S/o poor vs middle class

amother

Sun, Jan 15 2023, 10:09 pm

After reading the thread of poor vs middle class, and what ppl find a necessity I had this thought. How much of the things we consider necessities are real. What if we had no CC would we still view cleaning help a necessity, buying trendy clothes...if we actually had to pay up all our monthly bills? Did cc creat this fake reality of a picture perfect world. After giving it some thought I truly think as a society we would be better of without cc. We would also feel emotionaly more secure with the choices we make and the way we parent our children.

I also find how therapy gets thrown around alot. The moment there is a bump ppl say it's worth it rather than paying a therapist. Yes there are hardships but having a house that's in a messier state shouldn't send us running to therapy. Would we have thicker skin to deal with hardships if there was no back burner to put our financial struggles on?

There are alot of self help books that share technics with how to cope with different hardships.
I once got a book that would help me help my anxious child in school. My friend stopped by my house on shabbos and saw me reading that book and told me that her husband who is a social worker just read it also... yes a lot of knowledge that therapist offer is out there for a very affordable price.

SG18

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 1:50 am

I like having a credit card. I pay it off every month, but walking around with large amounts of cash is stressful to me. I lost my wallet a little while ago and was able to cancel all of my credit cards instantly. BH I only had a small amount of cash at the time, otherwise it would have been devastating.

In terms of therapy- there's self-help, and there's troubleshooting with someone in real time. I believe they serve different functions.

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 6:35 am

We don't use credit cards only debit cards but with a little overdraft for leeway but we buy what we can afford, and that's it.

We've used credit cards in the past just for big things like we needed an extra 10k towards building work but we funny pay interest, we get interest free at first and make sure to have them paid off in time.

amother

Azalea

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 6:40 am

Perhaps it has to do with the money habits we saw growing up.

It never occurred to me that a credit card doesn't have to be paid up monthly.

I put everything on my credit card which is on autopay every month. I don't have time to constantly run to the ATM. And no, I'm not wealthy.

No need to cancel all credit cards. Simply view it as credit card as it should be viewed - a method of payment you can use instead of carrying cash around. NOT a method of buying things you can't afford.

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 6:41 am

amother Azalea wrote:

We have debit cards for that too.

Trademark

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 9:44 am

amother Seagreen wrote:

We have debit cards for that too.

I prefer a cc. I pay it in full monthly.

The advantages of a cc:

There is better fraud protection. Once money is gone from your account, it's gone.

Travel insurance. Amex has great insurance for car rentals. We had dents etc so many times and they always paid in full directly to the rental. (we don't own a car, and it's great when we rent one.)

Points

You don't have to keep track if there is funds in the account.

No transaction fees- most bank accounts have a limit on how many free transactions you can do a month

amother

Viola

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 10:42 am

I agree with you in terms of a buy now pay later mindset being a negative as some people seem to think it is okay to fund their life on credit.

I use ONE credit card for almost everything and I pay it off each month. It would never occur to me to purchase anything on credit that I couldn't afford to write a check for. As one poster wrote, I grew up in a home that didn't have consumer debt although my family used credit cards but paid them off each month.

I have some other credit cards but it is easier for me to just use one card so that I don't forget to pay different cards. Also I do not use a debit card - I don't even have a debit card because I don't want it to be inadvertently fraudulent used if it got stolen since the protections for fraud are not as good as for a credit card.

There was a recent thread on having children pay for their parents' expenses and I was left wondering how some people are planning to fund their retirement expenses - if they are in debt and have no savings, do they expect to move in with the children?

amother

Navy

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 10:48 am

Without credit cards lots of people- perhaps your next door neighbor or sister would go hungry or would not have heating or money to repair the leaking roof. I agree cc can wreck your financial future if misused but bh it can help people get through a difficult period whereas in the past they would go hungry or become homeless.

amother

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:02 am

I also use cc and am very careful with the way we spend. So as long as one is careful with it its great!(Especially getting cash back Smile

) After reading the posts of ppl using cc and going into debt so they can pay for cleaning help because it's as important as water. They obviously shouldn't have had them. I only buy what we need and shop only sales on clothing. And no I dont have cleaning help.
But looking around I live more simply than ppl who are getting tomchey shabbos! I know one family in particular that gets cleaning help and buys her kids shoes in jewish stores full price. The next thing I know a different neighbor who always buys target shoes bought shoes full price in a jewish store because the poor neighbor does it!
One family that a community was collecting money for because they were in in debt. The next thing we know the wife goes ahead and buys the baby a bugaboo stroller!
If you are responsible to live within your means then you are obviously fine with having a cc. But if you are spending to keep up with the Cohens obviously you shouldn't have it!
I don't know people's financial situations but I'm pretty sure a big chunk of our society is living above the standards they can afford.

Trademark

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:03 am

I pay my cc in full every month. When we had some larger expenses that I didn't have the cash on hand I used a line of credit. LOCs have low interest rates and are much better than credit cards if you have the occasional large expense that you can't pay right away.

Of course like everything else you need to use it responsibly. BH we already paid of our debt in full.

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:07 am

Trademark wrote:

I get that. So when dh hires a car (which is only abroad) then we do use his cc. But for daily use, we use debit cards only.

My dh uses cc for his business with benefits. We go on 3 or 4 big family days out for free because of it.

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:12 am

amother OP wrote:

I also use cc and am very careful with the way we spend. So as long as one is careful with it its great!(Especially getting cash back Smile

Maybe the bugaboo was gifted to her? You really can't judge but I get the frustration when people take tzedokoh and then spend more than you. No one knows what's really going on.

Trademark

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:13 am

amother Seagreen wrote:

Another advantage of a cc: much easier and safer to use when traveling.

I think for car rentals and hotels too you don't have a choice, you have to use a cc.

amother

Seagreen

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:32 am

Trademark wrote:

Different strokes for different folks Smile

I'm just curious, why don't you use a cc?

Dh and I just don't like using them,if we can help it. It's very easy to go over what we can afford so we avoid them. It doesn't effect our credit rating. You do you.

amother

Coffee

Mon, Jan 16 2023, 11:35 am

amother OP wrote:

Please share the title!