Topic : 09/15 Money Matters: Surviving the Crisis

If you do just a little bit of stocking up on frequently used items when things are on sale, you'll save even more. Buying an extra roast when it's $2.50 off, or pasta on sale and with a coupon really adds up after a few weeks.

Julie, I am right there with you. I agree 100% with what you are saying !! My husband and I worked very hard in our lives (and still are) and today we can afford a nice and comfortable life but.... we did not steel it, I can assure you, we worked for it big time !!

The economy is not going the way it is for nothing. The economy in the US is in a crisis right now and ours in Canada is not as bad but, I must say that it is probably just a matter of time for us Canadians to get to where the Us is right now. We sure are getting there !!
The restaurants are always full, the stores are busier than ever and people use their credit cards as it was money they have "just to spend". The movies are always full and in Montreal you can not even buy tickets for a hockey game, as it is all sold out for the whole season and the season is not even started yet. What is wrong with this picture ?????????
Then people cry that they are in debts.......... The houses are getting bigger and more luxurious by the minute and people by them, even though they know they will be house poor eventually, etc... I could go on and on.

I agree with you that A LOT of people in our days live way beyond their means.
Now, a lot of us are paying the price by picking up the tab and having the burden to bail them out... by paying more taxes, interests, living through inflation and a recession that is just at our door step !!!!!

I is time for our society to GROW-UP and be RESPONSIBLE also for the Governments to take actions.

PS: Thanks for your e-mail and Jewels hope to talk to you soon. Take care both of you !!!

LT.

I think that alot of people can't, or won't think beyond today.  When they spend, they don't think about what is going to happen tomorrow, or about things like saving for retirement.  My husband and I were always savers.  This is not to say we didn't enjoy life...we were able to go on vacations and buy things, but the types of things we did or bought was always tailored towards where we were at a particular point in our lives.  While our son was in college we adjusted our spending to make sure he got his education.  (he helped out by earning some of his education himself) The point is we never spent beyond our means and because we saved and sacrificed we were able to take early retirement. This is why I cannot sympathize with people who are in a financial mess because they spent irresponsibly.   I will point out to those who are going to start screaming about my post that I am not talking about people who have financial problems due to circumstances beyond their control such as health crisis or loss of a job....I am talking about people who cannot delay gratification and are unwilling to do without and therefore spend money on credit which they do not have the funds to back up. And the people who expect someone else to bail them out because they "made a mistake".  These people, who rarely take ownership for their lack of responsibility,  would be the first ones to use the cliche "everyone makes mistakes" in order to minimize their deplorable lack of responsible behavior.  THOSE are the people that I have no sympathy whatsoever for.  They need to be held accountable for their debts and not be a burden to others who worked hard all their lives.

 

Lady T, Jewelsf as always it is good to see you two on here!!

