In my case, I try to stay away from debt because that is the way I was raised, that the rug could be pulled out from underneath at any time. And a few times, it got pulled pretty hard!! I have a niece that I love dearly--and they are in some heavy financial straits, due to bad luck, lousy jobs, and illness. We all helped as much as we could, and they do try--just maybe not in the right way. For instance, they figure since they work so blamed hard and get deeper in the hole, they should go on vacation every year to relieve the stress. I suggested they put their desires on hold until they claw their way out a bit, and they think I am being Machevellian. It seems "self denial" is not an option. I tell them how I didn't even have a telephone until we could afford one, and didn't have a car until the 1990's, they think I am making it up. My motto is if I can't afford it, I can probably do without it.
When my Honey and I moved to VA back in 76 , as I was going back to school to get my BS we didn't have a phone either , it wasn't in the budget , stayed in contact with the family by snail mail . you know write a letter , send for $0.15 or what ever it was back then .
Not trying to put any generation down , it depends upon how you were raised , but I think we knew the value of a dollar as our grand parents came from the Depression and we knew how hard we had to work to make that dollar , and we tried to raise our children that same way .
I don't have a TV, no cell phone I've even considered shutting off the internet. I don't need any of the crap they want to sell me.
Me too still working and helping my children , who are successful a teacher and an LPN finishing up her RN ,because they have that student loan bullchit to deal with
Maybe my son was the smart one he joined the Army right out 'a high school , no student loan debt for him , but he does have to put his life on the line to defend ours .
Im not debt free yet but we are working very hard on it. I have three two year plans right now Im paying off debt in two year increments and am hoping that nothing major pops up. My wife just started working so we'll be able to apply some extra money here and there. We have gotten rid of cable and now only use a couple of streaming things for tv. I do foresee a problem in the future as I have applied for a job with a pretty big pay cut and if I get that job we will have to revisit everything and figure out what to do from there, but other than that were plugging along trying to get out from under this debt in or before six years. Then we will focus on the mortgage Im not counting that in my six year plan.
Lots of good info and stories to learn from. My story parallels many. Divorced from a woman who lied and hid bills and I wasn't smart enough or diligent enough to figure it out. Left the marriage with nothing but my clothes on my back and saddled with all the very sizable marital debt ( long story not worth explaining here). If I can offer only one thing, I'd like to say to never give up hope. Just keep chopping away at it. It may seem like a mountain that will last an eternity, but with hard work, lots of sacrifice and persistence you can do amazing things! Seven years later we are a million times better. It can be done!
First off let me say this and if you don't agree no need to comment. I did not get my financial house in order until I started to tithe. Since then I have been blessed, it's the only thing that God speaks of where he says test me. We have a saying around here that goes, "You can't out give God" He's proved it to me.
I feel like the odd one out. I love my job, I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from it, it has direct benefit to humankind and I get paid well to do it, it is what I went to school for, and I don't have any plans to ever stop working. I would do my job for free if I could afford it, and I am not debt free, and that doesn't bother me in the least. I feel paying a little extra in interest is ok as long as the debt is not frivolous debt and it allows you to enjoy life. One child is in a very prestigious high dollar college, and the other will also likely be next year. We get help in direct aid, scholarships and incur some debt to pay for the college and I feel like it is worth every penny.
Good for you DaveGunter nothing wrong with helping kids out in schooling! I got a fund set up for nephews.. since they will get a lot of financial aid to starr ...upon graduation I will cover the debt 100% of every a, 85% of every b... so they can start out with less debt
Built our house about 25 years ago and I refused to go with a 30 year loan and went 15 year. After about 4-5 years they passed the Headley amendment which cut our property taxes in 1/2. I was used to our payment by then so I just had the excess applied to the principal and payed it of in 13-1/2 years. My wife has worked for Amway for 38 years and they have been veddy,veddy good to her. She is real good on keeping her cars rather then getting a new one every 2-3 years, and I drive mine until they rust out because I would just trash a new truck! She has contributed to her 401k since 1982 and I rode a downward spiral on 7000 shares of bank stock that went from 20.00 to 4.50 plus lost about 3-4K a year in dividends. The only reason I kept it was that it originally was 1 share that my Great Grandfather had left (he traded 3 others for a tractor)! Currently her car is paid off and she had a 40k loan on her kitchen remodel that she paid off. (I refused to sign the note with her and she said "Fine I will do it myself"!! and she did! My credit cards are paid off monthly, I have one that I got 360.00 cash back and never paid a cent of interest. We have kept separate checking accounts for about the last 25-30 years. Our biggest savings account was when we got married we both agreed when we had hanky panky we would each put 10.00 into our own savings account! Now I am just trying to figure out why she has so much more in hers then I do in mine! Gary
there's still advantages to a 2yr technical degree to get their foot in a door. The path you shouldn't take is expect college of the first child, which then imparts on next in line to go to college and switch majors 6 times "trying to find something" before ending up back home and drifting through meaningless "jobs" as opposed to encouraging career objectives
