Financial "irresponsibility"

[draggar]

I really hate people who consider everyone who has filed for bankruptcy or is facing forclosure "irrisponsible".

Yes, I agree, there are some people who act irresponsibly and use these as a crutch buyt not everyone.

2 years ago my wife lost her job and hasn't been able to get a replacement plus she keeps getting denied for disability (despite the fact that she can easily dislocate her hip at any time and cannot walk too well).

For over 5 years we were able to make all of our payments and never lived lavishly. (It's been 5 years since we took a real vacation, 3 since we took more than an afternoon trip somewhere, our TV is 9 years old (32" CRT), our cars were the least expensive things we could find that fit our needs).

Due to mounting bills etc.. we filed for bankruptcy last year but sadly it didn't help out financial situation too well. Yeah, it got rid of the credit cards but our mortgage payment has gone up, insurance has gone up, cost of living has shot up (don't believe anyone when they say the cost of living in south Florida is cheap!).

Now we're also facing forclosure even though I tried to work with my mortgage company (you know, use some of that $25,000,000,000 "bailout" they got to help people out in situations like mine?) yet they refused and are now being very aggressive in the forclosure (despie the fact that we probabaly owe 3X what our property is worth). Now we have to pay an attorney to defend us in the ivil suit the company filed against us - thank god I have documentation that shows I was trying to work with them long before they filed the suit (even up to two weeks before the suit was filed).

I don't find my situation "irresponsible" in any way. Forces outside of our control put us in this situation and we seriously cut back as much as we could when things started to get rough. I haven't seen my sister or my nephew (I haven't seen him since he was a month old and he's turning three soon) because it would cost too much to go visit my family (flight etc..). Hell, i consider it a real treat to myself if I go to Burger King or Subway and buy lunch there for about $5 - normally I eat ramen noodles and water for lunch at work. We maybe go out and see 3-4 movies a year and rarely go out to eat (maybe once a month at best - and then it's usually Pollo Tropical).

Just because someone is facing bankruptcy or forclosure, don't automatically think they were irresponsible (yes, some are like my neighbor who took a $90,000 mortgage out on their (investment) unit (how the HELL did they get that?) and never made a single payment on it).

[Racket_Man]

dagger, you have my sympathies. I was in the same situation as you like 16 years ago. at the time I was not employed full time by a regular company. I was temping. with temping there is no health insurance or job security.

Now my Ex had to have 3 or 4 MAJOR surgeries in a short period of time to correct/fix a potentially life threatening hernia situation (along with a few other things connected to that area of her body). we ended up with medical bills totaling around $36,000 (hosptial, doctor, specialists, test, surgeries, etc.). There was no way we could EVER pay that kind of debt off.

we HAD to file for backruptcy. Thank whoever we did not own a house, and our total assests (a car some old electronics ie TV and our hand=me-down furniture) at the time was only like $2000.

[insertNameHere]

I really think that the banks deserve almost all of the credit because they encouraged most of the financial irresponsibility of people to begin with that has since move to people like yourself, that probably would never have had to deal with such things. My cousin was irresponsible but I also blame the bank for giving her a loan for a house she couldn't afford especially after the dead beat boyfriend left. But I do think she should have known better than to by the sport bike that helped with the debt.

[jackfaire]

I really think that the banks deserve almost all of the credit because they encouraged most of the financial irresponsibility of people to begin with

I don't for the same reason I don't blame fast food restaurants for people being overweight.

It is said companies job to make money. It is consumers job to know what they can afford and thus not buy it if they can't afford it. Period.

People love to blame companies because they don't have to admit to themselves that the company is made up mostly of people just like them trying to make a living and trying to make ends meet.

I see people all of the time buying things they can't afford it can be pointed out to them that they can't afford it and they will wave you off and tell you not to worry about it but the instant that they run into financial trouble, "It was all that companies fault they shouldn't let me make my own decisions about how to spend my money"