# You're not a moron anymore! How inspiring. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 22, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679 "2010-09-22T18:47:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/21 "2010-09-23T05:18:43Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > > > “How is babby formed?” That’s one of their greatest hits, isn’t it? > > No, that was “Yahoo Answers”, not “Yahoo News”. See the post right before mine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/22 "2010-09-23T06:21:35Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > > [@suranyi](#): > > > > No, that was “Yahoo Answers”, not “Yahoo News”. > > See the post right before mine. 🙂 Whoops! Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/23 "2010-09-23T06:35:08Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Find a way to get someone out of debt who is scenario #1: “Some kind of misfortune happens to them – downsized, going through a divorce, becoming disabled, death of the main breadwinner of the family.” > Find a way to get rid of $100K in medical bills with an income of $40K while still trying to afford somewhere to live. If you could help these people out then you might be an inspiration. Okay, so say that I’m a doctor and I have two patients. One patient was sitting all alone in his home when an airplane fell out of the sky and crushed him. He’s on the verge of death. The other patient was a moron, stuck his hand in the garbage disposal unit, and ended up tearing most of the skin off the bone. The first patient is not at fault in any way for the circumstance that he is in. But that said, all the miracles of medical science aren’t going to save him. In the time I spend trying to fix him, the second guy is going to bleed to death. Now the second guy may well be a moron, but he can actually be saved. Personally, I’d ignore the guy who had the plane fall on him. Not only that, I’d tell anyone who could listen to ignore him and focus on healing the moron. Practical realities may not seem inspirational to you, but the point remains that you can help people who are simply acting stupid. People who are doing everything right and still end up screwed over – there’s no advice to give. They were doing the right things already. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/24 "2010-09-23T08:54:41Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > It reminds me of a tip I heard on Dr. Laura for saving money. Quoth the doctor: “Maybe you don’t buy a whole new wardrobe every season.” > > What a novel idea. Who would have ever thought of not throwing out clothes that are still wearable? Several of my college classmates were terribly angry at their mothers the second year we had labs, for coming up with exactly that rule. Instead of getting a complete new wardrobe, they were going to throw away and replace only half of the previous year’s wardrobe and use the kept half to come to school. And me wearing a skirt bought in 7th grade, boots from 8th and a blouse from 10th, and perfectly happy to do so… Some people should be hit with a wet chinchilla coat. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/25 "2010-09-23T11:40:37Z")
She was on a good six-figure salary and had $100k debt? So assume it’s a third of her annual income, paid off over three years. On that basis it’s the same as a person earning $30k who owes $10k - that’s $3.5k a year to clear the debt. Doesn’t sound so hard to me. Especially once you recognise that a $300k salary means all your basics (food, travel etc) are easily covered. So more like someone on $30k paying off $1000 a year - not a feat I would write a book about. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/26 "2010-09-23T13:35:46Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > But she still had 33,000 per year just to pay towards her debt plus whatever to handle her regular bills and expenses. Sorry, maybe I missed something. How so? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/27 "2010-09-23T15:45:14Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > > [@runner pat](#): > > > > But she still had 33,000 per year just to pay towards her debt plus whatever to handle her regular bills and expenses. > > Sorry, maybe I missed something. How so? She managed to find $33k per year over three years to pay off a $100k debt. From the article it sounded like this came from “non-essentials” - i.e. selling land, changing schools etc - and therefore wouldn’t cause as much pain as someone having to choose between paying the debt and paying for basics (food for the kids, or turning on the central heating in December). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/28 "2010-09-23T16:10:25Z")
[QUOTE=Wallenstein] From the article it sounded like this came from “non-essentials” - i.e. selling land, changing schools etc - and therefore wouldn’t cause as much pain as someone having to choose between paying the debt and paying for basics (food for the kids, or turning on the central heating in December). [/QUOTE] Or, say, giving up cigarettes, eating out, booze or other non-essentials, perhaps? -XT ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/29 "2010-09-23T16:21:08Z")
Sir, for some of us booze is not a “non-essential.” ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/30 "2010-09-23T16:22:47Z")
The OP suggested that the woman _might_ be a worthy inspiration if, at the time she paid off her debt, she was laid off, going through a divorce, became disabled, or had a death in the family. Actually, two of those things happened. > [@the OP](#): > > You want to be inspiring? Find a way to get someone out of debt who is scenario #1: “Some kind of misfortune happens to them – **downsized, going through a divorce** , becoming disabled, death of the main breadwinner of the family.” ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/31 "2010-09-23T18:22:30Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Sir, for some of us booze is not a “non-essential.” And cigarettes cut down on my appetite so I save money on food. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/32 "2010-09-27T15:38:37Z")
