and spend my money on Essentials: Food, Rent, Utilities, Supplements,couple Meds and Medicare and SS costs.....I buy NO high tech stuff so that is no issue in my life. Keep my good ole desk top humming along. Credit card debt (I have ONE card) and don't use it and make Min payments monthly and could ask for some relief but don't want to give my low interest rate card go....I may need it, HOPE NOT. Now I know when I go on to the Big Sky, my CC debt is no one's issue...No husband here and I don't worry about money, use it as I need to.... So many treat money as their God....Owning Stuff is not Me.....
Well, actually it is someone's issue. If you have any "estate" at all...money in the bank, etc. your outstanding debts will be taken from that first before anyone can inherit whatever is left. Not to mention that running up a credit card balance with the intention of stiffing the financial institution is tantamount to stealing. Most of us live on a fixed income. Some have a higher fixed income than others, however.
Paying interest does NOT phase me, and especially at this old age, and it can all end up where everything ends up, pooffffff, just like our government. I keep the card for convenience and after all the years of owning it, I believe the interest rate is 8% something.... It was one of the No Interest Intro cards many yrs ago,, Many yres ago I consolidated a bunch of store card balances as MC and Visa eta were being taken by all....I think I even put a small amount on the credit card when I was buying a car yrs ago. I know I helped my daughter with some dental work a long while back. It's been all Good....it's only money, comes and goes. Just looked at my last statement and interest rate for purchases is 8.74% and for advancements 27%% and I Never got advancement and I'd be a fool to give up t his card. It's the only one I own and my bank debit card. And then there are the banks, where I keep a nice balance and not a penny from them....
I have no estate as I don't own anything substantial, and my daughter is on my debit card to use when I go poof.....when I owned a condo, it owned me, and when I sold it after 5 yrs ownership I did not want to Own anymore ... I like to Keep It Simple.......And remember I never remarried so was on my total Own..... Oh think what you will the financial institutions are just fine with or without me....I don't worry about them or the banks or the Gubmint.....
Even seeds here cost twice as much for half the amount this year. I have always been frugal--to a fault. So, at the moment we are comfortable. I pay credit card in full every month. But, when the shtf and money is no longer worth anything, like in Germany early last century, I worry about that. Bit coin was made out of the air and gold is hard to lug around...
We also live within our means, though thankfully our means provide a comfortable living. I don't concern myself with "SHTF" stuff; I'm old and my life is winding down so why bother? "Two bullets" sounds like a plan. We also pay our credit card in full each month though there were plenty of years when we could not. Not only are seeds getting ridiculous, but have you noticed the prices on bedding plants? Obscene.
I live on my Social Security and what I can earn from my online job, but that's fixed at 30 hours a week. From time to time, other opportunities will come up to earn money online, such as providing content for someone's blog or website, but I consider that to be extra money, not something to depend on. We learned the hard way that neither my wife nor I could use a credit card responsibly, so we no longer have any. If I were single, I could have one sitting around for dire emergencies and never use it but, when there's two of us, we don't define a dire emergency in the same way.
We Try to live within our means. We do not eat out ( no eat paces here anyway) only buy clothes maybe once a year. We spend $35 on streaming- our only entertainment. Anyways, it is the unexpected things that cost us. When something breaks down or needs replacing, it is costly. Taxes are a bitch here- sorry its the truth. I have credit card not a big balance but higher than I like - his seldom has a balance. Point being, it is never enough . period. I have decided it does not matter. The damn government does not,cannot, and will not control its spending so why and the dickens should worry about ours? i better stop I think I am getting a bit riled up
We also live on a fairly fixed income , and a few days ago we attended a afternoon dance here in Canbera ACT , most dances are heavily subsidised as most of the halls used for dancing are in council owned buildings. Any afternoon dances we attend in Adelaide cost us $2.00 each that includes a raffle ticket and a cuppa and biscuits for afternoon tea . However the one we attended here cost us $15.00 each as well as having to bring a plate of afternoon tea. So it’s way over our budget to attend at that price. So we will give that venue a huge miss in future cause that’s just not in our budget pay for that for a dance …….especially when it was a very poor ….. program of mainly Latin , if it’s a exclusive Latin dance it’s usually advertised as such. and the music was terrible ….10 people attended including us . So we now know to avoid if we come over this way again
@Kate Ellery - total bummer to spend money for any reason and not get at least a flicker of joy from it.
Fixed income is a strange term. While most people understand it to mean living on limited means, such as on Social Security alone, it's fair to say that most people live on a fixed income. If they're working, there might be opportunities for overtime pay, a second job, or advancements, but that's true for people on Social Security, too. I've been on Social Security for a while now, and I work 30 hours online each week, as does my wife, also on SS. We have other money coming in from other online tasks, and my wife drives for a non-profit company, which brings in some money. For that matter, even our Social Security is not exactly a fixed income because there are cost-of-living adjustments and threats of ending the program every election year. As I posted in this thread, it looks like we could survive on our Social Security alone if we had to, but I'd rather keep other money coming in for as long as I can.