If you had debt, would you try for a 2nd job to pay it off more quickly?

[Deja Q]

Look at the thread title containing my response within:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3181121&mesg_id=3183628

Sick, huh? This is America, folks. All about money, tricking you into their system, then making you suffer when you took the bait. When will people learn about the fa$¢ists who've taken over?

And the credit card commercials get even more slick by the day, ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO RACK UP DEBT. And even moreso with the college students, of which I happened to be one...

I wish I knew back then that out society was about exploiting people instead of working together. In which case I'd let the vultures starve.

[tjdee]

1. My credit is so bad that I have to pay MORE to do things.

If I can't afford to pay my credit card bills, how the fuck would I be able to pay more on my car loan or higher insurance premiums?

?

It is very, very scary the way credit affects EVERYTHING. I wish I would have known that too. :(

[Deja Q]

3. Our 'society' means us all ill will. It is about freedom:

Freedom to exploit.
Freedom to steal.
Freedom to kill, though their actions try to make it look otherwise.
Freedom to manipulate.
Freedom to bully.

Maybe the 'terrorists who hate us for our freedoms' saw how corporate america acts? I mean, they'd attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001. That's almost TOO obvious in terms of our favorite game, "connect the dots".

[tjdee]

5. But it's 'your' fault, don't you know.

One of the things that piss me off about Republicans is their willingness to go, hey, you racked up all that debt, fuckya.

But as you said, and a poster the other day posted, sometimes even when you TRY to fix the situation, here comes the brick wall.

I am too being becoming increasingly disheartened in our society.

[Nite Owl]

7. With the economy ready to

tank, deficits zooming up, our loss of rights, our losing programs that help people, the dollar in big trouble it seems like they terrorists have won. What they wanted was to ruin us financially and that is just what is being done. * is their greatest tool, he does their bidding.

[Misunderestimator]

2. My answer is that I would try for a 2nd career...

My ever-increasing mountain of debt in my twenties and early thirties was one of the major factors for me abandoning my first (and most loved) career. Sad.

[Deja Q]

4. Retail is out... Lord knows I've filled out forms for them all...

But there's always something that's asking to be found. I may be a pessimist, but there's always hope before the end.

[B Calm]

6. Hell man, look at the debt Bush has made,.. What does he do?

Goes on vacation!

[ZenLefty]

8. Yes, I would.

If I had unmanageable debt, I would do whatever I (legally) could to make it more manageable. I'd either take a second job, or look for a higher paying job, or find a way to reduce my monthly payments.

Credit card companies just want to make money, just like McDonalds wants to make money. And just like McD's encourages people to eat their food, credit cards encourage you to use their card. It's not deceptive. They do tell people up front that they have to repay that money with interest, after all.

[Aiptasia]

9. I want to teach a class in college called: Life 101

In this class, i'd teach students not to live beyond their means and wrack up debits in the first place.

99.5% of the friends I went to college with are still trying to tackle their credit card and college tuition debits that they began wracking up a decade ago. A few have declared bankruptcy and have to live with that on their credit scores for the next ten years. A few bounce their loans and their outstanding CC debits from card to card to take advantage of introductory interest rates.

What i'd teach is, don't let yourself get into that situation in the first place. The best thing I ever did as a college kid was not to accept any credit cards at all. I still get three or four credit card apps. each month and I just choose to not take advantage of them.

Today, I have one gas card, one ATM card and one visa draft card. I pay all of my bills on time including my mortgage payment. My student loans are paid off. My car is paid off. My credit score average amongst the big three is 782.

This has worked out for me because I never took advantage of ready access to high interest credit cards and loans. I'd rather eat top ramen noodles and live in a shoebox for life than be up to my eyeballs in debit.

[elehhhhna]

14. The need that class in Junior High & High School, IMHO.

[Catshrink]

16. I agree with you...maybe even in elementary school!

[n2mark]

10. This is what I'm doing

I am refinancing my house, intend to be here until I die and I will never have it paid off because of my age. I'm taking the money to pay off my car, pay off my credit cards, and save my money. I'm also cutting up my credit cards.... no more. No longer am I going to pay the banks to stay in business. Actually, I have enough equity to sell my house and make a profit after this.

