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Tight Finances in USA

T

Traditional Farmer

Well-known Member
Location
Virginia
Bankrate did a survey and 57% of the population said they couldn't come up with $500 for an emergency.Have people just stressed themselves out with payments or what?
 
I don't know how new that is. I remember 25 years ago,a friend told me he was at the parts counter at Worthington. A lady had to use three credit cards to come up with enough credit to buy a $500 part.
 
Guess better off than most then. I try keep at least a thousand in cash somewhere I can put my hands on it in a matter of minutes.
 
No but they can come up with more expensive cars than they need, bigger houses than they need, phones they don't need, and on and on. Good thing is they will be working till after I am gone to keep paying into social security so I can enjoy retirement which I did without a lot of the extras over my life so I could afford to retire.
 
I am truely suprized the percentage isn't way higher than that!! Unfortunately, the american dream has turned into living on credit. And that is what most people do. Live on credit. If they can't live the american dream by earning it first, they will just resort to credit to live the dream!!
 
"No but they can come up with more expensive cars than they need, bigger houses than they need, phones they don't need, and on and on."

Bingo.

Dean
 
Can't remember who did the survey but it was in the late 90's and they figured that over 1/2 the households in the US were spending 110% of their annual income per year.......that extra 10% was all on credit!

Rick
 
I don't have much, never have. Right now its all paid for even if all its worth is what itll bring across the scales.
 
Probably a lot of people like my son. Anything he wants he will buy it whether he can afford it or not. I haven't bought a new vehicle since 1986 and he goes out and buys a new $30,000.00 suv and he just delivers lumber for one of the box stores. Now his budget is so tight sometimes he can't afford food.
 
One of my brothers was a cop for over 30 years. He used to tell me how some of the guys he worked with couldn't come up with lunch money 3 days before pay day, and some would borrow from him .Friend of mine delivers heating oil , tells me he has many calls where the home owner has to go to the dealers office , with cash , and buy the oil , before he can go out and deliver it. Lots of people are no account, always has been that way.
 
I guess I'm an anomaly. Lost somewhere around a quarter of a million in 09', had our household income reset to 85' levels, not inflation adjusted. A couple of things come to mind. I'm now a lot more like my dad that went through the depression, and I try not to make judgments about people that are in hard times. As a pastor I've sat across the kitchen table from too many people trying to help them make sense of a new reality in their finances that many times was not their doing. Having said that I still try to keep several hundred in my pocket, or close to it in case of problems. Between life in general, our banking system and our government, their will be problems.
 
This is nothing new. Most people live paycheck to paycheck. Always have, always will. And it doesn't seem to matter what their income is.

Operating a few rental properties, you see this firsthand. First of the month rolls around and there's always an excuse for why they won't have the rent "until Friday". Always some "unexpected expense" which means they can't pay their expected expenses, such as rent.
 
I listened to the stories that my folks told of the neighbors living welfare check to welfare check during the depression. I suspect that my folks would have been eligible to collect welfare too but they would never have even thought of it; they just worked their way through the depression. There were 5 of us kids, but only us younger two took the lessons of the depressions seriously.

Folks used to tell of a family that right after threshing they would be seen driving a new Ford car around the area. By spring they would be back to driving the old Model T Ford with a box on the back, after the new Ford car had been re-possessed - and they did that year-after-year!
 
It's worse than week to week or day to day , it's hour to hour! I employ 12 people and last month our payroll hit a snag with direct deposits. I got 2 "I have an emergency" calls due to it, 3 "what the heck is going on" calls and 1 "just letting g you know" call, all over being exactly 4 hours later than usual with the deposits.
 
The same people that laugh at me and tell me to live a little when I dont buy something expensive if we happen to be getting lunch etc,,have been some of the same people crying at times and asking to borrow money from me?Ever notice that?Many jobs I was on over the years,the boss offered left over brick ,block etc,,for free to all the workers.I took a load home every night.Most of the workers didnt,and went to the bar every night.Later some of them needed materials for projects. They knew I had some stored up,,sorry,,,but they had to go buy it. ,,,lol
 
Randy, I see that all the time at Walmart.

