Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
::Today's soundtrack: Janis Joplin "Mercedes Benz" ::
Last week's Rant regarding obsessive bargain hunters made me think about money and the economy and such. It strikes me as totally insane the way some people run willy-nilly with their monies and then stare in wonder and amazement with one of those slack jawed "how-could-this-have-happened" expressions at the moment when their financials implode upon themselves.
I used to work with a guy who seemed to have no idea how to handle his money. He had many credit cards maxed out. He had two ex-wives to whom he still paid alimony and child support. He owned a tenement building (a small one with like three apartments in it) and one of the things he included in the rent was satellite television. Unfortunately, he did not pay the satellite television bill and his tenants had their TV shut off, even though the price of said TV was included in their rent. And yet, despite all of the phone calls from creditors every damn day, he was having expensive Omaha Steaks and wines sent to him in the mail and bragging about it. It seems that to him none of the preceding troubles meant he had to cut back or make sacrifices to his lifestyle. He would have his expensive meals and then pull his hair out not knowing how to consolidate his debt and to make the nasty phone calls stop. This infuriated me to no end. I wanted to shake him and slap him in the face and tell him that he would have to start eating Cup-O-Noodles, go at least a year without buying a new suit, have his own television service shut off, cancel his cell phone service, and cut whatever luxuries he could for however long he could in order to even make it half way out of the hole he dug himself.
There's a girl I presently work with who is kind of dumb about some stuff (re: I had to explain to her what the word "resilient" meant and she also did not know that "swine" meant pigs. I am not making this up.), and that's fine. Heck, I'm no genius. But when she moved out of her mother's house and on her own, she did so without having the ability to support herself, and she knew this. She moved into her own apartment with her mom still supporting her financially, which to me makes zero sense. Her mom visits her at work periodically to give her checks to pay for her monthly bills. Now, colour me old fashioned I guess, but to me when one moves out from the parents' house, one does so with the understanding of being able to support oneself, I mean, unless you're like a college student or something. I see it as "the trade off": stay at home being supported but living by their rules, or move out on your own where you live by your rules, but you have to support yourself, so to me it was like she was being selfish, wanting all of the freedom but none of the responsibility. We all can experience a set back and may need to ask for help if the unforeseen and random circumstance should arise. Maybe what you thought was a perfectly functioning car suddenly has its transmission fall out, or someone rear-ended you, or you break your arm and now have big medical expenses. For this, I would not fault anyone asking for monetary assistance. But if your everyday, normal life is too much for you to afford, then maybe you should never have left home and saved up a while longer before considering it. Or maybe she too, like the other man I mentioned, needed to reassess her lifestyle into something she could actually manage on her own. For starters, she could give up her cell phone. Then maybe her cable television package (she has 100 channels). Maybe spend less to nothing on fraking Avon products every month. Someone needs to have a serious sit down with this girl and ask which is more important: that new perfume or making rent? And if she answers, "but my mom will cover my rent" then she gets an electric shock.
When I decided to move out of the parents' house, I had a plan and it was to start saving money and stock pile necessities. Every week I'd divide up my paycheck: save half, spend half, and the spent half went towards the things I would need like pots and pans. One week I'd buy a set of steak knives, the next silverware. My first television was bought on clearance and it had a 13 inch screen. When I finally did move out, I did not have cable television, but an antenna which meant I got one and a half channels (thanks White Mountains!) and I had no phone service. I knew I wasn't ready to afford these things, and so I went without them for a good while until I could. I went without new comic books for almost two years. This is a guy who collected Amazing Spider-Man for nearly a decade, but I knew I'd have to make the sacrifice until I had everything in order in my life first. No television, no phone, no Spider-Man, but I had a brand new stove and refrigerator all paid for up front. I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.
Now that I think about it, it's buying things on credit and payment plans that gets many people into financial binds. I personally have only ever bought two things on payment installments one being my house and the other my vehicle. Everything else I buy I pay for up front, cash, check or credit card, and the card gets paid off every month (or every other month if say, I went on vacation or bought expensive X-mas gifts), because I know how to control my spending is how. Do you know how many credit cards I have? Two. A Mastercard and Discover card. The Mastercard has a low limit and I use it for anything I buy online just in case the info gets stolen I won't wind up buried in fraudulent debt. The Discover card is what I use when I'm buying in a store and I'm short on cash or go on a vacation. That's it! Two whole cards and my life is just fine, thank you. Why do people get ten credit cards and then marvel at the amount of money they owe on them? My main thought when I hear these woeful tales is "well, what did you THINK was going to happen?" Did you think you could buy now and never have to pay later? Did you think that compounded interest wouldn't apply to you?
Don't get me wrong, I have debt. I have a house and a car, so of course I do. I have to pay people money on these things for years before I will own them outright. But if my debt were to be anthropomorphized, it would be a gremlin no larger than a beagle. It would be a little monster, nipping at my ankles occasionally. Bothersome yes, but not very troubling. Some people on the other hand, have debts the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and are almost literally running for lives. The thing is, their debts didn't suddenly materialize as a large hungry beast, it grew slowly and steadily over time, and here's the kicker, because they were knowingly feeding it! Every month the credit card compiled interest, or that third new car (for a family of two people!), or real silver flatware you simply HAD to have for twenty monthly payments, was a jilt of growth tonic to this monster and now you look at it and are shocked by the sheer size of the creature you yourself made?
I don't mean to come off as a self-righteous jerk here. I'm just saying, that with a little planning and a few less luxuries, people can get out of and even avoid horrible financial situations. Let's face it, if you're twenty-two years old and you needed a high interest loan from a bank in order to pay off your myriad outstanding debts, then you need to wake up and not repeat this same problem! Make a few cut backs. I'm not saying everyone's life needs to be devoid of any vices or luxuries at all, just keep it reasonable and down to what you can afford! Don't put a $2000 flat screen television set on your credit card when you still owe $5000 on that card! If you can't manage to pay off that $5000, then how in the world do you think your going to be able to get out from under this additional $2000 charge?? And yet, this is what people do. They spend money they don't have and then wonder where all the debt came from. And it drives me bananas.
William the Bloody (the best things in life are free)
