@CGeorge wrote:
One of the things that is the most bizarre to me is a 42-year-old single mother (2 middle/junior high kids) who makes $60K/year. She has no retirement or emergency savings, she never has the funds to pay her children's school fees, her credit cards are maxed out and she barely has gas money to get back to an from work - but she buys her son $200 basketball shoes, her daughter a $600 prom dress to go the Junior prom with her girlfriend, and always has hair highlights done for her self. She lives well beyond her means. And for Dave Ramsay, that $5 million dollar house, for which he paid cash, is well within his means. It is all relative. Years ago, I lived beyond my means...do you realize the constant, everyday stress that this brings about? Today, I find great joy from living within my means. I can sleep at night. I think that Dave Ramsey is doing a great service for those who need to be JOLTED back into a healthy financial life. He has helped a lot of people. But his stance on credit cards is, at least for me, over the top. You can't even rent a motel/hotel without a credit card, unless you go to one of those "pay by the week" places. No way can you rent an automobile without a credit card. I happened to turn on Dave Ramsey the other day - and I immediately turned him off - he was RANTING. Sometimes there are people who speak so loudly that I can't hear a word that they say...
Dave actually has an entire youtube subcategory dedicated to his rants on his channel.
I sort of blame consumerism on why there is so much failure when it comes to finances. Advertising is constantly being shoved in our faces. Buy this, buy that. There is a whole segment of psychology dedicated to manipulating people into buying things, often things they don't need.
You can buy just about anything you want without the means to do so. Even if your credit is terrible, rent a center will happily rent to you a washer and dryer, which you will end up spending north of $3,600 on, when you can buy the same set from home depot for $1400.
It is obvious our government needs to step in and get rid of the people that prey on the poor or the poor credit. A lot has been done, but a lot still need to be done. Pawn shops and payday loan companies still charge 200 to even 500 percent interest.
Financial planning was never taught to me in school, outside of the most basic of things, like reconciling a checkbook. Credit cards, student loans, etc were never taught. I graduated 8 years ago.
We are also transitioning to a "throw away" society. We waste so much it's not funny. My dad used to repair lawnmowers, and he saw so many in the trash, that literally needed about $15 in parts to run like new. People will then go out and spend $200-$300 on one.
TV's don't really get repaired anymore. Ever try to get one fixed? It almost always costs as much as the TV itself to have done. So in the trash it goes and another $400 spent on an new one.
Like I said earlier, I am happy the goverment has cracked down on some things. You don't see credit card companies handing out credit cards like candy on college campus. I still wish they would stop forcing employees of some stores (looking at YOU Best Buy) to stop asking you every time you purchase something if you would like one.
Credit Card companies have a name for those who pay their bill in full each month: Deadbeats
