When did we become so financially dishonest?
I just heard a story about a couple from Mesa, Ariz. Four years ago, at the peak of the housing market, they bought a 1,200 square foot home in the "right neighborhood" for $350,000. Not long after, they took out a second mortgage on the home, purchased lavish furniture, recreational toys, and finally paid off their student loan.
Then their adjustable arm kicked in.
As the market started to nosedive, they could no longer make their payments. With housing prices collapsing and foreclosures happening all around them, the couple lived in the house without paying their mortgage for six months. It took the bank another six months to get them out.
In the end, they left the keys and walked away. Now they're living quite happily in a rental not far from their original home (a house now worth roughly $68,000, brand new). They're surrounded by beautiful furniture, all their recreational toys, and have no major debt to worry about. And they're okay with this.
Yes, we all know their credit is shot, but what about their conscience? Is there no sense of responsibility there? Do they think all of that money was free to begin with? Do they think they deserved it?
Perhaps I'm just a reformed whore. Over the past 14 months my husband and I have turned our financial habits upside down. It's been uncomfortable to say the least. We've given up vacations, lavish date nights, trips to the mall and name brand diapers. We've been accountable to each other for every penny at the end of the month, and thrown everything we could scrounge at our acquired debt.
One thing we've realized in the past year is the fact that no one did this to us. We plainly got ourselves into this mess, and we'll spend the next two years eating rice and beans to make it right.
Too many people think that credit cards offer free money, and to make matters worse, when they get in too deep, they look for a bail out. We whine about the recession while driving around brand new SUV's and taking magical vacations that we can't afford, ignoring the excessive debt slowly piling up around us.
Unless your situation has rendered you completely helpless, if you have the ability to earn an income and a brain in your head, consumer debt is nothing short of irresponsible. I know, I've been there.
Personally, I think Utah is more prone to the old "Keeping up with the Jones'" attitude than just about anywhere else. In a society where such a high number of people attend church with their neighbors, people are far more conscious of who has what.
Much of America is made up of nameless neighborhoods with strangers who don't associate with one another. When you don't know the people around you, you're less likely to measure yourself against them.
But why is it that cutting back and cutting down is looked down on as some sort of financial failure? It's like we're so worried about what the neighbors might think of us if we sell our boat and our RV that we hold on to a sinking ship and refuse the bright red bail out buckets. Heaven forbid someone see us use manual labor to save our family.
There is no shame in taking control of your financial future. People are going to judge us no matter what we do, get over it. If you're trying to put on a good show for the neighbors, they're probably going to whisper about your excess spending habits. If you're thrifty and known for driving the oldest car on the block, they're probably going to call it ugly.
The fact is excess debt should bother us. Taking a bail out or weaseling out of fiscal responsibilities when you've got stuff to sell (cars included), and money coming in, is shameful.
Even if it means you owe your soul to the company store for the next 14 years, and are forced to drive a 1995 Honda Civic, if you've gotten yourself into debt, it's your job to pay your way out.
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