I agree with living within your means but the stuff on here is just not realistic at all. India for dental work: You're forgetting the cost of lost trading profits/wages will far outweigh the savings in dental work. If you're making anything trading, biting the $4k bullet is much better than taking a week off, let alone a month, to go to India to save a few bucks on dentistry! Also, I don't know where you can get good data for $100/month. Please share. Esignal costs me over $350/month with exchange fees and is barely acceptable at best. Hell, exchange fees alone cost over $200/month, regardless of platform. $250/month for platform excessive? What! My platform costs me well over $1000/month and it's the most widely used platform for trading futures. It would cost me way more in lost profits to not use it. No need for cellphones? Come on, what century do you live in? I would get rid of my house phone before my cellphone. $300/month for gas is not excessive for a family. We spend the same if not more and I trade full-time from home!
Well let's just take this further. Someone on this thread said, if you live in metro CA, then move to the midwest or some town in the South. WHY STOP THERE? OR WHY STOP AT GOING TO MEXICO FOR DENTAL PROCEDURES? JUST MOVE THERE. LOL. Why live in the US at all? Just move south of the border. Afterall, it's a high cost of living here. It's just plain excessive spending to even live here. You big money waster. But wait! Mexico is not that cheap. If you live in Mexico, you are wasting tons of money. Just live under a bush in Somalia and get a satellite connection to trade. Your cost of living = 0, minus trading expenses. Think of all the money you'll save. Don't even need clothes. Come on! I am all for living within your means, but I think there's a somewhat subjective line where cutting down expenses becomes unreasonable. Getting rid of cellphones, moving across the country, driving to Mexico for dental work, going to India for medical procedures, being prisoners in your own home to save on GAS, getting a POS trading and data platform, renting out a non-existant basement to a complete stranger, all cross the line of reasonability for me. But hey, if you can be happy under a bush in Somalia or wherever your line is drawn, have at it. Just don't call me excessive for wanting to live in a normal life in a developed part of the world. Part of the reason for making money is to have an enjoyable life, it's not all about basic survival. If basic survival is all you care about, you better not have one item or expense that doesn't directly relate to you sustaining life.
The original topic was people who get themselves into a world of shit by overspending. The topic then evolved into ways to repair the situation if it started to get ugly. I buy plenty of dumb shit too, but I am aware of the risks associated with doing it. Many people aren't aware of the risks because they simply do not think about it, but yet want everyone to feel sorry for them when something "bad" happens to them (ie they gamble and lose). Being aware of the risks of living extravagantly helps keep spending in check.
Yeah. I completely agree with this point of view. And I live my life as well within or under my means as possible within reason. I've learned early on about debt and spending above your means the hard way, while I was college. I am actually grateful I learned then. I was just sayin, some of the examples starting to be listed as extravagant expenses or items to cut back on in the posts I referred to were starting to go overboard. I think the posts I was referring to were a reply to someone that was not in financial trouble, but just had high monthly expenses.
Most of the jobs were housing related too, I am assuming quite a few of them transfered into those jobs during the boom for the 'easy money' compared to their old jobs. Obviously it wouldnt last. Wait you mean a home builder shouldnt count on a housing boom lasting for his whole career?!?!
How about the lady who is leaving her husband after she found a new job and he lost his? Leaving him with the bills and rushing to get her things out before he gets foreclosed on. I am going to refrain from saying anything derogatory since, we have no idea of the actual circumstances of the divorce, but the way she wrote it does not make her sound good.
Yeah that was about the flashpoint for me. LOL Funny how people are huh? We all pay our debts sometime, no way around it. Everyone gets theirs in the end, good or bad.
Don't worry, SWhiting just wants a piece of the action without having to post anything that makes sense. A few posts back, he called something I posted "hogwash" without any idea of what he was even talking about. There are people out there just like that, oddly enough. They feel no need to make sense, they just want to argue and make statements just for the sake of doing it.