Standing in line behind someone going through a stack of credit cards trying to find one that will let them pay for their groceries.

Sad...
 
I notice these days that people seem to dump all their money on things that have no equity value. Car lease payments rather than purchase, cable tv (then complain there is nothing to watch), cell phone data plans, rent instead of mortgage, always new rather than used, etc.
 
Watched a lady the other day in a newish 30k vehicle digging through her purse and cup holders to find 7.50$ to put gas in it. Light was on.

While doing this pulled out brand new smart phone and was puffing on one of those battery powered nicotine kazoos.

When returning to the car I overheard she only put 5$ in so she could buy the lotto ticket.
 
Last spring a spindle broke off the TW 20. $570 later the wife was back to field cultivating for us.

That wasn't even a bad day. The fall before the crankshaft broke, that was a bit of a hit to get running again, just part of the money flow.

Takes some budgeting is all?

As someone else said, leases, cable, phone, data, etc we are spending our money on stuff that is 'nothing' a month after we spend it. What an odd system.

Paul
 



Doesn't surprise me at all. I can remember when having a credit card was a rare thing. No one I knew owned a new car, extravagant house or took vacations to Disneyland or things like that. Entertainment was a TV or maybe a movie on Saturday night. Loans were not cheap, borrowed money was a monkey on your back. Now it's new this, new that, borrow, borrow, borrow. We see that here with guys contemplating spending $40, 50, 60K on a truck to haul a hobby tractor. Hey, it's their money, spend it like you want. But don't come back later complaining about not having enough money to do the other stuff you want.

Up here I see the same thing over and over and over. I'm in line at the checkout and every single person in front of me is paying for groceries with an EBT card 90% of the time. They have a fresh tattoo, a brand new smart phone, a Bluetooth thing in their ear and they go out and climb into a much nicer and newer car than we own, cross the street to the gas station and buy $50-100.00 of Lotto tickets. Honestly, I've seen it hundreds of times. And people wonder why you get so cynical about things?
 
This is a good topic ,,thanks for posting it! Sometimes when the wife and i want to cook outside,I start a fire in the bar b que pit I built from free materials.I burn the sticks of wood I have stacked up from widening and keeping the edges of the fields clean. Making the fire and using the wood is fun for me,,also like the taste of grilling over wood. The wife and I usually cook two nice hamburgers and one small one for our dog Maggie. Our renter was outside having a smoke.I said the fire is going good,,want a burger? He said no thanks,Im gonna cook a ribeye steak.I said the fire is perfect,,he replied,,He didnt have the patience for that.He lit his propane gas grill,and cooked his ribeye steak,,a nice thick one,,that I,,,would never buy,,because I know they are very expensive.He may be right,live day to day,I may be right,keep something for a rainy day,,,who knows who is right? lol
 
As once quoted: people spend money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't like.
 
While I'm pretty conservative and really am down on people living hand to mouth because they have to have everything and have it right now I know others who don't waste money, work hard and because of circumstances also live hand to mouth.

Rick
 
I sure am glad that people keep buying those $$$$$ new pick ups!! Otherwise there wouldnt be any 5 year old ones for me to buy, LOL
 
All I can say is that all of us have to learn that newer generations live differently than we did/do. Our grandfathers scratched their heads when they saw how their kids were living their lives. Really, it shouldn't bother us but unfortunately it does.
 
That continued into the 2000s. Home equity loans are coming back strong. As the house appreciates in value you borrow the appreciation. Make 10 years worth of payments and owe 20% more than you bought the house for. It quit for a while after the 2008 crash.
 
Those that freely spend and have no nest egg determine how those that have scrimped and saved for rainy days spend a good chunk of their finances. Exactly backwards!
 
There is no doubt that a lot of people live beyond their means but for many just trying to survive in the areas they live takes every nickel they can scrape up. My Wife likes all of the house hunter type shows and when i watch with her I am always flabbergasted by the prices for 1000-1500 square foot houses in certain parts of the country, especially west coast and east coast, then add in property taxes and insurance and people are spending a large portion of 2 incomes just to have a relatively modest roof over their heads. I guess they have to stay in the area of their work but I would try something different before i paid 600-750 per square foot for a plain old house.
 
