I too was a bit surprised at his comment about medical bankruptcies, kind of hard to afford massive medical bills when you’ve only been working a few years.
And to be clear, this article isn’t meant to be some amazing solution for the people who are actually genuinely poor and struggling due to real life disadvantages. That takes more wisdom and sensitivity than I have learned so far.
Instead, it’s for the gigantic middle and upper classes that have every advantage and STILL blow every cent they make and end up living their entire lives in debt. Even among people who make loads of money, I find that over 90% are still virtually broke. That’s a big target market and worthy of a few punches to the face.
I agree with the person who commented that he should bring this up each post, if for not other reason than his blog audience has grown so much that he’s no longer niche, plus it might help keep the politics out of it. Been thinking of starting a thread about the whys of poverty, that why do people who grow up poor make such stupid financial decisions, things like renting tires and furniture etc. Why do poor blacks seem to cycle in and out of jail etc. Got a few good links but not enough to start a new thread.
One thing I’d like to see him cover more are posts on how to crawl out of the hole when you’re middle class. A good example of this was when Yahoo featured him, a lady left the following comment (not quoted)
Met my husband in university, got married had two kids, than bought a big house, two cars and a ton of school debt. I want to be a SAHM but can’t afford that much less early retirement.
-or-
My niece who when I asked her about YNAB said “will it solve the issue of too many bills not enough money. In her case the economy, unemployment, pay cuts etc.
Over all a great post again.