 is expected to live another 24.19 years. There's also a big socioeconomic bias where an affluent male at 60 is likely to do better than that. The imbalance is negligible at age 60. At age 80? Sure.
If you pay your bills on time and aren't carrying balances on credit cards, you have an 800-ish credit score. Any financially secure 60 year old with retirement savings and an emergency fund is going to have that kind of credit profile.
I wasn't asking how such a score was obtained. I was looking at the statistics. Only about 18% of the US have such a credit score, regardless of age, gender, religion etc. That leaves the majority (82%) not having it, as I originally stated. In thinking on it, that probably indicates that the bulk of retirement age people - male or female - don't have it.
If you pay your bills on time and aren't carrying balances on credit cards, you have an 800-ish credit score. Any financially secure 60 year old with retirement savings and an emergency fund is going to have that kind of credit profile.
Not necessarily. Mine is in the 700s. I pay my bills, and have paid every loan I've ever had (student and car). But, I don't have a credit card at all, which, rather than meaning I'm responsible and don't buy things I don't have money for, apparently means I'm irresponsible for not obtaining a credit card I don't need... and hence the credit score is not built up. Credit isn't just from whether you pay your bills, but whether you have bills to pay at all. If you don't have enough or the right kind of bills (things like utilities, for example, are rarely reported so you can pay as faithfully as you want and it won't count toward anything), no credit score.
I wasn't asking how such a score was obtained. I was looking at the statistics. Only about 18% of the US have such a credit score, regardless of age, gender, religion etc. That leaves the majority (82%) not having it, as I originally stated. In thinking on it, that probably indicates that the bulk of retirement age people - male or female - don't have it.
I think the people that have always understood how to handle money just don't understand the people that don't and their normal is skewed because of it. Having little to no balance and paying your bills on time seems like a simple concept but it doesn't take much sometimes to throw you off track.
I will never forget a conversation among coworkers several years ago and we, for some reason, brought up getting caught up on bills after getting behind. 3 of us were talking as if this was something that happens to everyone at least once in their life and not because of wasting it on frivolous things. The 4th stated she had never had a late payment in her life and said it in such a tone that it was the equivalent of killing kittens. This particular woman had married young when her husband was in the Navy. She lived with her parents while saving the paychecks that he sent home for 4 years. When he got out he got a good paying job in the private sector, they put almost half down on a small house that they then paid off quickly and lived in for the next 20+ years. While they were not rich they had never hurt for money. They did everything right and it all worked out just as planned. The other 3 of us had gone through divorces, layoffs, illnesses, etc and yes some bad choices. Very little worked out as planned and though we were all doing well at the time the lessons and late payments were there. There was just no concept in her mind why any of this should have made a difference. Two very different worlds....
I don't even understand why either one of you want to marry. Nevermind, where this manna from heaven in the form of a random 20K emergency fund came from.
Not necessarily. Mine is in the 700s. I pay my bills, and have paid every loan I've ever had (student and car). But, I don't have a credit card at all, which, rather than meaning I'm responsible and don't buy things I don't have money for, apparently means I'm irresponsible for not obtaining a credit card I don't need... and hence the credit score is not built up. Credit isn't just from whether you pay your bills, but whether you have bills to pay at all. If you don't have enough or the right kind of bills (things like utilities, for example, are rarely reported so you can pay as faithfully as you want and it won't count toward anything), no credit score.
Which is why putting things like gas and groceries on a credit card doesn't automatically mean you are irresponsible. In order to bump a credit score that is exactly what's recommended and then pay it off every month. The last step is where people get tripped up.
I wasn't asking how such a score was obtained. I was looking at the statistics. Only about 18% of the US have such a credit score, regardless of age, gender, religion etc. That leaves the majority (82%) not having it, as I originally stated. In thinking on it, that probably indicates that the bulk of retirement age people - male or female - don't have it.
Which is why, if you have an 800-ish credit score, a funded retirement, and an emergency fund, it's so important to get into a long term relationship with someone similar. There's nothing worse than being with someone who can't manage money. It ends up creating daily conflicts since they're immediate gratification people who will spend you into poverty if you allow it. It's pretty fundamental to compatibility. You can counter it by controlling all the finances and financial decisions but then it's like you're sleeping with a dependent minor. Most people want a partner, not a child where they have to assume the parental role.
If you don't have a good credit score, you might do some soul-searching about why that is and what your life might look like when you're 65 and something happens where you can't work.
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