I just read a ridiculous column in The Richmond Register about the horrors of living on minimum wage. You can read it here.
One part that jumps out was this: "It's hard, that's why you get credit cards," said Tiffany Cooper, a junior at EKU.
Hey, that's the mentality that made America great. Here's another: "let’s create a monthly scenario: Your rent is $400, you spend $200 on groceries, car insurance is $120 and your car payment is $100. This amounts to $820, just $4 less than what you’d make a month before taxes!"
While monthly EITC credits, WIC, food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, CHIP, etc. take some of the sting out this example, what jumps out at me as a problem is the car payment. High quality older cars have glutted the market to the point that very functional $500 are readily available. There is no reason for someone struggling to buy food to be carrying a car payment around as well. My wife and I drive two vehicles that are worth less than $3500 combined, despite fitting firmly into the demographic car dealers strive to provide shiny four-wheel self-expression. The point is two-fold: going in to debt to finance a lifestyle beyond your means is foolish and almost always causes misery. Also, living beneath your means can be fun, creates good habits, and is an almost surefire way out of many financial woes.
We all talk about Mexicans sneaking into this country to get on welfare, but not so much about the Vietnamese, Koreans, and Russians who struggle to get here to start a business and pursue the American Dream. Many of them succeed though they start with little or no ability to even speak the language. And we want an act of Congress to subsidize further the lifestyles of native-born Americans who refuse to break their habits of cable television, fast food meals, credit cards, and new cars?
Saving money and making do are two things people do when they are determined to succeed, often against greater odds than you or I have ever faced.
The best time to buy a car is Sunday night or Monday morning, when the car dealers are wrapping up the weekend with an inventory of low priced trade-ins that will be sold off to wholesalers by Tuesday. Low offers for those vehicles are often gratefully accepted. That's one big money-saving idea. Got any you would like to share?
