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For many years, my wife had been bailing her sister and husband out of financial trouble (before I met her) It was always one thing or another, but always in the end came down to them spending more money than they earned. For instance, buying new furniture, and then being all shocked when they had no money to pay taxes. The last straw was when they declared BK and then decided to move, just because, And my wife's sister giving up a good solid job in the process.
He's a real estate appraiser who is one of those types that will never work for "the man" but doesn't enough business sense to be successful at self-employment. Tax time always came as some sort of huge shock every year, and they were always behind paying the IRS because they never set aside self-employment tax or paid their estimated taxes throughout the year.
Several years ago, they bought a house... I told my wife that was the last straw... Their income has never been solid enough to pay a mortgage, and there was No Way we were bailing them out of THAT decision. Well when the crash happened, there was still a need for skilled appraisers, but the whole structure of the business changed, and you had to either work for a bank, or a large appraisal company. Since he's "above" working for The Man, he's been effectively unemployed since then. Neither one of them will take a McJob because they "don't pay enough", even though min. Wage would be infinity-times what they are making now, which is $0. They are living by mooching off the husband's parents, but they are chronically short on cash.
After we were down there for thanksgiving, my wife was commenting on how they had a house of nice, mostly new-ish furniture, new floors, new washer and dryer, decent electronics, also new-ish, etc. she made this comment while I had my head buried in the innards of the couch, using a repair kit off of eBay to reattach some suspension springs, and this is recently after fixing the recliner mechanism of this Craigslist special. ($800 couch for $50 because it needed a $10 repair part I installed in five minutes with a screwdriver.) I'm not super-handy, but can YouTube with the best of 'em. This is so I can prop my feet on the beat-up coffee table, watch the seven-year-old rear projection TV, etc. Despite having a household income that puts us well into the top ten percent, we both drive normal cars, each of which has been paid off for years. We live in a house half the size of what all the mortgage calculators say we can "afford", our washer and dryer are the cheap (and easily repaired) ones I bought fifteen years ago for my apartment, etc.
They just bought a new car (asked us to co-sign... I said Hell No.). And despite the husband being quite handy, they have not a single shelf in the garage with even simple home-repair stuff. (Not talking hard-core carpentry here, just the nuts, bolts, nails, widgets, etc. that every reasonably handy and frugal homeowner has in the garage.)
And they wonder why we've always had enough money, and they don't. Spend Less Than You Make is not some magical financial secret. I have plenty of sympathy for folks fallen on hard times, but the only reason these two stay completely flat broke is because they feel the world owes them a living doing work that isn't somehow beneath them. They refuse any job that will pay them less than they "are worth". News Flash: something is "worth" precisely what you can find somebody to pay you... Not one dollar more.
*sigh*. If anybody is searching for why some reasonably-intelligent and educated people get poor and stay that way, they are a great example. When life gives them lemons, they sit and wait for it to magically turn into an orange.
He's a real estate appraiser who is one of those types that will never work for "the man" but doesn't enough business sense to be successful at self-employment. Tax time always came as some sort of huge shock every year, and they were always behind paying the IRS because they never set aside self-employment tax or paid their estimated taxes throughout the year.
Several years ago, they bought a house... I told my wife that was the last straw... Their income has never been solid enough to pay a mortgage, and there was No Way we were bailing them out of THAT decision. Well when the crash happened, there was still a need for skilled appraisers, but the whole structure of the business changed, and you had to either work for a bank, or a large appraisal company. Since he's "above" working for The Man, he's been effectively unemployed since then. Neither one of them will take a McJob because they "don't pay enough", even though min. Wage would be infinity-times what they are making now, which is $0. They are living by mooching off the husband's parents, but they are chronically short on cash.
After we were down there for thanksgiving, my wife was commenting on how they had a house of nice, mostly new-ish furniture, new floors, new washer and dryer, decent electronics, also new-ish, etc. she made this comment while I had my head buried in the innards of the couch, using a repair kit off of eBay to reattach some suspension springs, and this is recently after fixing the recliner mechanism of this Craigslist special. ($800 couch for $50 because it needed a $10 repair part I installed in five minutes with a screwdriver.) I'm not super-handy, but can YouTube with the best of 'em. This is so I can prop my feet on the beat-up coffee table, watch the seven-year-old rear projection TV, etc. Despite having a household income that puts us well into the top ten percent, we both drive normal cars, each of which has been paid off for years. We live in a house half the size of what all the mortgage calculators say we can "afford", our washer and dryer are the cheap (and easily repaired) ones I bought fifteen years ago for my apartment, etc.
They just bought a new car (asked us to co-sign... I said Hell No.). And despite the husband being quite handy, they have not a single shelf in the garage with even simple home-repair stuff. (Not talking hard-core carpentry here, just the nuts, bolts, nails, widgets, etc. that every reasonably handy and frugal homeowner has in the garage.)
And they wonder why we've always had enough money, and they don't. Spend Less Than You Make is not some magical financial secret. I have plenty of sympathy for folks fallen on hard times, but the only reason these two stay completely flat broke is because they feel the world owes them a living doing work that isn't somehow beneath them. They refuse any job that will pay them less than they "are worth". News Flash: something is "worth" precisely what you can find somebody to pay you... Not one dollar more.
*sigh*. If anybody is searching for why some reasonably-intelligent and educated people get poor and stay that way, they are a great example. When life gives them lemons, they sit and wait for it to magically turn into an orange.
), and pay the city and trash bills. About $500 a month. 
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