I'm amazed at the people who are blaming the banks for their financial distress these days. When it comes down to it, many of them refinanced to pay for trips, house projects, education . . . Now, they are complaining about the interest rates they should have noted when they signed the papers and are objecting to the larger than normal mortgage they are carrying. I hear some of them bragging at how they got the bank to reduce their principal balance and I have to wonder at their thinking. Did they or did they not benefit from the money they borrowed against their home? Isn't it stealing, in a way, to demand various reductions because you bit off more than you can chew? I guess I'm of an ultra-conservative nature when it comes to finances. I grew up poor and learned early that you can't always have everything.
I'm also amazed at the line up of credit cards I see displayed at the check out counters! A priest told me once that if you use the card and know you can't pay it back in a timely manner, you are essentially stealing and definitely living beyond your means. Yes, we have had to carry a balance on occasion when we've had an emergency but once it got beyond our ability to pay it off the next month, the card was not used.
Everyone seems to want it all NOW these days and put off facing up to the costs until later. It kind of illustrates why out country is in such a mess today. The government uses our tax money in the same way.
In these difficult times, it seems to me that our number one priority would be to drastically reduce our debts. Being Catholic and conservative and home schooling, you can bet that if push comes to shove, we could be harrassed in some way by government offices. Keeping our debts within bounds, we stand a better chance of keeping our homes and lives in order if jobs are lost, reduced, and even harder times hit.
Just watching the news makes you feel vulnerable to the powers that be in our government who are governing us as THEY see fit not the way we want to live. Got to stay one step away from the bad guys, that's for sure.
