Shocking money stories.

[shanendoah]

2 stories.
First is my MIL. She is on a fixed income - disability and SSD, after an on the job accident left her unable to work. It also caused some brain damage (which combined with her already poor money managing skills) really left her unable to understand delayed caused and effect- as in in I have $100 in the bank today, no new money coming in until 1 week from today, and a $75 dollar bill due in 3 days, she still believed she had $100 to spend today. She ruined her credit to the point that despite having 70-80% equity in her home, she could not refinance, and she had maxed out her HELOC, and was in no way prepared to pay it off before the balloon payment came due. She did not want to believe us when we told her she'd lose her home in 6 years because the bank had never said anything about it.
We moved her in with us (in a different state) and rented out her condo. We got her credit cards paid off and built up a savings for her. It took 16 months before we were able to move her out of our house. She now "pays" about $150 a month (the difference in the rent she receives and the rent she pays) to live up here, and we still put $700/month in to savings for future medical bills. (We know there will be plenty.) Her HELOC is on an auto-pay plan that will have it paid off before it comes due, and have cut up the credit card that went with it. We have a financial DPOA and don't allow her to manage her money anymore. But in less than 2 years, she went from not being able to buy groceries to saving $700 a month. And most of it was due to not paying overdraft fees and late payments on credit cards.

Our story: We were getting by just fine. We would pay off the credit cards and then pay them off, only to build up a balance again. We had a major car payment (only a 3 year loan), and spent quite a bit of money on eating out. I tracked our spending, but I didn't do anything with the information. Then, DH got laid off. We got serious about paying off debt and not accruing any more. When the first 6 months of UE were up, we were stressed because we weren't at a point where we could live on my salary alone yet. We were relieved when he was approved for tier II benefits. Right after that, one of our dogs became very ill and died. We accrued a new 0%APR debt with the vets office that had to be paid off in 1 year. (It was).
By 10 months after DH got laid off, we had paid off all debt other than our house, my student loans, and the vet bill. We did this by getting serious about debt repayment. We needed to get rid of the car payment in order to afford to live on my income. We used the tracking information I had to set up a budget, limiting ourselves on how much we could spend on eating out, and stopped spending as much on "premium" groceries. We were at a point where we could live in my income alone. Then, about 14 months after he got laid off, I got a new job with a 33% raise, which relieved pretty much all the stress of wondering when UE would stop. UE hasn't stopped, but its all gone as extra toward my SL payments, so that we've been living on my income. 20 months after getting laid off, DH still isn't working (he's had a total of 2 interviews), but he's now back in school getting his bachelor's, and we're able to pay for it out of pocket, with no new student loans.

[sanityjones]

Short version. Shortly before the tech stock bubble ruptured my wife and I inherited a tidy sum (around 300k). We had been listening to the great financial guru (we thought) Bruce Williams who at that time was espousing debt maintenance via interest from market investments rather than paying off debts. Well, it did not take long after things started going down hill in the market that we were soon into the principle..........and that was dwindling rapidly. Before it was over I was forced to sell my home (after everything else was sold off) and actually had to write a check to my mortgage company for 50k to make up the difference between what it sold for and the loan amount, just to get out from under it before it got repossessed. I had about three thousand dollars left after that debacle, LOL. I couldn't afford a rental and ended up living in a trailer next door to my dream home for the next year and a half. That gave me plenty of time to think about things. LOL. Riches to Rags part one.

[motherto2]

totally didn't know you could rent things like that. Good to know that you have decided to buy it. Here's to hoping that you get your money's worth before you need another one!

[secret1122]

Jan 20, 2011 12:19:46 GMT -5 @neohguy said:

Never conduct large cash transactions with anyone except at a bank.

Many years ago, a friend of mine who owned a small trucking business, decided to sell one of his rigs. A buyer showed up on a Saturday afternoon and agreed to buy the rig for 19k. He returned a few hours later and paid my friend with cash. The title was notarized and the buyer left with the truck. Later that night, two men (not the buyer) kicked in the door. They threatened to torture and kill my friend and his wife if a large sum of money was not provided. They made it clear that they knew he had 19k in the house. My friend turned over the money. He and his wife were tied up. An arrest was never made.

What state was this in? Were they not armed or just not prepared for such an invasion? The weird part of the story is that it seems the intent was to get a truck and not have to pay for it. Wouldn't stealing the truck be easier than paying for it and then after the person has all your information, coming back to commit armed robbery, assault and battery, and kidnapping?

[yogi]

I've got a good one for you guys. My BIL recently told me a story about his friend who plans to take out a 2k loan every year to take his wife and kids on a vacation.. who does that?!? This same friend received a 4k tax refund last year and blew it all on new furniture, a new TV, video games etc., and then had his car repossessed a month later. They claim that the bank lost their payment in the mail. Riiiiight.

[debtheaven]

a

[neohguy]

Jan 24, 2011 17:01:25 GMT -5 @debtheaven said:

What state was this in? Were they not armed or just not prepared for such an invasion? The weird part of the story is that it seems the intent was to get a truck and not have to pay for it. Wouldn't stealing the truck be easier than paying for it and then after the person has all your information, coming back to commit armed robbery, assault and battery, and kidnapping?

I have problems with this story too. I'm certainly NOT saying it didn't happen. But, my first idea would have been to not accept all that cash and ask for a certified check from a bank. The second (assuming I had accepted it in the first place) would have been to drive two or three hours away to a hotel and sit on the cash.

I'm so terribly sorry this happened to your friend, but accepting 18K in cash on a Saturday and staying put was probably not the wisest idea. I know I make plenty of stupid decisions, but I probably would not have made that one because I am overly suspicious, and fundamentally distrustful, of people I don't know, especially when I have something to lose.

It's a true story. It happened in the mid to late 80's in Olmsted twp, Ohio. Their house was located at the corner of Fitch and Cook rd's, practically across the st from the police station.
His guns didn't matter because it came down so fast.
There was no evidence for arresting the buyer so he got to keep the rig. He had an iron clad alibi.
In retrospect it was not a wise decision to accept cash.

[Peace77]

It used to be very common to rent telephones (landlines).
I recently heard of some elderly ladies who just found out that they don't have to rent their phones anymore. It was news to them that they could buy them much cheaper than renting from the phone company.

[secret1122]

Jan 24, 2011 17:42:57 GMT -5 @neohguy said:

His guns didn't matter because it came down so fast.

That's the part that irks me. Training training training. Hopefully he learned from the mistake and wont let it happen again. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program. We were talking money weren't we?

[shelly527in]

[quote author=peace77 board=smartspending thread=1813 post=84487 time=1295969852]It used to be very common to rent telephones (landlines). I recently heard of some elderly ladies who just found out that they don't have to rent their phones anymore. It was news to them that they could buy them much cheaper than renting from the phone company.
[/quote]

I've heard of this. I think my parents did it in the '70's.

[coffeegrl]

I remember up until I was about 10 or 11 years old we still rented our phone from AT&T. It was a black rotary phone and it seemed like dialing a number took forever, especially if there was a couple 9s that had to be dialed!

[beergut]

I remember rented phones, and going to buy the first phone for the house.

As for the truck purchase/robbery story, sounds to me like the buyer may have mentioned to the wrong people that he bought a used truck for 19k in cash, and they went to pay the seller a visit afterwards.