do you have any debt?

Paid college in cash.

The company my wife and I built from scratch went out of business, thus leading to our first home being foreclosed on and having to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy, so thanks to our federal bankruptcy laws, I'm now debt free! ;)

Yeah, don't go down the same route I did to "become" debt free...
 


hoping all this occupy wall st will eliminate the student loan situation...KIDDING

i had 20k in debt 7 years ago and found an amazing local company here in FL to kill it. they did a combination of:

letter writing (if they do not respond in writing it must be removed in x amount of time)

debt consolidation - they took the ones that were not getting removed and made easy payments

what i called "fuck it, wait it out for 7 years" where i did just that

and then they called the ones that were left and attempted to do a payoff, or a buyout whatever you call it. for instance, i had a hospital bill for 400 something they negotiated it to $136 or some random number. then they lumped that into my payments!

the only thing they can't touch is the federal student loans, who if you don't pay, they will eventually just take it out from under you (thats right, wage garnishment. as in, "where did 76% of my paycheck go??)

imo 99% of these agency's are fucking scumbags, if you miss ONE payment you basically start over.
 
makethatgreen said:
no credit = no business loans or lines of credit...unless you're wanting to take a loan out for $5.
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That's a myth. I have personal experience to the contrary.

Suffice it to say, zero debt, zero credit and cash balances go a long way.
 
lukep said:
Building credit only serves to make you a more-accessible slave.
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Lol I hope you intend to build a business bigger than $100/day.

I do agree with Guerilla, consumptive debt is just a bad choice. But not all debt is so bad. Ask anyone doing paid traffic and racking up those points.

I'm so grateful my mom got me my first credit card when I was 16. She'd get me to buy a few groceries on it every month and pay it off just so I could build that history up. Few years later when I needed that credit to scale up a campaign, I got approved in a heart beat even though my business was fresh, I wasn't working on the side, and it was when the banks tightened up their lending policies.

Anyways inb4 FTC Hater drops some knowledge bomb. or not.
 
also calling it - FTCHater won't post ITT because he's tried reasoning with all of the anti-debt people in the past and it led to all kinds of hurr durr. There's a reason multibillion dollar companies issue bonds, people.
 
If you expect to get credit card processing (with you as the signer), 9 times out of 10 you need credit history.
 
Debt is evil. Wanna deal with the devil, go ahead.
Apple is good example, how you can be 100 billion dollar company and have no debt.
 
Since when did anybody ever give a shit about what other people do with their money?

Bunch of capitalists debating whether consumers should buy shit on credit or not lol, most of you would go personally bankrupt if people did really change their ways so you better fucking hope people keep their personal finance ignorance.

To be honest I don't care what you do with your money, time etc. Not my business, my business is to sell you shit, I don't care where the money comes from, I don't care if you can afford it or not so long as you pay that's the important part.
 
papajohn56 said:
Not all debt is bad debt.
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There's a huge difference between commercial debt used for working capital or capital investment, and consumer debt used to buy crap people don't need with.

Commercial debt makes sense in a lot of cases, if the rate of return is higher than the cost of servicing the debt.

The only acceptable type of consumer debt is a mortgage (as long as you're not too stretched), because if you hold onto the property in the long term you're probably using it for an appreciating asset.

Of course, when you start to use your house as a bank and borrow money against it, then it gets stupid again.

I got into a shitload of debt through overspending and taking silly business risks in my 20s, and wrecked my credit record as a result.

Best thing I ever did financially, because it made me stop drinking the buy now-pay later koolaid.
 
Debt is an ugly devil for many reasons. Using debt to buy consumables, that loose value as soon you walk out with it, is just plain stupid. Taking out loans to buy a house was a good move/investment before 2008, not anymore. Using debt to build a business eats away your capital from day 1.

Besides it is just easy to spend borrowed money, because you didn't have to work for the money, yet. Just compare buying stuff with your debit card to that spent using your credit card.
 
i read an article a while back which said something like 50% of americans don't even have 2-5k saved for an emergency.

"better to go to bed hungry than wake up in debt."
 
jenzkc said:
"better to go to bed hungry than wake up in debt."
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That's brain washing right there, as soon as you start neglecting your basic human survival needs to stop yourself going into a debt (human invented problem), you can't be psychologically on par.

Be funny to see someone actually do that though. Pretty amazing how people will start neglecting their basic survival needs for a problem that doesn't really exist.
 
seohug said:
Debt is an ugly devil for many reasons. Using debt to buy consumables, that loose value as soon you walk out with it, is just plain stupid. Taking out loans to buy a house was a good move/investment before 2008, not anymore. Using debt to build a business eats away your capital from day 1.

Besides it is just easy to spend borrowed money, because you didn't have to work for the money, yet. Just compare buying stuff with your debit card to that spent using your credit card.
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I use cash for my day to day transactions for that reason - you have a much better sense of how much money you're spending. It's also a fun game to get £100 out of the bank and see how long you can make it last.

One thing I've noticed about the people I know who are genuinely wealthy (in net worth terms) is that they're all very careful with money. Not necessarily tight, but they don't just piss it away like other people I know who are high earners, but don't have much to show for it.
 
jenzkc said:
i read an article a while back which said something like 50% of americans don't even have 2-5k saved for an emergency.
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I throw $100 in a safe every week just for this reason. Benjamins and bullets FTW! Zero debt BTW.
 
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