Things that make me just shake my head

[HappySaver]

Tom,

Suze Orman has often drawn this connection. The psychology being, if something else is going on and you feel bad about yourself, you will be more likely to reward yourself with instant gratification across the board. This includes bad financial as well as food decisions.

[wjcalderon]

I work with a lady that is 74 years old and says she can't retire because she doesn't have enough savings and has too much credit card debt.

Recently, she told us that she is thinking of trading in her perfectly good SUV (it's maybe 4 years old and she's still making payments) for a new convertible (with a payment of $150 more than she's paying now.)

I tried to point out what was wrong with her idea, but it went in one ear and out the other!

[feh]

Both of our daughters bought their prom dresses in the past week. She went to a specialty shop about an hour away. Mine went to Macy's at the local mall. She spent $379. Mine spent $69.50.

Not too hard to figure out why some people just "can't get ahead".

Regarding prom spending - just saw this article:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/09/pf/prom-spending/index.html?iid=HP_LN

I can't believe the average spent is $1000.

[rennigade]

Regarding prom spending - just saw this article:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/09/pf/prom-spending/index.html?iid=HP_LN

I can't believe the average spent is $1000.

I dont buy that for one minute. Thats the media at their finest...spreading propaganda.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Rennigade I wonder that too. Isn't it easier to just live life without care and not worry about bills and do bankruptcy when it all comes crashing down? I just wonder? I mean if we didn't save and just paid for everything on CC and used all our spare cash to pay for our mortgage, then the rest is spent, why couldn't we live that way the rest of our lives? What is the real punishment rather than just our moral standard?

[Gailete]

The co-worker of mine that declared bankruptcy earned exactly what I do, she would pad her driving miles for work to have a bigger check to live on so that every time her car broke down she didn't have any resources to fix it (my mileage reimbursement went towards the gas I used and the rest into my 'car' account for when I needed work done), instead of cleaning out her own car she had hers detailed every couple of weeks at $50 a pop, took her 7 years old son out to Red Lobster at least once a week if not more because 'he liked it' (we go every couple years as it is our 'celebration' restaurant), she also got child support and would always look at me with this sad look and say she didn't know how I managed financially. I managed very well thank you! The only thing that stopped me managing was coming down with severe RA on top of OA as well and just couldn't go to work any more. She was very over-weight and rather than truly try a diet (she walked in to work every morning drinking full sugar Coke) she managed to convince a doctor to do a gastric bypass. I would be willing to almost bet that at this point 12 years post-op she has figured out a way to eat enough to get fat again! She was always out of control with her finances and eating.

Disney Steve, Your girl has obviously learned some great financial coping skills. They will see her well throughout her life.

[Eagle]

My daughter is a senior in high school. So is the daughter of one of my employees. We are in pretty good financial shape. We earn a 6-figure income, have almost no debt and just a small mortgage. She earns far less, has a garnishment on her pay for something (I don't know the details), has credit card debt, leased a brand new SUV last year, etc.

Both of our daughters bought their prom dresses in the past week. She went to a specialty shop about an hour away. Mine went to Macy's at the local mall. She spent $379. Mine spent $69.50.

Not too hard to figure out why some people just "can't get ahead".

As of April 2014... from this source.

U.S. household consumer debt profile:

■ Average credit card debt: $15,191
■ Average mortgage debt: $154,365
■ Average student loan debt: $33,607

There's probably 300+ million people in the U.S.

In total, American consumers owe:

■ $11.68 trillion in debt
■ An increase of 3.7% from last year
■ $854.2 billion in credit card debt
■ $8.15 trillion in mortgages
■ $1,115.3 billion in student loans
■ An increase of 13.9% from last year

As Americans we spend more than we make. We also not to like delayed gratification (waiting on things). It's a microwave culture out there.

DisneySteve, I wonder what the girl who paid (or got her parents to pay) nearly $400 for her prom dress expects when it comes to her parents paying for a car, education, and expenses in general into adulthood?

[Eagle]

Regarding prom spending - just saw this article:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/09/pf/prom-spending/index.html?iid=HP_LN

I can't believe the average spent is $1000.

I dont buy that for one minute. Thats the media at their finest...spreading propaganda.

No way is the average $1000 for prom dresses. That's like the cost of a wedding dress!

[phantom]

Regarding prom spending - just saw this article:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/09/pf/prom-spending/index.html?iid=HP_LN

I can't believe the average spent is $1000.

$1000 sounds hard to believe to me too. I was shocked by the cost of proms when I heard ticket prices mentioned over the weekend. One of the seniors at my church mentioned that she was doing a fund-raiser to reduce the cost of prom tickets. She said tickets were going to be $160 per couple, and my jaw dropped. I didn't even pay $80 per head for my wedding. I would have thought there'd be other ways to get costs down than asking kids to fundraise. But, the school district throwing this prom is one of the richer districts in the area, so my thought is that maybe some of the kids planning the prom don't see $160/couple as being that crazy.

