I've lived beyond my means for years

[TeaFan]

Can't you just get the government to give you loads of money and then let them take it off the poor to subsidise your reckless behaviour and get you off scott-free? That's what the banks did.

[chem1st]

Can't you just get the government to give you loads of money and then let them take it off the poor to subsidise your reckless behaviour and get you off scott-free? That's what the banks did.

 

The 2nd bank bailout hasn't yet occurred. "do" would be a better term.

 

Not that I'm a grammar nazi or owt like that

[Guest sibon]

The 2nd bank bailout hasn't yet occurred. "do" would be a better term.

 

Not that I'm a grammar nazi or owt like that

 

I think that the word that you are struggling for is "ought". Bloody peasant.

 

As for a second bail out... do you think it will end there?

[esme]

Mod Note

 

Just so no one gets any clever ideas, the moderators can still read posts like this.

[Guest sibon]

Mod Note

 

Just so no one gets any clever ideas, the moderators can still read posts like this.

 

Because they have x ray eyes and super powers.

 

Nowhere is safe..

[buck]

I had a great job, pulling in over $50,000 a year when a good median salary was less thatn $30,000. We had an 11 room house, new and late model cars for every family member, plus a pickup truck and an RV, annual vacations in Ireland at a house my wife inherited. We also owned a smaller house in Conn which we rented out. It all seemed too good to be true, and it was. I was laid off in 1993 as the company was in trouble.I was 62 at the time. I drank a lot and smoked two packs a day.

I was lucky to find contract work keepimg me fairly solvent but in constant worry. A couple of years later it all dried up, and helping marry off 3 sons had left me unable to face a $1600 dollar a month mortgage payment. So here's what we did. First we sold off the other house in the US, quit smoking. as the cars wore out my wife and I bought a good used car each and got rid of the rest. Then we found a small bungalow and sold the big house for $245,000.( We bought it for $98,000 in 1982 ) and sold the Irish house just before the housing bubble burst to my wife's nephew underpriced so that he could afford it and keep his granny's home in the family. I'll be honest, I'm the happiest I've been in years. But the older you get the harder it is get used to economic changes in your life. You have to take a very close look at what you can afford, and at what is costing you the most. If its booze, cut it down, likewise cigarettes, I couldn't afford them today. I'm not saying you use either of these things but people have hobbies or activities that dig deep into their pockets that can hurt their bank account. One of my sons has to have the latest and greatest of electronic equipment especially PCs and laptops, while his wife has to come to us cap in hand for handouts to feed the grandkids. They both smoke.

[Nagel]

 

By comparison I have spent money well within my means. I have savings, and my mortgage is paid off. Times may be difficult ahead, but my stress levels on facing the unknown future is precisely zero.

 

My friends may have had German built cars, Florida holidays and the latest iPhone, whilst I have chosen to drive a slightly older car, UK holidays, and a crappy phone, but I can boast of happiness whilst they have only bought misery for themselves.

 

Me too. I've never spent above my means, neither when I was poor or when I was rich. Why Britain couldn't do the same I don't understand.

 

There's a belief that the banks got us into this by lending money recklessly, but equally the people who borrowed money recklessly are to blame. I never borrowed money in excess of what I knew I could pay back.