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> It's this short-sightedness that let them end up in this situation. When you're close to the poverty line you've been taught by experience that saved money w

> It's this short-sightedness that let them end up in this situation. When you're close to the poverty line you've been taught by experience that saved money will be just eaten up by future crises anyway, so why not enjoy a little treat while you can? If future pain seems unavoidable, why not take some pleasure today?

abalashov 17y ago
That is a common precept of the human experience above the poverty line, too.
ShabbyDoo 17y ago
>When you're close to the poverty line A year ago, the man alone was making $53K! Let's presume the woman contributed at least another $25K. That's a well above-average household income in America.
randallsquared 17y ago
This attitude seems hard to understand for people who didn't grow up poor. You need a certain amount of money to get over the threshold of not living paycheck-to-paycheck. There are several ways you can get it: grow up while already over this threshold (if you could call your parents and ask them for 10K if you had a real need, you're over it), borrow the money (for example, for college), get lucky, or live far below your means while saving it up. The time when you can borrow the money is a limited window, usually, around 17-23. If you don't understand that this is important and possible, the window vanishes. Living far below your means while saving up money is not only very difficult to do, culturally, for Americans, but takes a long time at minimum wage or some small multiple of it, and you have to resist the urge to do things like buying business casual clothes in the hopes of getting a better job, or buying a newer car in the hopes that the maintenance will be lower enough that it pays for itself, etc. Those things can work, but they fall under "get lucky". :)
- ShabbyDoo 17y ago
  I sort-of agree with you, but these people were hardly poor a year ago! Their household income easily exceeded $75K! And, it was obvious that they had considerable disposable income.
  - randallsquared 17y ago
    That's true. It may be that they grew up poor, or it may be that they're just "poor" psychologically. I dunno. I have a lot of these tendencies, but I got lucky (I now feel).
- timwiseman 17y ago
  The time when you can borrow the money is a limited window, usually, around 17-23. If you don't understand that this is important and possible, the window vanishes. You are right that there is a limited window, but it is not so tied to age. My wife was a "nontraditional student" and they were more than happy to give her student loans. A better threshold is kids and mortgage. If you have real dependents that need money now for things like food/diapers/clothes then it becomes much more challenging, perhaps insurmountable.

abalashov 17y ago

That is a common precept of the human experience above the poverty line, too.

ShabbyDoo 17y ago

>When you're close to the poverty line A year ago, the man alone was making $53K! Let's presume the woman contributed at least another $25K. That's a well above-average household income in America.

randallsquared 17y ago

This attitude seems hard to understand for people who didn't grow up poor. You need a certain amount of money to get over the threshold of not living paycheck-to-paycheck. There are several ways you can get it: grow up while already over this threshold (if you could call your parents and ask them for 10K if you had a real need, you're over it), borrow the money (for example, for college), get lucky, or live far below your means while saving it up. The time when you can borrow the money is a limited window, usually, around 17-23. If you don't understand that this is important and possible, the window vanishes. Living far below your means while saving up money is not only very difficult to do, culturally, for Americans, but takes a long time at minimum wage or some small multiple of it, and you have to resist the urge to do things like buying business casual clothes in the hopes of getting a better job, or buying a newer car in the hopes that the maintenance will be lower enough that it pays for itself, etc. Those things can work, but they fall under "get lucky". :)

ShabbyDoo 17y ago
I sort-of agree with you, but these people were hardly poor a year ago! Their household income easily exceeded $75K! And, it was obvious that they had considerable disposable income.
- randallsquared 17y ago
  That's true. It may be that they grew up poor, or it may be that they're just "poor" psychologically. I dunno. I have a lot of these tendencies, but I got lucky (I now feel).
timwiseman 17y ago
The time when you can borrow the money is a limited window, usually, around 17-23. If you don't understand that this is important and possible, the window vanishes. You are right that there is a limited window, but it is not so tied to age. My wife was a "nontraditional student" and they were more than happy to give her student loans. A better threshold is kids and mortgage. If you have real dependents that need money now for things like food/diapers/clothes then it becomes much more challenging, perhaps insurmountable.