‘Too Little Too Late’: Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans

  • Thread starter Thread starter FollowChrist34
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Part of the problem is that people need to learn better financial literacy. I have set up my life so that by the time I reach a certain age, I will be replacing income from work with income from investments. Once that happens, there will be no need to work. That will free me up to do a lot of things that are important, but that the market does not value.
 
I understand. Still, though, one particularly difficult day it suddenly occurred to me how people were honoring me. Think about it. People will do almost anything to avoid parting with their money. In order to induce them to part with it, one has to either present them with an intense attraction or a serious necessity.

In my case, it’s necessity on their part. I don’t sell a product, but a service. And these people are willing to part with money because they value my services that much. That’s kind of neat. And it’s also clearly providing people with something they really need a lot. That’s kind of neat too.

I will admit, though, that I cheat somewhat. I have also raised cattle all my life, and do still. One of these times I might spend more time doing that and less doing my “day job”. 🙂 Quilting, cattle. Might be the same idea.

I really do enjoy raising cattle and part of it is the quality. I really go the extra mile to ensure quality. I like to think about the people or whom my cattle provide high quality nourishment. Now with your quilting if you sell them to people or give them away and really do care about your quality (and most quilters I know do) then you and I are on the same page. It’s just that I don’t want to give up the other things I do.
 
Last edited:
The government is factitious in itself.

It is like an octopus with ten arms. Five are out to slap the citizen; the other five out to help the citizen.

The civil servants and non civil servants running it are not people of the highest virtue and were not taught in exceptional schools.
 
I am just thinking that I hope God in His infinite mercy won’t let me live too long.

If He does, I’ll depend on Him to help me, and if He won’t help me, then, I won’t live too long anyway. I will just not accept the extraordinary health treatments if I cannot afford them. For instance, I will not go through surgeries, etc. if they probably won’t help, but doctors recommend.

Once they tell me my heart is failing I would not expect a transplant. If they tell me I have cancer, I will not go through chemo if it is already far advanced. It’s particularly hard if one has multiple morbidity. I have a friend who had her chest cut open a couple of times and had other surgeries for colon cancer. I am not certain what will happen to her next.
 
This is my stance as well.

My job is my job, it’s not what I love doing most. Maybe one day I’ll find something I love doing, and will be able to make a living doing it, but frankly I’m only in this until I can retire, at which point I intend to just enjoy my hobbies and maybe pick up some part time work, or maybe get heavily involved in an apostolate or something.

I also, would be in less in hurry to retire (if you can call 35 from retirement “in a hurry”) if I didn’t have to deal with city traffic every day. I spend so much of my time commuting… I’d be willing to put in an extra hour’s work each day if they’d let me just work from home.
 
Maybe your answer is raising cattle. I have sometimes said, half jokingly, but only half, that someday or other if I get too slow or too absent of mind, some irate cow or bull that’s quicker than I am will probably mash me up against a gate post anyway.

My wife has a different view of it. She complains that she will have to spend ten times as much for my grave as normal because it will have to be big enough for a Bobcat skid steer. I have a Bobcat for various farm work and forestry. She believes someday when I go senile I’ll drive my Bobcat into a creek or off a cliff or something and she won’t be able to get my hands off the joysticks. So she’ll have to bury me Bobcat and all. What a whiner!
 
If you listen to and do everything the doctor wants, they can run you bankrupt. You’ve got to stand up to them when they want to do tests every three months at 3K each.

Take medication only if it is necessary.

Avoid M.D.'s who also have PHD’s. They can be half crazy.
 
Last edited:
Augustinian said:
The traffic hassles, particularly for those of us who live in super-sized cities, are worse than working.
Click to expand...
One of my brothers retired early. One of his chief complaints was the travel time. It took him 45 minutes to drive to work and 45 minutes back, and all within the same metro area.
 
I’m 40-50 in the morning, 60-75 in the evening.

