Do people really carry this much debt on their credit cards? (1 Viewer)

[Philip Hamm]

I understand what you're saying, but I think you're greatly overstating the situation / demonizing the CC companies. Not that they are captains fo industry or antyhing, but I don't see them as quite as much of the bloodsucking vultures you apparently do. Again, highly recommended the Frontline report on "The secret life of the credit card".

 

[Brian Perry]

It was reported today that Ed McMahon is close to going through foreclosure on his multi-million home in Beverly Hills.

His spokesperson seemed to be blaming his financial troubles on his recent loss of income due to a neck injury that occurred 18 months ago. Come on...he's 85 years old. Did he really burn through so much cash earned during the "Johnny years" that he needs to keep hawking products on TV to avoid financial collapse?

It goes to show that sound money-management principles have to be followed even when you consistently make big dough.

 

[BrianW]

Hey, c'mon, go easy on the guy. Sure, he may be living paycheck to paycheck, but the poor guy was forced into early retirement as the result of an injury through no fault of his own. Who could have seen that coming?

Wow. For some people, it seems that no amount of means is sufficient. If I somehow live to be 85 and still have a mortgage payment to make, please, just shoot me.

 

[Marianne]

Ed McMahon speaks out for people facing foreclosure:

Ed McMahon explains his mortgage mess - CNN.com

 

[Michael Reuben]

One of the common pitfalls for entertainers is that they're contract workers. As a result, they usually don't have benefits such as disability coverage. If they're injured or become ill, nothing comes in -- and like a lot of people, they tend not to think about this until the situation is actually upon them, and then of course it's too late.

Ed McMahon may be a high-profile, big-number version of this phenomenon, but there are plenty of other examples that don't make the news.

M.

 

[drobbins]

My wife and I were married in 1990. We bought our first house with 10% down on a $78k house. It was half of a duplex and our property was 20' wide. Our half was remodeled with in the past 5 years and was in good shape. The other half needed work and had an elderly couple living there. Our mortgage was still less or equal to renting. I was employed as a journeyman tool maker and she did daycare for 2 kids at the house. In 1992 my son was born. We did the rainy day mutual fund savings thing and had maybe $5,000 saved up.

Move now to 1994. I had been averaging over 50 hours per week for 5 years. They say not to get used to the OT, but after 5 years and just starting out with a family, it is hard not to. My work slowed down to 30 hours per week. My wife could not work because we were expecting my daughter to enter the world any day. I got a second part time job delivering pizza. Two weeks after my daughter was born, my company closed due to the factories we supplied moving south. He would probably closed sooner, but kept me on board for the health insurance to cover the birth. I got second job pumping gas.

I was unemployed only 1.5 months and got another job. The catch is it was we had to relocate. NJ was too expensive to raise a family in a "decent" neighborhood. The first 6 months of the new job, I would build a production line and the company paid living expenses. Our half of the house was in great shape and we put it on the market. They day I put the For Sale sign up, the other half of the house was condemned with a bright orange sticker on the front door. During the 6 months the company paid our living expenses, we continued to pay our mortgage. Then the production line was finished and we had to move to the new location and start paying for our own housing.

I notified the bank that we would not be making any more payments. It took us two years to give the house to the bank. They said that if we found a buyer for 60% of the remaining loan they would settle for that. We found one who offered 59% and the bank did not agree. It went into foreclosure.
Looking back I still don't know what I would have done differently. Stuff happens.

 

[BrianW]

In every way that matters, that makes you better off than Ed McMahon.

Thanks for telling your story, Dave.