Hi guys, new here, but have been reading/enjoying this thread for about a year and it always gives me a good laugh and the boost I need when I am having a bad day or need a little extra motivation to keep saving! Anyway, I never thought I would actually post here but a recent example that happened to me with a coworker was just so shocking and awe-inspiring that I feel compelled to post for the first time ever, I'm not sure if I should laugh, cry, or both...
A woman who works at our company and is 10+ years older than me (I am in my late 20s, she just turned 40) is constantly talking about how she 'lives check to check' but says it in an almost proud/badge of honor type way, or as if it is an inherent fact, i.e. 'I'm a Christian' or 'I'm South African' i.e. like an integral part of your being that cannot be changed. Other then that she seems like a fairly nice/intelligent person. We had a recent meeting about the 401k and she said she was skipping it, because 'I don't contribute to the 401k anyway, I don't have enough money.' After a few examples like this, she one day asked if she could borrow $5 because she 'didn't have enough money for gas to get back home from work' and seemed very upset about it so against my better judgement I gave her $5. The next week she asked if she could borrow $20 for 'food and gas' as she had overdrawn her bank account and had no other money, and I had to say no, especially since she hadn't paid me back for the $5, so would have been a foolish investment.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, I get a call one day asking if I can give her a ride to work on my way to the office because she was having car troubles. It's on my way anyway so I said sure. I get there and realize she lives with her parents still, so how is she so broke every week? The icing on the cake here turns out to be that the 'car troubles' turned out to be that her car, which she JUST leased, had been repossessed by the bank the night before and she was very upset about it. I asked why it got repossessed, and she informed me that since her insurance payments are over $600 a month, (which I would imagine is slightly more than her weekly check, just based on my own salary, even though I probably make more), she could no longer afford both the car payments AND the insurance payments. She borrowed money from friends and family to get the car back, and apparently has not come close to paying these people back yet.
Low and behold, the week after was in another major crisis because the car insurance company was cancelling her policy for nonpayment. I asked her why doesn't she consider taking public transport to work, car pooling, or maybe even using a bike since she lives fairly close to the office and she looked at me like I was an alien, she wouldn't even consider this as an option and I should be thrown out for even suggesting it. To me, if you're spending probably over 50% of your salary on car payments plus insurance payments, I would rather just not work and not have the car! Why work so hard for something that is basically just a mechanism for getting you to that job?? I informed her that her car insurance payment alone was more than I pay for my mortgage every month, as I have just bought my first property (have a few small investment properties but this one is for me to live in) and she looked like she thought I was some sort of freak that I already own instead of rent/live with parents (keep in mind I didn't even mention that I have already purchased several other properties for income/investing purposes, I think that would have been a bridge too far). I don't understand how people can get themselves into these types of situations and then, even worse, not see the error of their ways!!!
Anyway, sorry for the long post but I figured you guys would appreciate this example and I really just needed to rant, because if I told people in real life they would just say something like 'well how can you blame her, it's hard to save money these days'. I think people just love to say that because it gives them an excuse/crutch for their own situation