Replies to '12/21 One Paycheck Away'

These cries for help are examples of our sad society.  "My dream would be to find a sponsor..."  SPONSOR????  This society/generation seems to constantly whine and look for handouts. Without a doubt they have sad situations and I don't mean to belittle their hard times.  We've lost touch with the teachings of our elders. Saving for a rainy day, preparing for our future, and money management doesn't seem to be of any importance anymore; instead, everyone seems to be looking for someone else to carry the burden. We are running out of elses!  I've seen time and time again how helping someone out of a hard time doesn't help them in the long run because it's usually their own inadequacies in management that got them there in the first place. Therefore, yet another hard time is in their near future.  For the rare few that work really hard (not their perception of their hard work), I cheer helping them.

 

I dread the showing of how the homeless are treated on the street. I fear the one sidedness. I can say from first hand experience that there is help for the truly homeless. The vast majority have put themselves there and are looking for handouts. Many people are burned out of trying to help others just to see them in the same spot a little further down the road. There are TWO sides to this.

 

If it's not money, it's a relationship that has gone awry.  We don't teach how to deal with either anymore, or we're teaching the wrong lessons.

 I am very upset with the previous message to this person's cry for help. It doesn't matter how much you've saved or how well you've planned, when a major illness strikes, you and your family can be financially destroyed. (Instead of blaming people who have gotten sick, we need to blame the real culprits - our fat cat government. All those congresspeople and senators have just about the greatest health care benefits and pension plans on the planet. The rest of us, even us hard workers, find our company health plans being cut, pensions diminished, etc., etc.) People who have never faced a devastating illness have NO idea of the financial AND emotional costs a family can face. My husband and I have been through this. We are no longer young and have come to the sad realization that we are never going to be able to retire. Never. I survived a serious illness, our daughter has a serious illness for which there is no cure (neither she nor we can afford her prescriptions), and my husband was downsized from his job and it took him two years to find another - at one-third the pay. All our savings, investments, everything, are gone. We live from our paychecks to our next paychecks. Our son is putting himself through college - three part-time jobs, scholarships and loans and grants. (Sometimes he can't afford to eat for a day. Don't say anything against the younger generation!)

Yes, there is help for homeless people but in no way is there enough help. At one point we were afraid we would be on the street. We found out we could not stay in a shelter together. My daughter and I, if there was room, could be in one place, my husband - if there was space - could be in another and our son, at 18, would have no where to go. He'd be out there, alone, on the street, all night. Do you think I could've slept? We decided the woods would be safer and we could be together. Thankfully, we squeaked through and it didn't happen. I never dreamed that at 60 years old, after a life of saving and planning, we'd be facing such an option! I am afraid. If I had the money, I'd help this family. I'm sure Jodee didn't ask to get sick. My daughter didn't ask for her condition. I didn't ask to get sick.

 Why don't you get a job instead of a sponsor - it will pay more in the long run...