Too poor to retire, too young to die (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: Too poor to retire, too young to die (2016)

#151

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Nov 09, 2017, 2:14 AM UTC

This: She owes $50,000 on her credit cards.

Go to any bank rate calculator[1] and look at what a $50K debt in credit cards does to you. If you learn only one thing from this cautionary tale it should be how expensive credit card money can be.

Without that debt she would not be in great shape but she would be a lot better off.

[1] http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/credit-cards/credit-card...

Re: Too poor to retire, too young to die (2016)

#152

Post by eropple » Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 7:16 AM UTC

toasterlovin wrote: post #65

eropple wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And when your children can't really afford to take care of themselves ? The problem runs way deeper than Oh But The Degeneracy Of The Family can address it.

There is no circumstance in which elderly living with their children is more expensive than living on their own. Having one rent in stead of two is a huge cost savings.

A larger apartment in the urban area where I live is significantly more expensive than my mother living in a rural area with her family.

Re: Too poor to retire, too young to die (2016)

#153

Post by chiefalchemist » Fri, Nov 10, 2017, 8:48 PM UTC

What caught my eye was the $50k in credit card debt, and not explanation as to why. I have to assume those minimal payments are significant and keep growing. Remove that and she could be in much better shape. Obviously not livin' large but at least there's not the stress of $50k hanging over her head.

My other thought was, if possible, why not have a veg garden? As the legend Ron Finley says "it's like printing money."

Sure it take time and effort but if you consider it to be a permanent PT job (that she rarely has) then it could be a big help.

Re: Too poor to retire, too young to die (2016)

#154

Post by gsylvie » Sun, Nov 12, 2017, 5:22 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #148

peterwwillis wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If some miracle allows for the debt and loan to disappear, there's just the $323 a month for medical (which is probably not spread out over time, and she would have no credit to buffer it, so she would need savings, which she doesn't have). In theory she could have $1093 to spend on rent, food, transportation and incidentals. But there are some requirements to file chapter 7: - First she needs to document all her fin…

What "miracle"? Chapter 7 will eliminate her debt. That's the point of Chapter 7. She'll need a professional to file for her, that's true. So, she should do what most people who file Chapter 7 do: use the money (saved gradually) she'd pointlessly burn trying to service the debt to hire someone to file Chapter 7. In the meantime, she should immediately stop making debt service payments. It does not matter that the pro…

Hey, that's me! (Six figure income, stopped paying credit card bills.) Aside from the interest that continues to accumulate, you are absolutely correct: the debt does decrease:

At the 7-month mark one of the credit card companies (I owed them $15,000 at 29.9% APR) sent a piece of registered mail: if you send us 3 post-dated cheques for the next 3 months for $1200 each (total $3600), we'll consider the debt paid off.

I ignored them and did a Chapter 13 instead. (Well, the Canadian equivalent).