Posted on 06/01/2011 6:57:16 PM PDT by Libloather
You're pretty close to being toast. Nerves are frazzled, homes are being evacuated, jobs lost and families are torn apart.
Oh, the rookie Hussein has performed magic, all right. Kinda nuts. But it's what Barry King planned all along. This is his vision. Wealth distribution. And it's only getting started.
How do you make it? Old money, new money, food stamps, living with the folks, moving in with the neighbor? How are you doing it?
Are there any really good tips to make it through the Hussein years?
And don't give me any guff on that '$40k on the credit card' remark. I hear the commercials. You know the ones who say, "Do you owe over $100K to the IRS?" HOLY CRAP! Are you kidding?
That sounds like fun, and a good chance to build woodcraft skills (and pass them along as well). I am always pointing things out to the grands, and you don't have to be far from your doorstep to do it.
Just too old to understand that kind of thinking...Of all the homes I have lived in during my 7 decades, only one had air conditioning....but do appreciate that one of my kids gave me a window a/c for my birthday one year.
Purchased new, and maintained, mechanically sound ‘95 truck & ‘99 SUV; only need liability on the one, and also carry comp on the other: no car payments, and cheap insurance rates.
One or two deer, and 3-6 turkeys on the ‘back 40’ each year; big garden; fruit trees; rabbits; chickens: high quality, but cheap eats...and several months worth of staples, canned (home & commercial), and dried foods put by, in addition to the freezer.
Cut our own dead/dying trees for firewood; also get free government permits to cut 2-4 cords locally: cheap heat.
Income structured to stay below or barely above tax thresholds: BIG savings on aspirin.
Credit cards paid off; small, low interest equity loan for some home improvements & repairs: 1/4 the rate for putting the materials on a CC.
Large collection of tools, hand and power, and the know how to use them: no plumbers fixing a leak, no electricians changing a light switch; no ‘contractors’ installing new (updated) windows or nailing shingles or painting the barn, or doing fencing, etc. BIG savings.
Good, like minded friends & neighbors, who give & get help as needed, and freely trade skills: priceless.
Taking fewer long trips; not worried if clothes are “fashionable”, as long as they are “serviceable” and presentable. Less eating out or paid-admission entertainment.
Try asking The Motley Fool: http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools/motleyfool/budget04/tool.fcs
You can run as many scenarios as you wish, with different inputs, to calculate whether it is cheaper to pay off, or save, or some combination.
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Last time I looked, that is the kind of stuff credit cards are for: emergenies and unexpected or otherwise unaffordable necessary expenditures, when other resources don't exist.
Bless your child, and a prayer for his vision.
So true
That's what I did. I had a small/moderate CC balance at 14% interest. I borrowed from my Credit Union at 6.95% and have paid off more in a month than I would have in a year making payments to the CC company. My normal practice was to pay off my balance every month but we had a medical emergency and I wasn't able to do that. It didn't take me long to figure out that I would never get it paid off if I didn't do something else. :-)
“Maybe you predate those laws”
Almost undoubtedly so.
Let’s see him stay out of debt and keep his savings when dealing with today’s compensation and today’s costs.
I’d wager it was uphill both ways with snow.
This. Thank Gawd someone out there understands us.
Thank you for your post. Some people on FR have no clue what MANY in the USA and around the world are dealing with. You are correct: a lot of people here in the States and all over the world ARE hurting through no fault of their own. Decent folks who have played by the rules all of their lives and done the right thing are finding themselves up against the wall and hard pressed. People here need to show some compassion.
Inflation is much worse than that; who are you going to believe, the stats or your lying eyes? The rises in prices for metals, gasoline, and groceries makes it very obvious that inflation is much worse than that. Those items didn’t suddenly become much more rare; the dollar suddenly became much less valuable. The only way to mask this is to include the one area where prices have consistently fallen - home values.
We’ve done it on day-long hikes, overnight backpacking trips, and walks of a few hours; I look for some interesting historical places near me (not widely publicized), then simply go to the geocaching website and enter that ZIP code. It will show you a map of any geocaches in the area - and I don’t have a “premium” (pay) membership.
If you’re into the outdoors, it may spice it up for people who aren’t so much.
Gotta get me a sugar daddy!
I know where you are coming from. It’s a lifestyle choice. My wife and I are grateful we were able to do so well. We put away for college, retirement, unforeseen things.
My profession is usually recession proof. What is sad is the week the family was away, my cobra payment came due. Didn’t get home till after it was due. Losing cobra cost me close to 200k after my daughter got sick. I went to my company to plead my case and they told me to piss off. With my kids bills they were looking for any excuse to get me off the rolls.
Some of that I was ready for. Not all of it. Hence I am now 1000 miles from home trying to make enough to stop the hemmoraging. We wil continue to bleed until my wife gets better work.
On a good note, my present insurance covers my kid.
Good Morning
We own land and used to own more. No matter how cheap the land gets, the problem is taxes. The rural school districts have learned well from their city brothers - and gone sky high.
I used to lease our land out to people to run cattle on it. At first the rent would pay all the taxes and give us a bit of a profit. Then as taxes went up, the lease payments would just cover them. Eventually it got to a point where I couldn’t get enough lease money to pay the ever increasing taxes!
Government at every level and every type has simply become criminal!
When the gov’t can take your property for non-payment of taxes, you don’t actually own property anymore.
You merely lease it from the government. The state owns all property.
It's very odd. One of them simply gave up as soon as I said I'd contacted a debt settlement company... it was a small balance, so I guess it just wasn't worth it to them. But the other, a credit card I'd had for 12 years, was very persistent. I owed them over $6,000 and they nagged for quite a while.
Then they handed it over to a collections agent, who offered to settle for half. I told them I could do that if they could wait about six weeks. They were very nasty about it and told me they couldn't wait.
I said "You've waited over a year, six more weeks won't kill you."
The guy said "I'm going to have to tell your credit card company you've declined!"
I let him know that I would do it if he'd just wait till I finished settling on the previous account, and he was furious... finally I hung up. I never heard from them again. That was in February.
I'm actually willing to reach settlement; I'm not trying to screw them over -- I figure they made quite a bit on me with that high interest card over all those years, so I don't feel bad about not paying the entire balance, but I didn't expect them to just... go away. But so far it appears that they have.
That's me and my cats. They are my one indulgence.
What is OOP?
Compassion is right. It deeply offends me when someone looks down on and wishes bad on anyone trying to keep their head above water.
It’s great that some have done well. But don’t be a snob and rub it in someone’s face.
That’s just mean.
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