I can't remember what my own prom tickets, prom dress, or share of the limo cost. I remember thinking it was high, but I had no interest in going, so a $5 ticket would have been high. I would have skipped it if my mom hadn't insisted I go and paid for everything. In the end, I did have a good time, but it was definitely an experience I could have done without.

[Singuy]

I have a co-working trying to justify buying a beach condo because they recently just spent 5k on a penthouse suite over the weekend. She is claiming that she'll save so much money if they just buy a 300k beach condo(350k after she dress it up).

Her and her husband makes good money(about 190k/year after tax), but they have CC debt, a 400k mortgage, and her kids spends 75k/year in private school(3 kids). Now I am not going to ding them for the private school expenditure, but she likes to start out her sentences with "is it a good idea to take out some of my 401k for....." (most recent question was taking out 401k for kitchen remodeling)

I keep telling her to stop buying her 8 year old a 700 dollar bike...because she's 8 years OLD! Also why the 3 gym memberships?...or have your kids spend 120 dollars/month on E-books?!@!@#

Now she's looking into houses that is around 950k because she can "afford" it. Sigh
I always tell her that they are one car accident away from bankruptcy because they have 0 E-fund!

[corn18]

If anyone wants to know exactly how those people think, just ask me. 6 months ago, I was one.

[Gailete]

DisneySteve, I wonder what the girl who paid (or got her parents to pay) nearly $400 for her prom dress expects when it comes to her parents paying for a car, education, and expenses in general into adulthood?

Or her wedding. Eeks! She will probably be one of those bridezillas that want anything and everything no matter the cost.

Now she's looking into houses that is around 950k because she can "afford" it.

How in the world does someone making not even $200K take home think that they can afford a $900K house. Does she seriously think she is going to get a loan for a beach condo and a new house with total costs of over a million. The old rule of thumb used to be you couldn't get a mortgage (or shouldn't) for more than 3 times your take home pay. But with all her other 'necessary' expenses she couldn't possibly have that to spend.

Hasn't she ever heard of a library free books to read? I have a Kindle but I rarely buy a book. I download samples of several books on the same subjects and manage to glean almost an entire books worth of information. I do like having books to read on the Kindle for when I get my IV meds or when my hands get too sore to hold a regular book open, but for kids that kind of money is crazy! And the sort of thing that will prevent them from making any real dreams come true, but I guess she just 'buys' her dreams now and will be kicking herself later in life when she is completely broke and has lost her house(s) because she couldn't afford them.

[Permanent Temp]

$1000 sounds hard to believe to me too. I was shocked by the cost of proms when I heard ticket prices mentioned over the weekend. One of the seniors at my church mentioned that she was doing a fund-raiser to reduce the cost of prom tickets. She said tickets were going to be $160 per couple, and my jaw dropped. I didn't even pay $80 per head for my wedding. I would have thought there'd be other ways to get costs down than asking kids to fundraise. But, the school district throwing this prom is one of the richer districts in the area, so my thought is that maybe some of the kids planning the prom don't see $160/couple as being that crazy.

I can't remember what my own prom tickets, prom dress, or share of the limo cost. I remember thinking it was high, but I had no interest in going, so a $5 ticket would have been high. I would have skipped it if my mom hadn't insisted I go and paid for everything. In the end, I did have a good time, but it was definitely an experience I could have done without.

Well mathematically an average is not the best way to go to figure that out. I always want to know the median but no one ever posts that.

Proms were expensive back in my day. I think it was 80+ for a ticket and we didn't live in a rich place. Most female students were spending $600-$1000 depending on whether they took a limo or not. I didn't go to prom though. I was trying to save money to take summer classes, $600 on prom seemed like a waste of time and money in comparison. I didn't test as high as I would have liked in the tests at the community college and didn't want to be behind so I saved up enough money to take 2 "remedial" English and Math courses plus English 101 and Speech which I didn't want to be stuck in for a long semester. That's probably one of the best decisions I made aside from going to community college in the first place.

It was the same education as the university, and I figured out what I wanted to major in there. Then I was able to pick a four year school which had the major I wanted. I was able to pay it off with my part-time job and help from my mother. I got scholarships for transfer to the 4 year school and all my gen eds were done which helped with the amount of student loans I had to take out. We weren't wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. I still am not, but I knew for me college was the best way to make sure I was employable. The military or trade school were just not avenues I wanted to pursue. So far its worked out pretty well.

Years later though I did pay a prom dress for an event I had in college. It cost about $40 and I was able to wear it several times, including to the commencement ball which was both cheaper and a heck of a lot more fun than prom ever could be really.