Spending habits: Do as I say, not as I do
Crushing mortgage payments, rising foreclosures and living off home equity lines of credit and plastic are all examples of how Americans have let their spending get out of hand, but most bad habits start small. An Associated Press story at latimes.com reports on one effort to start chipping away at this nation's overspending epidemic by forming better habits.
A new site from the National Endowment for Financial Education, a nonprofit that aims to help people learn about handling money, Spendster.org is intended to give people a place where they can admit their poor spending habits as a step toward developing better ones....
Spendster.org offers users a chance to calculate how much they spent on their own junk. But more importantly they can compare how much it would have cost if they put it on a credit card, versus how much they could have earned if the money was invested or put in a savings account.
The video confessions of people who wasted their hard-earned bucks (or ran up credit card balances) on multiple appliances, duplicate household items and unneeded you-name-it were depressing to say the least. It's not a big mindset leap from there to signing up for adjustable rate mortgages that reset into the stratosphere. But beyond a website designed to entertain and educate, perhaps what's happening in housing and the economy today will serve as a real-life experience to educate the next generation about more prudent spending habits. Maybe?
-- Lauren Beale
Your thoughts? Comments?
Credit: Matthew Staver / Bloomberg News
Something my depression era parents always told me...
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
Posted by: E | November 04, 2008 at 07:55 PM
It used be that one brother would pass old clothes to another or from father to son.
Now, fathers pass debt to their sons.
Here is a spending tip: Don't buy books, use the local library. Don't subscribe to newspapers, not that you should believe a word of what they write, but again, read them free online or at the library.
I don't know if this is related to the subject at hand, but what the heck.
One man whose wife is trying to feed the parking meter, was told to go into the store for change.
Man: I want change. I need change.
Clerk, puzzled: Change? Where is your money?
Man: To get change, I need money?
Clerk: Yes.
Man: How much? Like a dollar?
Clerk: Give me $650 million and I will give you change.
Posted by: MyLessThanPrimeBeef | November 05, 2008 at 09:45 AM
I hope this will become a lesson for today's kids. I am worried at how little blame is placed on the consumer. When all the blame is pointed at the "shady lenders" then there is a bad guy to blame, and no lessons about responsibility are taken from the situation.
Posted by: The Original RZ | November 05, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Original RZ, I'm sorry to say but personal responsibility in the USA is extinct.
Posted by: Oh Boy | November 05, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Does this mean we won't have to endure hearing about must have five thousand dollar birthday parties for kids in elementary school?
Posted by: anonymous | November 05, 2008 at 12:59 PM