[yellowdogintexas]

19. see if your new mortgage company offers an equity accelerator

payment option.

works like this:

your annual mortgage payment is divided into 26 installments. This amount is drafted from your checking account every other week on the day of your choosing. So if you are paid every other week on Friday, that will be the draft day, or the following Monday if you choose.

The end result is you actually make 13 months of payment during the course of a year, thus shortening the number of years you hold the loan and the aggregate amount of interest you pay. All without actually paying an extra cent. The earlier you do this in the life of the loan, the more advantage you gain. AND it does not prohibit you from dropping additional $$ into the principal should you choose to do so.

The mortgage company I work for also offers a 52 installment plan. Same principle, just 52 weekly installments in smaller amounts. Perfect for the family with one spouse on a weekly pay plan and the other one on a 15th and 31st pay plan. Same end results: 13 months paid instead of 12

I just signed up for it; my loan will now pay off in 18 years instead of 24, and I will save about $20K in interest.

It is not something I had thought much about until I learned more about it in training for my new job and we did trial calculations in the system, where you could really see the difference.

Caution, if you just try doing this on your own, it won't work because their payment system won't recognize a partial payment unless they have the codes placed ..and your money will lie around in an uncategorized spot and suddenly on paper you appear to be late w/your mortgage, until you call and get it adjusted. You must do it through the mortgage company's automatic payment processing department, but it is well worth it.

[Nikia]

11. I've thought about it

The problem is that the wages at part time jobs around here like restaurants or grocery stores has stagnated or decreased. I am tired after my first job. It seems pointless to go get a job that pays less than half of my regular wage and less than a third of my time and a half wage and work hard. I have had problems with my health already. Missing one day at work at my regular job because I was sick and tired (We don't have sick pay) would negate the economic gains that I made by working several days at my current job.
Now we do have two people at my current workplace who have another full time job. This might be economically worth it, but I don't know if I could phyisically handle it for any time at all. I don't know if the second workplace would really believe that I could handle it either. If my second job was something like data entry and close to home, I might be able to handle it, but those jobs are usually during the day, just like my current job.

[7th_Sephiroth]

12. lucky for me i'm 20,i have a car, a job, and a roof

i have no Debt, no credit history no enemies, Why? i don't live beyond my means, i work and save up for what i want

[SmokingJacket]

13. No, but I *would* change my name and flee the country.

Credit cards are such a racket. It's dangerous to get one until you have an actual, grown-up job. I'm not THAT old, but when I was in college students didn't have credit cards -- well maybe some people did, but it was unusual.

Of course, that was the 80s, and we didn't have cell phones or lap tops or ipods or heck, CARS for the most part, and we wore thrift shop clothes. Times do change...

[skygazer]

15. There is no logic in any of this

It's like the way the poor pay more for things, rather than less. I once bounced a check for ten dollars when my kids were little - my husband had left me, my kids were not yet in school, I couldn't find a job, I waited until I had one dollar in my pocket before I could bring myself to go to the welfare department.

God, I was poor. I wrote a check for ten dollars worth of groceries knowing it would bounce but having no choice. I was charged $18 by the bank but in addition, the store had me arrested! They did not call me or try to recoup their money in any other way - they sent a cop over to arrest me.

I had to go to court. I had to pay someone to take me there as I did not have a car. I was ordered to pay a fine. I asked the judge, "If I couldn't afford to cover a ten dollar check, how do you expect me to pay a $110 fine?" He had no satisfactory answer, simply said it was my responsibility and I should not have written the check in the first place. Well, no, I shouldn't have but my kids were hungry.

Poor people are required to pay high deposits for utilities - this makes it likely that they will be unable to pay some other bill. They are lured into paycheck cashing scams and false credit scams, then penalized for poor credit by not being able to find a job that will help them pay off their debt. Where is the sense in any of this?

[xmas74]

17. I am already stuck working two jobs

No major credit card debts-just have to work them to pay normal bills.

[SOteric]

18. Yes, it's frustrating.

I'd get a second job, sell some of my things on e-bay, hit up my family or better off friends for long term loans and set up a repayment schedule. Whatever I had to do.

There are non-profit consumer credit counselling services to be found in just about every major city. They can help lower your bills and get your finances back on track.

And there are jobs where one needn't have a credit check to apply. Keep looking.