Depressed about being poor?

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asperity
Pileated woodpecker
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22 May 2008, 11:33 pm

I was depressed about being poor when I raised my daughter because she wanted things other kids had. I hated that I couldn't do better for her. Now she's proud that we managed on so little. I only get a little scared now and then because I can't afford a doctor if I get sick. I almost died once because of that.



Nan
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23 May 2008, 10:11 pm

Xelebes wrote:
Nan wrote:
I'm told that my FICO score is also also lower because I paid cash for the car I drive, rather than financing it and paying it off over time. Even though I've paid faithfully on a mortgage for all these years, not having a car loan since 1995 has hurt my credit. Information typically remains on the reports for 8 to 10 years. The car loan(s) I had were obtained and paid off than 10 years ago, so they no longer count.

Weird, huh?


That does sound bizarre. I mean, having paid for any capital assets with short-term assets should mean that a fair amount of equity exists and that the equity can be leveraged. However, I must assume that leveraging equity is a different financial instrument than lines of credit.


It would be hypothetically possible to borrow against the value of the car - or would have been, at one point. (They devalue so quickly, once they roll off the sales lot. And I've owned and been driving it for several years now.) Typically it's difficult to find an institution that will loan money against the value of a run-of-the-mill vehicle these days, other than as a purchase. (Other than a finance company - and those tend to charge astronomically high interest rates.)

Yes, two very different things. I leveraged the equity in my home (a second mortgage, which had a better interest rate than the existing "line of credit" packages offered) to be able to make upgrades and repairs to the home. That was based on the perceived value of my home in the real estate market at the time. It would not be possible for me to do so again at this time, as property values have dropped. If I owned my home free and clear of any mortgages or liens, I could borrow against it - but would do so only as a last resort, because if I became ill or lost my job and could not make the repayment schedule I would lose my home. I only did so while paying on the first mortgage to be able to try to improve the property enough to make a profit on a sale (and to make it habitable until then) at some point in the future. A gamble, as it were.

Most banks here in the USA, to the best of my knowledge, are not in the habit of granting loans to people without substantial collateral (Emphasis on substantial.) unless they have a verifiable and significant history of handling unsecured credit well. Hence the FICO score scenario. The problem with leveraging equity is that you have to HAVE equity in the first place.

As an example of what one is up against - back when I used a "secured" credit card (i.e., I placed a deposit with an institution and could then draw credit up to the amount they held in the account) I was paying the bank interest for using my own money. And they charged much more in interest fees than they paid as earned interest on the deposit in the savings plan. It's kind of a "no win" except in that I was able to create a record of good payment history that allowed me to obtain unsecured lines of credit in the future. Certainly nothing I'd want to have to do indefinitely. Not at those interest rates. A good short-term tool for the situation I was in at the time, though. Since there were no other alternatives....



boosterjones
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15 Oct 2010, 8:40 am

Although I can't say I grew up in a 'poor' household (I'm from a middle class family but nonetheless I'm happy to say I'm not a snob) I found this as I was looking for a debte where I could ask the following question...

Would it be ok to somehow be like Robin Hood and steal from the rich to gave to the poor?

I say that that would be ok! However as a long time fan of the 1950's show The Adventures of Robin Hood I'll add that if you were to do this (and somehow NOT get cought hard I know, but even today not imposibe as there are some scum bags that have ran away from the long arm of the law!) I would say that one should try and give the rich person who you are going to rob from, to gave up whatever he/she had that you/the poor needed!

If they give whatever you needed willing then you don't harm them, if not then (if you can) you then have the (moral rather than legal) right to force them to give you the disired item(s).

If they are somehow killed in the prosess (as you may have to torhere them) then then you can just take whatever you want from them.

At the end of the day, they'd have only themselves to blame for their mishap!! !!

I won't go into a debite on how one can get away with this, as unless you can outwit the law (eg with lawyers or just plain old fasioned hiding and the like!) which is (let's face it) very hard to do nowadays, but one can do this for other things too!! !! !

If someone is a bigot and will not listen to reason, bully them until they become your slaves!! !

If your parents are evil, make them suffer until they do your bidding!

And so on....

I don't normaly say that such metfords should be used, as not everyone is evil and they have the right to do and say as they please, nor would I say that anyone has the right to use such means to gain selfish ends (bar your own surriavel)

But as the old saying goes your only in trouble when you get cought!! !

Think on it...

Goodbye Till Next Time!! !



Asp-Z
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16 Oct 2010, 5:08 am

As has been noted, the people in your school probably can't actually afford any of that stuff any more than you can, they just get themselves in debt in order to show off. Which is what caused the recession: borrowing money you ain't never gonna be able to pay back.

If you want to get some cool stuff (which is only natural, I don't care about designer clothes myself but I do like my gadgets), get out there and make some cash.