I don’t mean to be nosy but how does that work? How do you get enough rewards (cash?) to buy a house?
I meant enough rewards for a down payment on a house?
You know, that’s what “home economics” should have been: management of the household. Money: debt, earning, saving; dealing with utilities; buying supplies and making things last to the next payday, etc; as well as feeding and clothing the family. Instead, when I was in high school, somehow it had become only a cooking and maybe a sewing class, and somehow only the girls could take it.
PART of a downpayment - a small part actually, it was only $4,000. The Bank of Montreal (I’m in Canada) Mastercard had a program called the “First Home Dollar” program. Where you get 5% of all purchases back in the form of a “first home dollar” account which goes up to $4,000 to be used towards the purchase of a principle residence by the cardholder or his/her family. It took her a few years to get it up there and then she used it without any problems. Overall it was a pretty good program. Perhaps too good, because they stopped offering it about a year after it was introduced. We kept our account grandfathered and I’m still acruing the rewards.
It’s only a small reward really, but better than nothing. 
I see. Thanks for the explanation!
I took it in middle school (7th and 8th grade). It was coed, but could still be accurately characterized as a cooking and sewing class.
I think they should drop the sewing and teach the basics of personal finance instead. Not too many people make their own clothes these days, but almost everybody has to deal with credit cards and bank accounts.
Yeah, HomeEc in middle school was also all about cooking 'n stuff. In fact, it was considered girlie because it taught the sort of things that women were supposed to be doing. (Yeah, this was before the whole political correctness thing really kicked into high gear) I’d never thought about it at the time but in reconsideration – what the heck did that class have to do with economics, anyway? Did it teach actual finances once upon a time? Or were they talking about the economics of recipe halving and doubling?
I vaguely remember a high school class maybe taking a day or two on balancing a checkbook. Maybe. But you’re right - and it could even be argued that a good credit rating or FICO is the most important factor to predict success early in life.
The problem is most of us start out in life in serious debt - borrowing money to go to college with the expectation of paying it back with a better paying job. That can be a dicey affair, esp. if a less than marketable degree is pursued.
So much hinges on managing money, saving a little bit back, investing a little bit for retirement, avoiding unsecured debt - all of these things are documented and proven ways to stay out of trouble and avoid misery, which must explain why so many don’t do it. Kids are exposed to so many more material temptations in movies and popular culture/advertising, so they want the trappings of wealth, without the foundation of wealth to sustain it. Real, honest to goodness millionaires are often pretty “boring” people, at least as far as young folks go - they don’t wear flashy clothes, or drive sports cars w/ big watches and sunglasses. Television characters often have no job or are somewhat unclear plotwise but always lounge around in excellent apartments with plenty of toys, etc. What’s ironic to me is with the new bankruptcy laws, prospective bankruptees are required to take a financial responsibility class or somesuch, which probably should have been required prior to the extension of credit, not after.
Having a credit card without a job is what kept me afloat for those years. It paid the utilities and food (think tortillas and orange marmalade 3 times a day). It can be a real life saver. If you make it a way of life, then trouble starts.
Bank of Montreal was doing that when I was in third year, back in 1985. “Special student deal!”
Guess where I got hooked.
By the way, I’m not lending my cousin money – I fully realize how stupid that would be. But I have offered to help her in other ways, such as finding a job and maybe looking into some short-term training program that’ll qualify her for at least an entry level job.
But she’s getting 'poor baby’ed by a slew of other relatives, and so she’s not interested in that four letter word that stars wor and ends in a k.
I’m guessing she’s going to end up having to declare bankruptcy. She pretty much owns nothing except clothes and makeup. Probably the most expensive thing she has is an ipod.
Sad thing to have on your record when you’re only 23. Or maybe that’s the best time, if you absolutely have to go through bankruptcy: at least she can claim youthful stupidity later on. <shrug>
Well, good for you for offering the help you are, but it doesn’t sound like the kind of “help” that she’d be interested in (the kind that would actually help her). The other relatives, they’re simply enablers. They think they’re helping, but they’re actually making things worse. Oh well. She’s 23 - that’s old enough to stand on your own two feet, and take the consequences for your choices. She’ll get some consequences some day, I’m sure.
Credit card companies offer a necessary evil but they sure are going to teach you the worst possible way to use it. When I went to college I got my first credit card and the guy at the guy at the table told me the best way to build good credit was to go out and spend the total limit of my card on a leather jacket or something and pay it off over time. When I told him he was crazy and that I would never rack up that much interest he looked at me like I slapped him or something.
Your cousin needs to be told no over and over again until she has to take care of herself. She won’t want the kind of help you offered (none of the people in my life in that kind of situation wanted help finding a job or anything either) but someday she will hit rock bottom and will need assistance. Try to be there to help her find a job when she hits that point. She will appreciate that more than she appreciates the cash other people are giving her.
First time I moved to the US it was as a graduate student. MY only job was TAing at the Uni; later I became an RA, which carried a tuition waiver but no salary: my money came from a grant from Spain.
I had no problem at all opening bank accounts and getting a credit card. Must have shredded enough letters from Discover, MasterCard and AmEx to cover Greater Miami in confetti.
Second time, I was making over 50K. Almost couldn’t open an account (the dialogue with the bank lady included the following times five: “you can not open an account because you’re a foreigner and you don’t have a Social Security number” “yes I do” “oh, then you’re American” “no I’m not, but I have a Social Security number” “you can not have a Social Security number if you’re a foreigner! So you can not open…”). Could not get a credit card; I had to get a corporate one because nobody would give me one. My credit rating was listed as either “good” or “very good” depending on who you asked.
As I told someone from HR who probably never understood it anyway: “you really should tell people you’re transfering from other countries to enroll for one course in a community college. Might help with banking”
This is where I make an embarassing confession.
We did have such a course. 7th grade, and it was mandatory. Not only did we get elementary banking and finance (the proper way to write a check, balancing your checkbook, credit, etc) we got some basic law (contracts, libel and slander, tax liability and whatnot) and civics. I did well in that class grade-wise, because I’d already learned most of that stuff from my parents.
The thing is, when you’re in your early twenties, unemployed, pennyless and hungry you’re going to do stupid things, even when you know they’re stupid.
At leat you will if you’re a dope named Exgineer. I knew better, but I couldn’t see any other course of action.