Are You in a Financial Pickle?

[The Fishing Geek]

Someone has a question to ask, they just can't quite get the words right. Here we go!

Discuss.

[The Fishing Geek]

As of this moment, everyone agrees. FINALLY!

[OneLastCast]

What about a straight answer no???

A lot of debt can be avoided. (This does not include losing your job, the baby is sick, medical bills or your mother in law moving in)


OneLastCast

[The Fishing Geek]

That would be option number 5.

[OneLastCast]

Ahhh

Now I understand, if a person scrimps, saves and buys within their means it is luck. (I am not saying I am cheap even though I make the kids take off their glasses if they're not looking at anything)

In other words if I don't have someone to blame it must be luck.

Even if I do take a little responsibilty for my luck.

OneLastCast

[WaterDog]

Being financially responsible has nothing to do with being cheap. Frugal maybe. :grin: Cheap, naw.........

OLC, I like your way of thinking. :smile:

Living within you financial means, what a novel concept. [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img]

[CATCH AND EAT]

Wait a minute, what happen to charge it Rich? :grin: But you must remember. Living within your means two years ago is about half of what it use to be. Can be a tough transition. This has been proven by many of us on i-fish that have had to sell boats, trucks, bananas, and chicken.

[WaterDog]

Charge it? Yeah that’s the ticket. The only credit card I have is a Cabela’s card. If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.

Bernie I hear ya. I guess I have a different way of looking at things. There are things a person can do that would allow a severe reduction in income and you wouldn’t have to sell the boat, truck or the chicken. It’s not about how much you make, it’s how you spend it. :smile:

[The Fishing Geek]

That's why my only boat says Sevylor on it and, folded, would fit into an orange crate. That's why I've got one family vehicle and I have to coordinate with my wife when I go fishing. That's why when I get snagged up you don't see me reefing back on the rod, as it's one of only two that I have.

We're not broke by any stretch of the imagination. We just don't go all crazy with the credit. Not worth it.

[Dan Christopher]

The only correct answer is #6
The only person you have to blame is your self,

If you don't have a good job, go to school or maybe you should have already done that.

If your credit cards are to high, quit buying stuff,

If your broke you should have always been putting 10% of your checks away for a rainy day

ext,ext ext

Quit blaming others for your problems, just pull up your boot straps and fix them.


just my 2 cents :grin:

Oh ya , and Clinten did it.

[The Fishing Geek]

I'll bet you all didn't know that the Great Depression was just a bunch of lazy people unwilling to pull themselves up by their boot straps and go to college so that they could reach that oasis full of unfilled high-tech jobs.

There are a LOT of people with Masters Degrees out there who are unemployed. They have degrees in fields that they were told going in would always have a bounty of jobs to be filled. That didn't happen, so now you want them to go back to school again? Many of them can't, as they haven't paid off the financial aide that they racked up the first time through school. I do understand, however, that the local bartending schools are doing a bang-up business right now.

Sorry Wiz, but your answer was simply too simplistic to be accurate. They're losing their cars, their homes, and often times their families. All of that is going to make for a continued bottoming out of the economy until something stops it. Not sure what that something is, but I'm pretty sure that bootstraps aren't going to be part of the fix.

[WaterDog]

There are still choices that people can make that will and would reduce the pickle they are in. Everyone controls their own destiny. When times are good people will extend themselves to such a point that when the economy takes a dump (and it always does at some point) they find they are in over their heads. Big credit card bills, high mortgage payments, new cars and boats. Did these people think the booming economy would last forever? Get real.

It’s all about choices. Many do not make good ones. :depressed:

[Boedy]

Waterdog if you lost your job tomorrow how long could you make the payments you make today? I am lucky that I don’t have credit card bills and some of the other things that you speak about but you know it’s still hard. Get off your high horse I’m sure you would be in the same spot in a few months that a lot of people find themselves in now if you lost your job.

[ 01-08-2003, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Boedy ]

[WaterDog]

Boedy, I can make my house payments longer than I care to tell. I have been in the unemployment line before. Didn’t like the feeling of only having $50 in the bank and the house payment was due. I vowed that would never happen again. I have made choices that in the event of a job loss we would be fine for an extended amount of time. I have made choices where minimum wage could pay the essential bills.