I honestly did not know of welfare checks during the great depression. My folks never mentioned it and I never heard of it.
 
I am a big fan of a guy from Tennessee named Dave Ramsey who has the 3rd largest radio program and is an expert in personal finance. He is adamantly anti-debt. He has been doing this for 30 years. He says 70% of the US population lives paycheck to paycheck. That is ?Normal? and he urges you to be abnormal. I could write 3 more paragraphs on why but many of you touched on them already. One not mentioned is student loans. You would not believe the knuckleheads with $80K of debt they piled up to be an English major that cant get a job. It?s a ticking time bomb. If they studied a real job like welding, electronics, mechanics, etc they could get a job tomorrow.
 
Did they actually ask 57% of the population? I doubt it. Nobody asked me. In fact, I do not know anybody who was asked.
 
I have sometimes thought about what would happen if we went to an all cash economy. Would there be a great recession while people saved their money and sales suddenly slowed tremendously? Would manufacturing slow down and cause lay-offs at factories? Then would this not cause more recession?
Credit buying, carefully controled, is a good thing.
 
Sometimes it just is what it is. I've seen times when I coulden't rub two nickels together but somehow the bills were paid and there was food on the table. Sure there's a lot of folks who place too much importance on things they want but there's at just as many folks that are doing all they can just to scrape by. When you've been on both sides of the fence it's a little easier to understand.
 
As things have become so much more complicated, maintinence becomes impossible on the new stuff any more. New tractors have the $15,000 muff,ears now.....

We can't afford to own thrm last the warranty......

You will find 15 year old stuff won't be supported soon - it will be a whole new world for us old guys, we don't fit in any more.

Paul
 
Well after just getting done paying my taxes for last year I can see why. I don't make very much but sure do seem to have to pay lots in taxes. Government is way too blotted.
 
(quoted from post at 08:09:25 03/07/17) I am a big fan of a guy from Tennessee named Dave Ramsey who has the 3rd largest radio program and is an expert in personal finance. He is adamantly anti-debt. He has been doing this for 30 years. He says 70% of the US population lives paycheck to paycheck. That is ?Normal? and he urges you to be abnormal. I could write 3 more paragraphs on why but many of you touched on them already. One not mentioned is student loans. You would not believe the knuckleheads with $80K of debt they piled up to be an English major that cant get a job. It?s a ticking time bomb. If they studied a real job like welding, electronics, mechanics, etc they could get a job tomorrow.
Click to expand...

I listen to Dave Ramsey on my worktunes, lots of interesting stuff. Fortunately I was doing what he preaches way before he became popular....and married a woman who had the same values. We were out of debt 2 years after we were married, 26 years ago. The things we did to get out of debt stuck with us over the years...we are frugal, but still enjoy nice things. Like they say, it takes money to make money...and having the cash on hand has gotten me some pretty good deals over the years.
 
I've heard Ramsey's program and agree with a lot of what he says. However, most of the callers talk nonsense. Nobody pays off 75,000 dollars of debt within one year by picking up 2 additional hours per week at a 10 dollar per hour job. Also, as to the topic in general not all people get the same start in life and for quite a few people that is hard to imagine. Some people are escaping a very abusive home situation when they graduate from high school and take on more debt early in life and are trying to pay it back on entry level job wages which does not work. Then there are people who just are not equipped with knowledge about finances early in life and they unfortunately learn the hard way. I am not trying to make excuses but am just pointing out the world can be very complicated for many people. This point was made in one of the first farm management classes I took in college. The professor designed three imaginary farms on paper with similar basic features in terms of acreage, soils, and livestock enterprises. This was hot on the heals of the farm crisis in the early 1980's and one of the points was that just because the neighbor built a Harvestore silo and did not lose his shirt does not mean you will not lose your shirt if you do the same thing. That the neighbor is not going to clue you in as to everything it takes for him to do everything he does. Sure it seems simple enough to work within your own means but sometimes people use outsiders for templates as how to conduct their business and it can be a disaster depending on the situation.
 