If anything is going to cause me to quit my current job, it’s the commute. It’s stressful, long, and takes up way too much of my day. I could be using that time to spend it with my kiddo >_>
 
Last edited:
AT one time in my occupation I did a lot of driving; usually 3 or 4 hours one way. But highway driving is a very different thing from city driving. I kind of like highway driving if I have a good phone, a good radio and a good CD player. But city driving is just no fun, especially during rush hours, when you go a few feet then stop, go a few more feet, then stop. Then all of a sudden it opens up and everybody takes off like scalded cats for a mile or two, only to stop again.
 
Ridgerunner said:
One of my brothers retired early. One of his chief complaints was the travel time. It took him 45 minutes to drive to work and 45 minutes back, and all within the same metro area.
Click to expand...
ProdglArchitect said:
I’m 40-50 in the morning, 60-75 in the evening.

If anything is going to cause me to quit my current job, it’s the commute. It’s stressful, long, and takes up way too much of my day. I could be using that time to spend it with my kiddo >_>
Click to expand...
I spend 30-45 minutes each way depending on traffic. It’s not the time so much as the stress of dealing with other city drivers. I often joke that my car must have an invisibility cloak that I’m unaware of because of all the people who cut in front of me. People are way too trusting that 1) I see them and 2) my brakes are in superior working order. Let’s not even start on people who are on their phones while driving.
 
I can’t speak to the state of Illinois as to teachers’ pensions and how that is calculated. but it is up to those running for state positions - governor, and the legislature - to start clearly identifying what is out of whack and making the necessary adjustments. I am not anti-union; but neither am I pro-union. Teachers have, IMHO, been notoriously underpaid for the responsibilities they assume (and that is without getting into the whole world of education and what is being taught). Some of that may be coming as payback, but the bottom line will be if the program is sustainable.

There are any number of state, county and local jurisdictions which will go bankrupt if they don’t have a Come To Jesus meeting about pension plans. And depending on the state (and in some circumstances, federal) laws. the courts may or may not be able to unwind some or all of the issues. Oregon met with problems in state PERS and it still is not fully resolved; that seems to be one of the issues in the election of the next governor.
 
otjm said:
There are any number of state, county and local jurisdictions which will go bankrupt if they don’t have a Come To Jesus meeting about pension plans.
Click to expand...
I think one of the problems is that there is some dispute as to whether states can actually declare bankruptcy. Local governments surely can, but can states? I don’t think the question is settled.
 
I was able to alleviate the traffic problem by adjusting my hours. Not everyone can do this of course. And very few can find jobs within walking distance of their homes.
 
I heard they were looking toward the US Supreme Court to make that decision. Some states simply over promised. Lawmakers have no business signing 50-yr contracts with unions and such.
 
The difference is of course going to be in earlier stuff too.

I’m 30. I make about $14/hr in a high COL area. Once I pay my rent and food and put gas in my car and pay my medical bills, there’s not a lot left. I have a lot of medical bills and we don’t get much coverage. I’m still paying off the money I used to live off of when my health got really bad and I couldn’t take care of myself.

Saving for retirement in kind of like - with what? I need that money for when the car breaks down or something, or if I get sick again and have to take time off. I’m working on going back to college but that’s going to require more debt.

I’m still youngish, but I know I’m going to be entering the retirement savings a lot later than many others. And there’s not much to fix that.
 
I know. The hospital was doing dialysis on my father right before he died. I could not help but wonder, why?
 
Last edited:
Well, one of the questions is— what keeps you in a high COL area?

If you’re, like, a rocket scientist, you’re very limited in the areas where you can live.

But if you work a job that you can pick up anywhere— why not move somewhere that makes more economic sense? A place with no state income tax. Or a place where you can buy a house for the equivalent of two years’ salary. Or that sort of thing.

We left a major city (500k at the time; now over 850k) to live in a tiny town of about 3,000. Not because we liked it for itself, but because it was roughly the center point for DH and myself to each have a reasonable commute to a small/medium-sized city, and because we could buy a house for $40k here, versus a house for $120k 20 minutes up the road.

Living in an expensive city is fine, if you rely on family support, or other intangibles like that. But I know plenty of people who have fled places like Los Angeles or San Francisco even 15 years ago, because they knew surgeons who couldn’t afford to buy housing. 🙂 Let alone trying to make it on $14/hr!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top