As a matter of fact, I may not have a job in 6 months. Everyday the out look gets worse. I will be VERY lucky to be working in July. But I have planned for it. Sorry if you think I’m on a high horse. :depressed: I just see a lot people living the dream and they can't figure out what happened when it ended. It is hard and I'm not saying anyone is lazy. In these economic times I have to protect what I have worked so hard to earn. My choice. :smile:

[CATCH AND EAT]

Rich, I don't think you are on a high horse at all. You are obviously very frugal cause you've been there before. Many of us have not and are learning very difficult lessons today.

I for one fit into that group of learning a lesson through the down turn of an economy. Heck I even saw it coming and I am still getting slammed.

Owning a small business is not like taking a bucket of cash to the bank each day. It's real tough out there right now. I have made cuts in the business back to the point where there ain't much to cut. The problem is that everyone has had a tough time and they are hanging on to every dollar they can. That means my job of prying that money out of their hands is much tougher than it use to be.

Personally Rich, I am even cutting back on my personal life style expenditures. No more cable, no more lawn care services, yell at the kids to turn the lights of after leaving the room. Heck, My wife and I spent $25 on each other for Christmas this year. Boy that was shocking. But you know, the gifts were not the point of Christmas anyways. We still had a great time and I think it even brought us closer together and re-energized what the reason for the season really is again.

I take your advice as you will to heart. I have no real personal debt other than the my house which I refinanced for a lower rate. Everything else is paid for. I was prepared but I did'nt think this recession would get this bad. I will be more prepared if it happens again. (which it will).

I got caught up in the wonderous pictures of prosperity during the Clinton years. Never again will I do that during a Democrat or Republican administration. I will be an ultra-conservitive when it comes to money. Call me "Scrooge" if ya want but that is the way it's gonna be.

No one said life was fair. But it sure can be fun if you prepare.

[ 01-08-2003, 05:45 PM: Message edited by: CATCH AND EAT ]

[Dan Christopher]

Boedy, Geek and everyone else

You should hope something doesn't happen to your cozy job or you could be finding out first hand what it is like to be unemployed in this economy.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">I haven't worked sense 12/12/01 does this mean I cant find work, or I don't want to deliver pizza. I could get a job if I wanted to get a job, if my sites were not so high i would deliver pizza.

Paying for school and still trying to pay for your house and your car and food for your kids is not easy to do on $1600 a month in unemployment benefits and its only that much if you top out.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">House,?? food, o.k but the pickle would be less without the car payment. If money was put aside before you lost your job $1600.00 wouldn't be that bad.

How long do you think a nest egg of 10% of a years take home would last anyway? I can tell you about 2 months when you are trying to pay bills just to get by.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">If you only had the job for a year maybe but if you were working for the last 5 or so it would get you a year with the unemployment 10% a year for 5 years =$25000.00 + $20,000 unemployment

For the record I am out of work, have been for over a year, why ?? All my fault I don't blame others. My drifter, camper and both cars are paid off so all I have is the house and the sled. Now I did like it a lot better when I was making $80,000 a year but if you make less you spend less or you pay later.

If one doesn't want the pickle they are in they CAN drive a pinto and live in an apartment. It may not be nice but like I said it is there choice.They can fix it By selling that car that they have traded in 3 times in the last 5 years and are so upsidedown in it that they now cant get out of it. Whos fault is it that they traded it in to many time and didnt buy a pinto in the first place? Bush? I think not..

I never said they are lazy, just it is there choice. It is a persons choice to have kids when they can barely support them self's and dont have a big nest egg just in case., I am not picking on anyone here just tired of people blaming everyone else for there problems. I have problems but I take the full blame for them, And full responsibility for fixing them.

This is why I don't post on life in general that often. People have there opinion and when someone comes on with a different one they get slammed.


For all of you that want to blam others for there pickle I guess it is my fault and i am sorry. Send me your bills and cars and i will take care of them by selling your car and paying your bills.

This is all I will post on this thread. Because I dont like my oppinions flamed.

[ 01-08-2003, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: MADWIZERD ]

[Boedy]

Waterdog,

Maybe I miss read or understood what you where trying to say in your post. I got the impression from Madwiz and you after reading your posts the first time that you thought that anybody that was out of work had themselves to blame for it. And the only reason they where out of work and in trouble was because of their **** poor planning.

