Dear Editor,
Since I have been around this old world for more than eighty five years, I feel entitled to make some comments about today’s world.
I see every day, illustrations of a horrible lack of understanding of simple money management in the minds of far too many people. The money management I am talking about is the very basic ” If you don’t have it’ don’t spend it “.
Please take my advice.
If your income is such that you sometimes feel it necessary to overload your credit card, with the plan to pay it back later and just pay the overage penalty, you are treading on dangerous ground. You are likely thinking I should mind my own business, but while thinking that, remember this fact. Each and every time you make that over- extension, your personal credit rating takes a permanent hit. Yes, credit card companies and banks do pay attention, they have long memories and they keep permanent records. The result of that is this, every single time you make a credit card purchase or a contract purchase, you are paying a higher rate of interest, over a longer period of time. That interest is compounded, or increased, over the entire payback period. In some cases the eventual total amount you pay for the privilege of using someone else’s money can be three of four times the face value of your original note.
In speaking recently with a friend living in a nearby state, he told me he had gotten a really great deal on a house and property…..and it cost him only six hundred and eighty five thousand dollars. When I finished choking on that statement, I asked him “Just how in hell are you going to ever pay off that debt?” You are sixty seven years old, you are going to die in debt. Doesn’t that bother you? He got a bit huffy with me and said “It’ll be just like paying rent, no big deal”. I asked him what he thought would happen if he or his spouse fell severely ill and had to stay in a hospital for an extended stay. I asked “Knowing that possibility exists at yours and her age and that it would likely bankrupt you, are you ready for the eventuality that you could lose everything and you might end up living in a shabby rental trailer?”. His parting comment was “You just don’t even try to understand.” as he hung up on me.
While standing in the check-out line at the grocery store, I was sniveling about prices and a young lady said to me “You ought to do like I do. I just use my debit card for everything and send them some money every month. I don’t even look at the bills. I’ve been doing it a long time.”
I was left speechless as we parted company. I was thinking that the true Hell of indebtedness would catch up with both those folks and they wouldn’t even see it coming.
I am an old tightwad, pinchpenny and I have no debt. I wish there was a way to get good people to educate themselves about money and its management, before their financial world collapses. If you don’t have it, Don’t spend it!
Jack Hommel
