many Americans are the worst with money...this is a crisis in the US

Yes, but they are just as convinced as ever that I need penis enlargement.

 

I'm not usually one for kicking people while they are down, but the thing that made me soooo upset about this story is that she is a former loan processor. She should know that you NEVER get an interest only loan. My mom works as a loan processor and she helps me every single time I go to buy a house because she will outright tell me what loans will screw me and what will not. If you process loans, you KNOW which loans you should stay away from. And if she didn't, they she really sucked at her job and deserved to be canned.

I think her situation is just another example of people wanting more than they could ever afford, so they make a deal with the devil to get it. No wonder the economy is screwed now....

The only people I feel sorry for in that story is the kids for having an idiot mom and a complete loser for a dad....

 

There is no doubt, we are blessed in this country. We also have a much higher cost of living. Whereas my parents went to India a couple of years ago and was able to stay in a very nice hotel and eat for near pennies what you would be charged if you were to do the same in the US.

In places that you can eat on $2.00 per day wages, you can't even hardly buy a single hamburger for that here.

Also, most everyone in the world lives on their wages and people in any country find it difficult to save money. It certainly isn't a rarity regardless of how much money you are making.

 

We have a negative savings rate.

We could save. We don't. We consume.

Everything.





People in "emerging markets" aka "3rd world countries" aka "developing nations" are able to save, even with their meager earnings.

1. They don't have the easy access to credit

2. It's the only way their country can improve. Generate savings which can be used as capital. That's the story of China today.

 

You have to consider cost of living. For example I pay $1250/month for rent. This is not because I live in some extravagant place, in fact I live in one of the cheapest neighborhoods in NYC in a modest 1 bedroom apartment.

 

Well, NYC compared with Bucharest....is like comparing a bee with an elephant. For many many reasons. And belive me that even here we can have a rent of 1250/month. Wanna see some prices? Take a look at this. And consider that Bucharest is 150 years behind NYC. And here in downtown can be worse than in Harlem or Bronx.

 

Money is different for each country, obviously. I do have to agree though. Half of the Americans (myself being one) are very irresponsible with their money. Leasing cars and shit, and for what? To "appear" that they have some sense of style and class. The rest of them blow all their money on McDonalds. Yes, we are proud to be the fattest country in the world! /sarcasm

 

With our banking system it is impossible for everyone to be debt free.

 

I am saying everyone, obviously they are some as yourself who are debt free. Debt is money in our system.

 

Your right in that in the fact that alot of this is likely this woman's own doing.

a lot of us in America don't save and spend more money then we actually make.

but as people pointed out the American social aid net is different then many of the other "1st world nations" in that we don't get as much help in terms of unemployment or healthcare.

and it should also be noted that alot of people that where just coasting along are knocked down hard.


but even with those issue taking into a account this woman still made nearly three times the median american income, so in her case she more then likely just didn't handle her money well.

 

There is no incentive to save, you make an income, government will tax you, you put after tax money into a bank account you'll get taxed on that also. People just figure its much better to buy a Big screen tv

 

At this point friend, why, isn't important. That it is happening and getting worse, is everything.

 

Actually the Why is important, if you want to do more then just complain about the problem.

 

I could talk about the "why" but it would be complaining.

The problem can't be stopped, maybe people can learn something from it, and we can be wiser in its destruction than we were in its creation.

 

Damn dude that health insurance is rough.
We get all that for free here in the UK.

Still your gas is very cheap compared to the UK, we are looking around $10.50 a gallon at the moment.

LOL I get loads of them too, plus offers of Viagra, plus free £300 vouchers to spend at Tesco (our equivalent of your WalMart) plus hundreds of other offers, every day.

I seem to be getting less and less of the illiterate 419 Nigerian scams asking me to help them funnel out 6 million pounds from some non existent bank though.

 

You don't get it for free you socialist munter.

I thought Tesco was an auto insurance company. I have Tesco ads all over my Adsense sites. lol

 

It's because most Americans buy the biggest things for our budget and fail to plan ahead. We max out our credit limits and leave nothing for savings. I'm American so don't take offense to this.

 

Be Forwarned:

The American Dream Will Make You Broke