[quote=zzz]i think most of us who are savers or not heavily in debt can’t truly grasp how so many many people spend everything they make and live paycheck to paycheck, and have a lot of credit card debt, and somehow sleep at night anyhow. most people do not have months or years of savings in the event of job loss.
i was at nordstroms in escondido a month ago and the sales lady said they had 2 of their best quarters in Q1/Q2 this year, double digit growth over last year in that store.
most of our friends spend spend spend. they eat out 3-4x’s a week at nice sit down restaurants and drink with their meals. they may be 200k in graduate school debt, but they are buying new cars and taking international vacations every year, take lots of weekend trips, join wine clubs, they do not blink dropping $200-300 on a pair of designer jeans, or $300 on a sundress. if they did this twice a year, it would be one thing, but its like every other month. some couples both have well paying jobs, but they still have 10 or 20k in credit card debt and would rather keep spending than pay down their credit card debt.
we know people who have early 20 something children, who are not going to college, working minimum wage jobs, living at home, with iphones, relatively newer cars, and eat out and drink out all the time. their parents are not subsidizing their expenditures.
we have friends who are stressed about paying their mortgage, and feel stressed about cash, but then take international vacations or rent expensive homes and take their whole family to hawaii including their parents, rather than save the cash in case of income loss.
its insane to me, but people do it![/quote]
Definitely. It’s scary, because after learning my lesson very early in life, I’ve made it a point to stay out of debt, entirely. It’s amazing how easy it is to rack up crazy amounts of debt. We still use credit cards, but pay them off every month. Still, I think we’d spend even less if we used cash. There’s just something more “real” about pulling multiple 20s out of your wallet — and having to make multiple trips to the bank to restock cash. You’re more aware of what you’re spending, IMO.
