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For me, I think the "oh shit, this can't be good" moment came about 10 years ago when I learned that people couldn't afford tires (not wheels/rims, we all know

For me, I think the "oh shit, this can't be good" moment came about 10 years ago when I learned that people couldn't afford tires (not wheels/rims, we all know how absurd those are) for their SUVs that cost as much as my house. Back then, I read some long-form article about how they were financing new tires. Admittedly, doing the same for delivery food is more extreme still, but one wonders what legitimate problem this could ever solve. I suppose there is someone out there who can afford the meal but they're tapped out until payday, and yet I wonder why they don't have an (unused until this point) credit card to tide them over until Friday. Neither savings nor card, something's gone horrendously wrong.

aaronbaugher 2y ago
As someone who's been broke and making bad credit decisions to float things along, I'd say it's often a mindset, getting in a mental rut where you just keep doing the same thing because it solves the problem for today. I'm not talking here about people who are truly poor and have insufficient income, but people who have money coming in and going out but always seem to be a couple months behind. So lots of stuff goes on credit and costs interest, and they pay a lot of late fees and sometimes overdrafts. But they never fall further behind, so they feel like if they could just get over the hump, they'd be okay. And if you look at their numbers, they're right. But if you handed them a couple months' income so they could get caught up, they'd probably be right back in the same situation within a year, because "barely keeping up" feels normal to them, so the difference between that and "in the black" feels like a buffer they can safely spend down. What it probably takes (what it took for me, anyway) was not just a new job with a regular salary, but a change in mindset, especially starting to keep a budget so I know where every paycheck is going before I get it. I haven't paid a late fee or a dollar in interest (except my mortgage) for five years, and that's saved me thousands of dollars over what I was spending before. Life is expensive when you're broke.

aaronbaugher 2y ago

As someone who's been broke and making bad credit decisions to float things along, I'd say it's often a mindset, getting in a mental rut where you just keep doing the same thing because it solves the problem for today. I'm not talking here about people who are truly poor and have insufficient income, but people who have money coming in and going out but always seem to be a couple months behind. So lots of stuff goes on credit and costs interest, and they pay a lot of late fees and sometimes overdrafts. But they never fall further behind, so they feel like if they could just get over the hump, they'd be okay. And if you look at their numbers, they're right. But if you handed them a couple months' income so they could get caught up, they'd probably be right back in the same situation within a year, because "barely keeping up" feels normal to them, so the difference between that and "in the black" feels like a buffer they can safely spend down. What it probably takes (what it took for me, anyway) was not just a new job with a regular salary, but a change in mindset, especially starting to keep a budget so I know where every paycheck is going before I get it. I haven't paid a late fee or a dollar in interest (except my mortgage) for five years, and that's saved me thousands of dollars over what I was spending before. Life is expensive when you're broke.