I am glad to hear that you will be ok if you lose your job. I am ok also and had put away for the lay off as I to saw it coming. But it is not going to last for long. I held off buying a new house and a new truck because I knew bad times where a coming.

So I guess I am one of the lucky ones in that I don’t have much to lose at the moment. But a lot of people are not as fortunate as we are and will lose every thing when they run out of savings you can only save so much and like I said it doesn’t last fore long once you start using that nest egg live on trust me..

[The Fishing Geek]

Wiz:

We're not slamming YOU, just your opinion. If you want to be slammed personally come play in my smack talking thread. :grin:

[Boedy]

Wiz,

Oregon doesn’t have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country because there is nothing but lazy and stupid people in this state.

Getting laid off is not fun and it doesn’t have anything to do with the things you mentioned I know people with Masters Degrees that are out of work.

I worked in the Telecommunications industry for 8 years to get where I was and it ended over night so don’t tell me how I wasted my time and should have know better.

You should hope something doesn’t happen to your cozy job or you could be finding out first hand what it is like to be unemployed in this economy.

Most people that are unemployed today have worked their whole lives and because of no fault of there own the find themselves in the position they are in.

Paying for school and still trying to pay for your house and your car and food for your kids is not easy to do on $1600 a month in unemployment benefits and its only that much if you top out.

You paint with to wide a brush sure their are people out there who take advantage of the system but the majority of us are hard working well educated people who find themselves out of work for the first time in there life.

How long do you think a nest egg of 10% of a years take home would last anyway? I can tell you about 2 months when you are trying to pay bills just to get by.

I wonder what you must do for a living that makes you think you are immune for being out of work and gives you such a condescending attitude. How your job lets you spend so much time on the internet and fishing in your $20,000 sled is beyond me just count your lucky stars that you have a job still. Because one day you may find yourself where so many of us do today and you will not think it so easy.

[ 01-08-2003, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Boedy ]

[WaterDog]

Boedy, like Bernie we refinanced our house, even dipped into the savings to lower the payment. If I get the axe I'll be on vacation for a few weeks then I will find work, but at less pay. Your right the nest egg wont last forever and I'm not the kind of guy that likes to sit around so I will get some kind of job. I'm not too choosy so I'd deliver pizza's if I had to.

Bernie, being a scrooge is not easy. It's something I grew up withand learned early. Work hard, save for a rainey day. Growing up my folks didnt have a ton of money but we lived well and had fun. When I went to college I was on my own as my folks couldnt afford to pay for it (nor did I expect them to). I went to comminuty college then OSU. When I graduated I owed zero. I lived at home (Mom and Dad's contribution) drove 100 miles a day and footed the rest of the bill myself by working in the summers and on breaks. I still watch every dollar I spend.

[ 01-09-2003, 07:04 AM: Message edited by: WaterDog ]

[AuntyM]

Things could always be better financially, but we are doing just fine thanks. In the last year we bought a new boat, a newer truck, and I am personally supporting several tackle companies. :grin:

Just trying to do our part for the economy! :grin:

Thanks GW! :grin:

[Lured In]

I have to concur with some here. I lost my job (tech sector) back in July. I was close to entering the top 5% of wage earners in the US when the tech industry started coming apart at the seams. First it was pay cuts, then loss of some benefits, then more restrictions on expenses. Then layoffs, and more layoffs. Then finally the president of the company resigned and the company went to 2 employess and I was out of work.

Who do I blame? NO ONE(not even myself as I was working my *** off to save the company). That is life. Anyone who believes that someone else is to blame needs a serious lesson in economics.

I am still unemployed and the job opportunities are still slim. In a good economy I could probably have my pick of jobs. Unfortunately that just isn't the case right now. My wife and I are essentially debt free in the sense that any of our debt is 'asset' debt. Need more money sell the boat, one of the cars, other toys etc. Much easier to deal with than credit cards.

Do I need a job? you bet. Are things going to get harder? probably. Meanwhile my family will continue to focus on what matters and that is each other. In the process we will make the tough choices on how best to play the hand we have been dealt.

[Tagster]

Madwizard...

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