Imagine that you are a money coach, selling advice and books to people who want to get out of debt. Do you suggest that people who are having trouble buying food for their kids buy your books and advice instead of food? Or do you suggest that people who are spending money on non-essential things spend it on your product instead? There are people who haven’t learned how to manage money, or what is essential and what is not, by the time they are adults. This is a fact. Some of these people are willing to spend money on advice on how to get out of debt. Other people are willing to sell it to them. Why shouldn’t this transaction happen? The money coach isn’t harming the person they’re selling advice to. They’re not harming the people who got into debt because of some catastrophe, any more than someone who chooses any job other than a financial adviser to these people is. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/33 "2010-09-27T17:10:07Z")
When I got to the part where her solution to the expensive school was a somewhat less-expensive private school, I said, “Bullshit,” and quit reading. I am nearly a year into paying my credit down and am making decent progress, but I’m also living paycheck-to-paycheck with no use of credit whatsoever. I’m surviving fine, but it’s tough. Less-expensive private school my ass, that’s why I pay fucking taxes, so that I don’t _have_ to pay for school. If I had a kid. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/34 "2010-09-27T17:33:30Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Dave Ramsey has made a career out of his recovery from debt, and his story is not all that different from the woman in the Yahoo link. I don’t personally listen to him, never having had a debt problem myself, but he’s got thousands of devoted followers. Indeed. I listen to Ramsey, and one of the points he makes regularly is that debt problems are rarely a result of income shortages. People like to think, “if I made \_\_\_\_ a year, I’d never go broke,” but the reality is that if you don’t live within your means on $35,000 a year, odds are good you won’t do it at ten times that, either. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/35 "2010-09-27T17:39:09Z")
> [@whiterabbit](#): > > When I got to the part where her solution to the expensive school was a somewhat less-expensive private school, I said, “Bullshit,” and quit reading. > > I am nearly a year into paying my credit down and am making decent progress, but I’m also living paycheck-to-paycheck with no use of credit whatsoever. I’m surviving fine, but it’s tough. > > Less-expensive private school my ass, that’s why I pay fucking taxes, so that I don’t _have_ to pay for school. If I had a kid. The makes me think of the woman who got up at the town hall meeting and told President Obama she was disappointed in him and his efforts to help people like her, because, though she was middle class with two kids in private school, she was about to go back to eating “franks and beans.” Lady, if you really are middle school like you think you are with two kids in private school and you’re close to having to eat franks and beans for dinner to survive, there’s nothing Obama can do or not do that’s going to change you financial situation. Those choices are all on you, honey. I’m sure there’re a lot of other “living-above-your-means” things going on too. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/36 "2010-09-27T18:03:03Z")
My wife is a pack rat. She bought a book about how to get rid of all that junk piling up. The pile just got bigger by the size of that book. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/37 "2010-09-28T19:51:07Z")
> [@furt](#): > > > [@suranyi](#): > > > > Dave Ramsey has made a career out of his recovery from debt, and his story is not all that different from the woman in the Yahoo link. I don’t personally listen to him, never having had a debt problem myself, but he’s got thousands of devoted followers. > > Indeed. I listen to Ramsey, and one of the points he makes regularly is that debt problems are rarely a result of income shortages. People like to think, “if I made \_\_\_\_ a year, I’d never go broke,” but the reality is that if you don’t live within your means on $35,000 a year, odds are good you won’t do it at ten times that, either. In some ways - and certainly not all ways - its harder. You start to think “I make six figures a year, I don’t have to budget!” But six figures a year spends fast when your attitude is ‘see, want, buy.’ Truth is, for most people, the more they make, the more they spend. They start to take luxuries for granted. “Can’t start the day without my latte, can’t live without my manicure.” And most people who have six figures worth of debt on $35k declare bankruptcy. That’s what its there for. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/38 "2010-09-28T19:57:16Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Truth is, for most people, the more they make, the more they spend. I don’t see what’s so wrong with that. There’s another finance guy who does the AM talk thing – can’t recall his name right now – who posited that as a major drawback to saving. But what the hell am I supposed to do when I start to make more money? When I started at my current company, I was living on my sister’s couch and I was driving a 89 Honda Accord with a hood that wouldn’t latch. 8 years and several promotions later, should I still be living on my sister’s couch and driving that shit-box, while socking 10’s of thousands of dollars away? Fuck no. I like my condo and my Mustang. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/39 "2010-09-28T20:49:13Z")
There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that. As long as you continue to live within your means. To paraphrase Charles Dickens If you make $35,000 a year and spend $36,000 a year, you are going to end up unhappy. If you make $35,000 a year and spend $34,000 - well, I don’t think it brings happiness, but it might prevent misery. If you make $135,000, its a LOT easier to not spend $136,000 - its easier to live within your means. But if you don’t, you are still going to be broke - just very likely “broke with a lot of stuff.” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679/40 "2010-09-28T20:58:20Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that. As long as you continue to live within your means. > > To paraphrase Charles Dickens > > If you make $35,000 a year and spend $36,000 a year, you are going to end up unhappy. How do you figure? If I die in debt, I will have had the use of $1,000 a year of stuff I would not have had if I had lived within my means. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-a-moron-anymore-how-inspiring/554679.md?page=3)