$70k to food stamps
03-27-2008, 11:24 AM
#1
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$70k to food stamps
From CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/03...mily/index.html
The key point here is: "She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month."
People got in over their head. How much house do you think costs $2500 in interest only? $500,000? On a $70k salary?
Thoughts?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/03...mily/index.html
ALTADENA, California (CNN) -- When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank.
Patricia Guerrero was laid off in February. Desperate to make ends meet, she recently went to a food bank.
It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill.
"It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' " she told CNN. "I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard."
Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children. She's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet, and is drawing unemployment checks. She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. In fact, her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills.
Guerrero even applied for food stamps, but was denied.
Patricia Guerrero was laid off in February. Desperate to make ends meet, she recently went to a food bank.
It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill.
"It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' " she told CNN. "I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is reality. This is the stuff you see on TV. It was hard. It was very hard."
Guerrero is estranged from her husband and raising her two young children. She's already burned through her savings to help make ends meet, and is drawing unemployment checks. She has had to take extreme measures to pay for her interest-only mortgage of $2,500 a month. In fact, her mother moved in with her to help pay the bills.
Guerrero even applied for food stamps, but was denied.
People got in over their head. How much house do you think costs $2500 in interest only? $500,000? On a $70k salary?
Thoughts?
03-27-2008, 11:41 AM
#2
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Dang, I make more than her and can't imagine a mortgage even close to that amount and would NEVER do one interest only. Maybe I'm cold hearted, but I don't feel sorry for stupid people that get in over their heads. They always act like they're not to blame for their problems and then if they get bailed out, they probably will never learn their lesson and will pull the same crap again and those who do pay their bills will have to pay for her mistake.
03-27-2008, 12:34 PM
#7
My sister is in a similar boat. She was laid off with two kids from an $80K job but has six weeks of severance to run through before unemployment.
Her mortgage is much lower, but there are facials, private school for the two kids, personal trainer, home grocery service. She was always out of money when she was employed but my parents put her on an "allowance" paid for a $20k divorce bill and paid off $5k in credit card balance TWICE last year. She is 41.
My dad jokes that she is eating through the inheritance of my brother and I. I tell him when they are gone, she is in deep sh*t.
I SERIOUSLY hope that when this works its way through that credit tightens up on people who can't afford it. Any douche nozzle with a paper route can get 5 credit cards with $5000 limits. Its insane. People would stop getting themselves into so much trouble if credit companies said "No way, you have not got the cash." But then they could not live like mack daddies.
Her mortgage is much lower, but there are facials, private school for the two kids, personal trainer, home grocery service. She was always out of money when she was employed but my parents put her on an "allowance" paid for a $20k divorce bill and paid off $5k in credit card balance TWICE last year. She is 41.
My dad jokes that she is eating through the inheritance of my brother and I. I tell him when they are gone, she is in deep sh*t.
I SERIOUSLY hope that when this works its way through that credit tightens up on people who can't afford it. Any douche nozzle with a paper route can get 5 credit cards with $5000 limits. Its insane. People would stop getting themselves into so much trouble if credit companies said "No way, you have not got the cash." But then they could not live like mack daddies.
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03-27-2008, 12:43 PM
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Originally Posted by The Raptor,Mar 27 2008, 03:30 PM
I drive by the welfare office in Pasadena where she gets her food stamps all the time. An incredible bunch of lowlifes.
03-27-2008, 04:48 PM
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My parents, who decide to buy this house that they cannot afford, needed me to front them money for a down payment. I took much of the equity out of my condo as a down payment for their house. My dad got lazy and didn't follow up with his job relocating him down to FL so he had no income. In the meantime, my mom wanted to buy the house that needed a lot of money and work into it. She apparently has been watching too many of these "Flip this House" shows and thought that she could easily sell the house once she redid everything. Well, two years and many thoushands of dollars later, they have no equity in the house and owe a lot of money on my ELOC. They are making the minimum payments which is all they can afford to do and can't afford to do anything because they are living in a house which not even I (who make almost twice my mom's salary) can afford that house. Financially, I am comfortable and am doing fine. At the moment I want to buy something and still keep my place in NY but I can't. As much as I love them dearly, I have a lot of resentment towards them because had they been smart and rented for the first year (since they don't know the area), they would have been able to have enough for a down payment. The only other alternative would be for me to move back in with them, and pay off the ELOC (it will take me 2 years). But I can't fathom being over 30 and living with my folks. Sorry, I just have to vent because it gets to me sometimes. There are more fiscally foolish people out there than you think. Sometimes, one has to look no further than their immediate family.