I really don't know what planet you live on.
mrswdk wrote:
No one I know has been made miserable by their mortgage.
Probably 50% of the people I know who own a house struggle to come up with the mortgage payment. A lot pay 30 to 40 % of their income to the bank, but I've known at least two couples who were paying more than 65% of their income.
mrswdk wrote:Who takes out a loan on a car? That just means you can't afford it.
Answer: about 84.5% of people in North America take out a loan on a car.
Source:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/09/car-financing-on-rise-loans-and-leases/index.htmDoes it mean you can't afford it? Well, maybe, but if you have a job you pretty much need a car. It is a rare person who is lucky enough to live within walking distance of work.
For instance, in 1985 I was without a car. The company that I worked for moved from Richmond Hill to Newmarket. The commute to Richmond Hill by bus had been brutal enough, but here's what my commute looked like after the move:
10 minute walk from my building in St. Jamestown to Castle Frank subway station
6 minute wait for subway train.
3 minute ride to Yonge-Bloor subway station.
6 minute wait for transfer to Yonge subway.
25 minute ride to Finch station.
20 minute wait for bus to Newmarket.
50 minute bus ride from Finch to Newmarket.
30 minute walk from Newmarket bus station to my factory on Davis Drive East.
Total time 150 minutes (2.5 hours.) Repeat at night, dog tired. Five hours a day to get to work and back. Of course I said, "f*ck it" and bought a car. By car the trip that was taking 2.5 hours turned into 20 minutes. A straight shot, 20 minutes up the 404 in the morning if I left before the traffic got heavy. Sometimes 40 to 60 minutes in the afternoon when traffic became unavoidable.
It's a no brainer. As it happened, I was offered a cheap car that I was able to buy with cash, but most people (well, 84.5% of people) in that situation would have had to buy a car on credit.
Why not take out a loan on a TV or new pair of shoes while you're at it?
Increasingly most people do. 35% of all routine sales for basic things like clothing and groceries are made with credit cards (source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/credit-card-payments-growth_n_1575417.html). 65% of Americans use their credit cards for at least
some purchases of this nature. (Source:
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-facts-personal-debt-statistics-1276.php)
Credit card users surveyed in 2012 who used their cards to buy:
- Clothing: 67 percent
- Gas: 64 percent
- Food: 64 percent
- Travel: 62 percent.33
55% of people who use credit cards carry a balance (in other words, cannot pay the full bill every month) so roughly one-third of all people, at least in North America, are taking out loans to buy shoes and food, not to mention TVs.
mrswdk wrote:Paying for education is not 'materialism' and repaying any loans you took out to finance it will not make you miserable.
Actually, it does and it will. Increasingly, the struggle to pay student loans is pushing young people over the edge. We'll turn away from North America and go to Britain for our next example:
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/mar/23/student-suicide-depression-debt-recessionLike many students, 23-year-old Thorn couldn't cope with his debt: the bank had just informed him he would not be able to withdraw any more money. When he died, he was £3,000 overdrawn and had a £5,000 student loan to pay off. At his inquest, the coroner said it would be wrong to suggest he had killed himself simply because of his debt, but it was a major contributory factor.
Around 1,400 under-35s kill themselves in the UK every year, and three-quarters of those are men or boys. It is hard to put a figure on how many of these deaths are related to the issue of debt, but according to a YouGov poll, money was the most common worry across the UK last year, with almost half of all callers to the Samaritans' helpline naming it as their main concern.
In 2011, a report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists revealed that an increasing number of British students were seeking help from mental health support services at a time of rising debt and fewer employment opportunities. Many of these services are now being stripped back. Yet demand is unlikely to abate over the next few years: with many British students paying £9,000 a year in tuition fees alone, it is estimated that young people will leave university with average debts of £40,000.
The figures showing a 50% increase in student suicides between 2007 and 2011 were released by the Office for National Statistics after a Freedom of Information request by Ed Pinkney, the founder of Mental Wealth UK, a student body committed to promoting wellbeing on university campuses. A spokesperson for the ONS warned against drawing conclusions, due to the small numbers involved, but Pinkney says, "It is difficult to see the rise in student suicides reversing if student debts continue to increase and support services continue to have their budgets threatened with cuts. This isn't just about the personal issues facing a minority of students. It's an academic issue, too. Just as buildings require strong foundations, students cannot be expected to thrive if they lack adequate support."
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:18 pm