They were also given surplus commodities, mostly food that they would not eat so they would try to sell it to the neighbors for cash so they could buy beer.
 
SELF CONTROL! Hiding sums of money away in coffee cans, as Dave Ramsey suggests does nothing for self control, which is the core of most folks financial problems. Do not live beyond your means.
 
Last fall I bought a sharp looking 1988 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup with only 90K miles, because it was priced right and never know when my other one will go. I figure I could buy 15 more just like it for the price of a new one!
 
I got married very young with zero plans you might say. Had a steady job with Uncle Sam for three years. Wife had to have surgery for all three children. First one, two years after marriage, cost me $19.75 at military hospital overseas. Had second one on the way when we got out of Army. Insurance was not affordable and would not cover anyway. It took us until the boy was a teen ager to get him paid off as he was in hospital for two months. Constant medical bills. Wife is in hospital as I speak. Now days, we do have good insurance but it still takes 25 percent of our income for premiums. Hand to mouth was pretty much a constant. One new car, purchased 23 years ago and still driving. Easy to tell people how to handle their money, just like how to raise their kids. Right.
 
(quoted from post at 10:30:43 03/07/17) While I'm pretty conservative and really am down on people living hand to mouth because they have to have everything and have it right now I know others who don't waste money, work hard and because of circumstances also live hand to mouth.

Rick
Click to expand...


That's true Rick. But theres a difference between living beyond your means and doing the best you can.

The origin of this subject was based on a Congressman noting that people say they can't find the money to buy healthcare insurance, but they can buy a phone that runs $500-900.00 (I was unaware they were that expensive!!! I use a $9.00 Tracfone) and then buy insurance for the phone! It's been twisted now to make it sound like the guy said "poor people shouldn't have cell phones" of course, but the basic idea certainly rings true to me.
 
(quoted from post at 11:54:38 03/07/17) I honestly did not know of welfare checks during the great depression. My folks never mentioned it and I never heard of it.
Click to expand...

I believe it was called "relief" back then. It's where the saying "On the Dole" came from as I understand it. Dole pineapple was one of the foods given to those on relief.
 
(quoted from post at 16:56:49 03/07/17) SELF CONTROL! Hiding sums of money away in coffee cans, as Dave Ramsey suggests does nothing for self control, which is the core of most folks financial problems. Do not live beyond your means.
Click to expand...

I've listen to Ramsey quite a bit. I never heard him say "hide money in a coffee can." What he talks about IS self control, not getting into debt, working your way out, avoiding it in the future.
 
(quoted from post at 17:58:10 03/07/17)
(quoted from post at 16:56:49 03/07/17) SELF CONTROL! Hiding sums of money away in coffee cans, as Dave Ramsey suggests does nothing for self control, which is the core of most folks financial problems. Do not live beyond your means.
Click to expand...

I've listen to Ramsey quite a bit. I never heard him say "hide money in a coffee can." What he talks about IS self control, not getting into debt, working your way out, avoiding it in the future.
Click to expand...

Rice and beans n beans and rice baby!
 
What still surprises me, and Dad and Grandpa told me it would, is that my wife and I can give such a chunk of our income to our church, and still have more than enough to pay all our bills and save some more. On the rare occasion I speak to someone on the subject, and explain what a tithe is and why one might choose to do so, they practically fall over in disbelief.
 
Well, I've been tithing to my churches (moved once) for about 24 years now, and I'll continue to as long as I am able to care for myself...,But I
have found since I retired nearly 17 years ago I have to budget my spending very closely.....It costs more to live than I ever surmised it would
even though I live a very simple life and get my healthcare from the VA. So, in essence I encourage anyone and everyone to belong to a
church of their choice (I'm a Christian myself) and give to it as they feel they can afford....If they can tithe fine, but I can't guarantee them
prosperity if they do, nor is it likely their church will either.
 
(quoted from post at 16:09:37 03/07/17) Did they actually ask 57% of the population? I doubt it. Nobody asked me. In fact, I do not know anybody who was asked.
Click to expand...

You might want to study up on statistics and polling, then you'll understand why you don't have to question the entire population.
 
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