being in debt: c/d

borrowing from your friends is a definite dud, though..

However, when you're talking about things like, for example, buying a house, then you may find that the interest you're paying isn't that much greater than the rent you *were* paying...

Let's not even discuss credit card debt. No, let's not. It smells like wee.

S then kindly pointed that all my cash = student loan, fuXor.

I have about £1,000 of student loan debt plus a considerable overdraft. Nothing on the credit card yet but all that will soon change. Oh yes and my staff discount store card which I am very good at repaying. However I also have an ISA which seems silly as surely I should pay my debts off first? Oh well. It was an Xmas present from my mum a couple of years ago. I remember when I used to get Sindys for Xmas. Sigh.

A few years ago I managed to get a fairly large credit card debt and got the ph34r of turning into one of those women who owes £30,000 and never dares open her bills. So I went and got a job in a pub down the road and worked 6 nights a week on top of my regular 9-5 job for 6 weeks till I had paid it off and saved enough for my Glasto ticket. Never again.

Ha! I'm about thirteen grand in the red! (and I'm only twenty!). I suppose I'm not very careful.

I just can't save money that's my problem, I'm a compulsive shopper.

Emma you can't get a very high standard of gigolo for £50/month, I would think. Is there some New Deal gigolo training scheme you're part of?

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/577434/?sc=dwhr&xy=10005210

waht

i don't have a house anymore but am still in debt

getting out of it this year if it kills me

My only debt's a hefty credit card one but I'll pay it down if it kills me. Its not even the debt on a car loan, so I dunno why I worry about it so much.

Fifteen years ago, we went into bankruptcy to get rid of a paltry $5000 debt, because my husband is insanely intolerant about owing money. It took us about ten years to repair the damage done to our credit.

Was on the cusp of the change from grants to loans when I was 18, and we really were still in the mindset of, go to university FOR FREE, get your FREE MONEY here. The loans were dressed up in that way too so sugar the pill, iirc it was all "Yeah, its ok, this is just like a grant *FREE MONEY* really, but if in the far and distant future you ever become a GROWNUP you'll have to pay it back. hey, you'll be earning loads, you won't even notice". Then the banks jumped on the opportunity and frankly by that time most of us just thought, "YAY, MORE FREE MONEY".

Feels like we are the generation that didn't understand or fear debt, and yep we were naive but also fucking conned.

iatee's link is kind of amazing, never thought about it like that

why is it surprising? that's how the whole consumerist society works isn't it?

credit card debt is silly though right?

last car loan payment next week, clear aside from that but i rent tbf

I dont see why cc debt is sillier than any other debt, interest rates aside possibly.

Was on the cusp of the change from grants to loans when I was 18, and we really were still in the mindset of, go to university FOR FREE, get your FREE MONEY here. The loans were dressed up in that way too so sugar the pill, iirc it was all "Yeah, its ok, this is just like a grant *FREE MONEY* really, but if in the far and distant future you ever become a GROWNUP you'll have to pay it back. hey, you'll be earning loads, you won't even notice". Then the banks jumped on the opportunity and frankly by that time most of us just thought, "YAY, MORE FREE MONEY".

Feels like we are the generation that didn't understand or fear debt, and yep we were naive but also fucking conned.

― sometimes all it takes is a healthy dose of continental indiepop (tomofthenest), Thursday, June 9, 2011 9:57 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Absolutely 100% OTM.

yeah i don't know how old tomofthenest is, but the "FREE MONEY, pay later, you won't even notice, we were naive but also fucking conned" is def otm, still sop today.

xpost interest rate, essentially.. must be cheaper to just take out a loan?

yet again lol ireland

xpost interest rate on cc debt, but also the false sense of security from only paying off the minimum amount every month.

