Debt prevention vs. damage control
January 27th, 2006 | by
mbhunter |
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This Liz Pulliam Weston article was published in October 2005 but it popped up on the front page of MSN.com again:
This article has practical advice on which bills will do the least damage to your financial situation if you skip them for a while. The best ones to skip (!?) are student loan payments, while the ones with the swiftest retribution are car loan payments — they can send the repo man out to you if your payment is as little as one day late!
With almost 2% of all households in the country filing for bankruptcy last year — yes, almost 2%! — there’s a large audience for this flavor of advice. I can’t imagine having so many debts that I have to choose which ones I pay this month. It can’t be pleasant.
It’s unfortunate that there’s a tendency for people to ignore preventive measures or shrug off early warning signs. Why don’t most people kill these monsters when they’re small? It’s not just debt. It can be weight (a personal problem of mine), a souring marriage, career sabotage, or anything else that deteriorates over time.
If you’re in good shape financially (or, more importantly, if you think you’re in good shape financially but aren’t sure) subscribe to Gary North’s Reality Check. He’s been devoting half of his twice-weekly free newsletter to answering his readers’ questions. He administers the biggest dose of financial prevention I’ve ever seen.
If you follow his advice in financial matters, you probably won’t be needing to follow Ms. Weston’s advice in the article above.
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3 Responses to “Debt prevention vs. damage control”
By Cathy on Jan 27, 2006 | Reply
Thanks for the recommendation. I just signed up
By Rebecca on Feb 2, 2006 | Reply
Not paying student loans? Here in Texas, I practice law periodically (when I’m not writing) and I was told recently by a court clerk that I couldn’t contact opposing counsel because she had been suspended indefinitely - for not paying her student loans.
I was referred to the State Bar site, and there she was: along with an unbelievable number of people. Law school is expensive, I was blessed to get into UT with its low state tuition. How these folk are supposed to get themselves out of this financial ditch when they are suspended, I dunno. Catch-22.
The economy is bad here, lawyers aren’t being paid - or they don’t have clients to worry about whether they’re gonna get paid. I’m not condoning, I just don’t want to be judgmental, either. People are hurting, and this woman I am sure is doing the best she can. I assume she had other bills she felt took priority.
Recommending to ignore student loans? Skeery. Very skeery.