quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
Man you've hit one of my sore spots. I quit having these discussions with people. I have explained it to various family & co-workers for more than twenty years. I simply can't be bothered to aggravate myself preaching it to those unwilling to learn.

A typical recap these days now goes something like this:

The Unwilling To Learn: Man, you're so lucky. You always have money. I'm so broke. Can you help me out.

Me: I've been doing the same things I told you about for a long time now. It adds up. If you'd have started then you'd be in better shape.

TUTL: I couldn't afford to do it.

Me: You always buy the latest gadgets. You love the casino. You don't take care of your cars, yet you're surprised when they take a shit. You don't save any money.

TUTL: So, can you help me out?

Me: Nah. My advice to you was the help you needed. You didn't heed it. I can't help you.

TUTL: You're an asshole.

Me: You made the decisions. How does that make me the asshole?

TUTL: Eff You.

Me: You can't afford it.

It hasn't gotten that bad yet, but we have a pair of old friends (childless married couple) who just CANNOT be responsible with money, and it's started to become a slow motion train wreck.

Our household income is a bit over half of theirs and we have two kids, but we always have money. (ha) They have no kids, both work, and are perpetually broke. Because they're like little kids with credit cards. The only real restraint on their spending is the credit limits on the cards (they have shitty credit after already filing for bankruptcy once).

They're not living in our basement when they default on their mortgage (again!).

It's really sad to watch them do this to themselves, when you make more than (IMO) enough money to have everything you could reasonably want, yet you manage to default on a mortgage, go bankrupt and even after shedding HUGE debts in bankruptcy, are always worrying about money (they sometimes need to juggle multiple cards to PAY FOR GROCERIES) because you simply cannot act like a grownup and defer gratification on some toy or silly scheme, for once.

But we can't make their decisions for them, they're grownups. Nominally.