It's like pulling on a vine to get out of quicksand only to discover that the vine is made of quicksand too.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-–-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

prob too lazy to read his book, but some interesting history

hmmm

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-–-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html?

guess those apostrophes break it up regardless

imo, debt is a bit like nitroglycerine - very useful, even indispensible, for a very particular, very small subset of jobs you might need to do, but dangerous and always to be handled with the utmost respect.

The things you may sensibly purchase by going into debt ought to have high-value returns, like skills (education or training), or tools (like an auto or the tools of your trade), or should be necessary purchases you are amortizing over a very long time (buying a house vs. renting). otoh, running up debt to buy a big music collection or a fabulous closet full of clothes == dud, no matter how classic the music or clothes are.

i'm not that good with money, to my dad's eternal dismay, but right now i'm pretty good at keeping my debt low and not making any spendy purchases that'll take a year or more to pay off. i'm in a bind because i have great credit but i don't have any collateral or secured debt (bank loans as opposed to lines of credit) to make me *truly* credit-worthy. all i have is the fact that i pay my bills on time and i only have one credit card, plus another "care credit" card for some dental-work expenses.

We've recently been fortunate enough to be able to pay off our credit cards and be left with a small sum in a savings account. We know only owe our mortgage, our car payments, and our student loans (and ATP tickets!). It's a very nice place to be in but it's taken us a long time.

shocking behavior alleged against debt collectors:

Two California debt-collection firms used abusive tactics to harass financially distressed consumers, with one firm threatening to kill debtors’ pets or desecrate the bodies of their deceased children, according to recent Federal Trade Commission complaints.

_____________________________________

A few weeks ago, the FTC alleged that Rumson, Bolling & Associates in Van Nuys harassed a woman who was unable to fully pay for her daughter’s funeral. In telephone calls, the firm’s employees told her they would dig up her daughter’s body and hang it from a tree if she did not pay, the federal complaint said. They threatened to shoot and eat her dog. And they called her “white trash.”

wow.

Neal Gabler, onetime successor to Siskel & Ebert and biographer of Disney and Walter Winchell, confesses to being among the 47% of Americans who wouldn't know where to get $400 in an emergency.

In my house, we have learned to live a no-frills existence. We halved our mortgage payments through a loan-modification program. We drive a 1997 Toyota Avalon with 160,000 miles that I got from my father when he died. We haven’t taken a vacation in 10 years. We have no credit cards, only a debit card. We have no retirement savings, because we emptied a small 401(k) to pay for our younger daughter’s wedding. We eat out maybe once every two or three months. Though I was a film critic for many years, I seldom go to the movies now. We shop sales. We forgo house and car repairs until they are absolutely necessary. We count pennies.

I don’t ask for or expect any sympathy. I am responsible for my quagmire—no one else. I didn’t get gulled into overextending myself by unscrupulous credit merchants. Basically, I screwed up, royally. I lived beyond my means, primarily because my means kept dwindling. I didn’t take the actions I should have taken, like selling my house and downsizing, though selling might not have covered what I owed on my mortgage. And let me be clear that I am not crying over my plight. I have it a lot better than many, probably most, Americans—which is my point....

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/05/my-secret-shame/476415/

i quit my well paid and promising job this summer to check myself into rehab, probably a rash decision but likely saved my life. i took out my IRA to float me through that time and a couple months of unemployment. now i'm 9k in the hole on a credit card and have various bills to medical providers and insurance companies. i'm back in the retail/service industry zone and barely staying afloat, i can make rent but nothing else, and i am enjoying the magic of EBT etc.

i know in the long term ~15k in debt total isn't gonna end my world, but can someone tell me you can bounce back from this? i know i have a competitive resume, had several interviews in my field (including with the state which is fairly hard to attain) but still. this suuuucks. thankfully i paid off student loans so at least i'm not being doubly shafted.

anyway, eat the rich

my plan is to string the medical providers along as long as i can, playing it kinda cagey.

anyone want to buy a NM copy of Flavor Crystals "Third"? Goes for like ~$100 on discogs. i am only sort of joking