I’m a 35 year old, moderately educated ne’er-do-well, and I’m using a throwaway account because even using my normal account seems too honest and revealing for me.
This post is a rant/cautionary tale/desperate cry to heed my warning.
I am not seeking help or advice directly. While it would no doubt do me a world of good, I have reached a point where I realize that no amount of good advice will overcome my inability to heed it. I do encourage the financially responsible individuals who frequent this sub to offer advice so that others may benefit from it.
First, let me list out my enormously terrible decisions (these are just a few of the biggies):
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I was told by a teacher in high school that no matter what, even if I had to take out loans, I needed to go to college. So I took the max amount of loans I could. Every semester. Through grad school and beyond. I could say that was an irresponsible thing for a teacher to tell a high school student, but I quickly understood the error of this choice yet I continued to repeat the same mistake year after year. Now a $200,000 bill looms over not only my life but the lives of my children for (please hold your laughter until the conclusion of the post) a fucking education degree.
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I bought a house just north of my financial comfort zone (not without some borderline fraudulent interference) because despite a housing crisis in 2008, by 2012 banks were happy to gloss over a questionable credit history to put someone in a 30-year mortgage. The endgame? A little over three years in and a laundry list of every stupid financial move one could make, I missed a payment. Then another. I was able to throw enough legal stumbling blocks to keep the bank from seizing the house for over a year and was actually able to sell it before foreclosure. But don’t worry. I learned next to nothing throughout this ordeal.
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one good thing about an education degree is that teachers in my state are privy to a very solid retirement program. So at least I’ll have that to keep me afloat when I retire. PSYCH!!! After seven years of teaching I decided to run off to another state and what better way to finance that then cashing out said retirement! That’s right, ladies and gents, nearly a third of the way to a full and healthy retirement and I drained it. I might as well have spent it all on lottery tickets. Probably would have been a better investment.
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this doesn’t include the dozens of accounts I’ve allowed to lapse. The credit cards I’ve maxed for reasons I can’t even remember or the three (yes, I know I’m an idiot if the highest order) payday loans I currently have out.
So why share all this? Because hopefully someone is just at the infant stage of bad financial decisions and will see here a list of things to never fucking do!!! The rare spans of my life where I was financially comfortable and not completely enslaved to my debtors were the happiest of my life. No amount of clothes or merchandise or meals out can compensate for financial independence. So here’s a few tips from a guy who has to fucking reason to give advice:
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if you can’t afford it and you won’t die without it (I mean that literally) you don’t need it
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if you’re making payments on it, you don’t own it—it owns you
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your bad financial decisions are not just yours. They affect those around you. You become a burden to those you love most because of your irresponsibility.
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don’t look at solid and well-established financial advice as optional. Make it a mandatory part of your life.
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*student loans are a last resort...just after selling kidneys and prostitution *
Submitted November 06, 2017 at 09:12PM by Throwaway63701-573 http://ift.tt/2hhXnfJ