Juliebgg

I can relate to your problem but I believe that you were fortunate to get on the Dr. Phil show. We should of been mortgage free but we had a problem with the man that had access to our account. We had our mortgage payments automatically debited from our account, but even though he posted them he did not apply them to the principal. I kept records of every statement and payment, letter etc from the bank. I would contact this gentleman and question him what was going on but I was also going through 23 surgeries at this time. After my last surgery in 2001 I became more persistant with my inquiries. The next thing I knew he moved our account to another bank without giving us time to notify our direct deposit. This was March of 2001 and I could not locate my check I had asked numerous times if it had been deposited and he told me no. I never got a March statement. In April this man went into our account on the 1st but he is not authorized until the 3rd. We got a $20 fee and I told him not to go into our account to debit until the authorized day. I was informed that I would know have to come in and make the payment in person, because he could not try to debit twice. This was away for him to try and get us to screw up. I went in on 04/10/01 and made a payment. When I received my April bank statement it showed that he debited money the next day but he took $400.84 extra out. This wass from my March check it had been deposited into the old account and he refused to tell me. Long story short he continued to go into our acccount early for the next 3 months which not only cost us $20 each time but know it forced us to have to make the payments in person to prevent them from being late. I had made a triple payment on May 24, 2001 prior to my 23rd and last surgery. In June I got my statement and there was no record of the payment. I contacted the employee and told him I had every document of every transaction on our account and I was having him removed from our loan. He told me not to make Julys payment and don't call anyone until I hear back from him, because according to the bank we should be in forclosure. I said with 6/01/01 payment we are paid thru September. I waited and never heard back then I decided to cantact the bank. After giving my account number I was told that nobody is able to discuss this account with us except the employee we were dealing with. He had posted a note that all inquiries are to be directed to him, preventing us from speaking to anyone else. I left him a serious message in Jul;y and he called back and said "don't bother coming into the bank because you are in forclosure and nobody will speak to you." In August he went into our acccount early again, but after telling us we were in forclosure. I did not get the letter until September of 2001 right after 9/11. I was not to worried because I felt safe having a papertrail that shows thousand of payments not credited and over 20,000 in extra payments that were to go toward our principal. I feel so stupid now because I did not have any knowledge of the forclosure process. We had a perfect payment history since we bought the home in 1986 and we had no debt on charge cards or loans. We went to a credit counselor that ended up being unethical. We were told that he never saw a case like ours. Not only were we not in arrears, but we had taken out the money they said we owed just to stop the proceedings and allow us to present our evidence to the proper authorities. He told us to come back the next day with a money order for $620 and he will try to do one of three things. He said don't pay all of that money if I can get them to agree to put the said arreaage at the end of the loan or make extra payments each month the last option would be to pay it in full. The next day when we went back he said they refused every option and its the first time that a bank employee had the say vs the atty. He advised us to file for forclosure and I said "absolutely not". We have never been in arrears and have no reason to file. Then we were given what turned out to be bad information. We should have been advised to sue the bank, but we were told to file for chapter #13 with a lawyer that is aware of our case and it will give us 60 - 90 days to gather all the documents and our lawyer can present them at the 341 hearing. This will allow the #13 not to be confirmed the Judge can dismiss it for filing an improper forclosure and then they will have someone look into the missappropriation of fund, falsifying documents, acting in bad faith etc.  We went to a wealthy town assuming we would get a better atty. This atty was so gun ho to handle our case. We paid him $2500 in cash and he filed and said we would meet and go over all of the papers prior to the first hearing. Unfortunately that was the last time we spoke. I had called him when we got notice of the meeting date and was told that he left the firm and oopened another on out of state. The firm was know changing names and the head of the firm who was only my age or younger assured me that he will take care of everything and not to worry. I cna't even begin to tell you everything that went wrong but our life has been destroyed and after 3 filings because of errors caused by our atty, but we continued to make every mortgage payment and #13 payment and the bank employee never posted a payment since December 2001. He continued to file motions which were against the bankruptcy protection laws, as long as you are acting in good faith and making all payments on time. In February 2003 we had a house fire and we only had the clothes on our backs. Some have questioned if the bank employee was behind it. I could not locate my papertrail for weeks and remembered the last time I had it was 1/23/02. I ended up backtracking and realized I had left it in a Dunkin Donuts in North Station, Boston MA. I was so lucky that they held onto it. The Bank employee became more aggresive in his actions. We wer now living in a hptel for 3 months paying 75 anight, 2 meals out a day and paying our mortgage and #13 payments. In May of 2002 we had gone through all of our savings and asked employee if there is some type of agreement we can m,ake until we get the ins money and was told no. My father in law died May 1 and we moved out of the hotel on May 8, The worst part of all this is we were scammed by the people we hired to protect us. The cleaning company and public adjuster reffered by him were in cohoots together. They were paid thousand and thousands for word that was never done. The bank sent a man out to make sure all the work was done, so the bank believed that we had a brand new house and we officially owed nothing iof all the payments had been applied. The man sowed up 2hrs late and was so drunk. We expalined our situation and he sighned off so we could move in. We had a cellar full of contents that were flooded in water and we had no kitchen, no furniture, beds etc. The only payment I was alittle late for was July 2003. It is due on the 1st but note late until after th16th. I got a partial payment from ins on 7/22/03 and on 7/24/03 I sent July, Aug, Sept, Oct and Nov mortgage payment. My atty was told to respond to a letter from the attys. I had called him numerous times and explained how our payments are not being posted still and sent thim numerous copies and I was always told "don't worry I'll take care of everything." I got a notice on 8/06/03 that the bank had been sold and to no longer sent the mortgage payments there. It all made sense he was aware of the takeover and knew he could not take the chance that we could present our years of proof of his actions.  He held onto the 5 month payment I made and filed for forclosure. When I got Aug 2003 statement it listed 12 payments that hadn't been paid according to them and I had copies of every payment plus extra. I went to the banks atty and they immediately gave us an extension when they saw the evidence and assured us that they would do an internal investigation and if in fact we were corrext our financial obligations would be taken care of. The had sent us a letter saying the 6,ooo tr. check was enclosed but it wasn't nobody seemed to know where it was and I didn't receive it until 9/18/03 after the original forclosure date. The story is too long to continue but we had to got to a predatory lender for a new loan because they considered it a forclosure bailout. We have not been able to live in our home for almost 2 years. We all have major health problems and had the highest level of mold found in a residence. We lost our health, home, future and all of our belongings. Our oldest son is a front line marine and returned from Iraq in April and is going back in January. We hadn't had a car for 3 years because we were financilly ruined and could not afford it. We live in one room in my parents basement with our 18yr old and that is not fair to him. We never got the rest of the ions. claim and these 2 people are stilling running the same scam and everybody is aware of it but doing nothin. I can not afford an atty for either case and wrote to Dr. Phil on several occasions because we need a hero with a voice that will be heard. One thing I want to say is my husband and I have been together for 28yrs and married for 22. We are still so in love and never argue about money. You will realize that you don't need a 700,000 house. I will be happy to be able to make my house a safe and sanitary home for my family. We pay $2,0000 a month for a home we can't live in and also help out my parents and pay for a storage unit for all of our paperwork. We lost everything but still have eachother. I have devoted my life to helping others and it is the most helpless feeling in the world when you can't save your own family. I haven't stopped I now support our troops and last xmas I hand made 100 stockings and filled each and everyone and sent them to troops in our town, the next town and my sons whole marine unit. You don't need all the luxeries that you have and there is no reason to be that much in debt you are living beyond your needs. I would give my one good arm ( I am disabled and have Mutiple Sclerosis) to have 2 of your rooms for my family. I have yet to find an ethical person who has the means to help us expose our case. Good Luck and Support our Troops. Collene Collins

I cannot believe that Dr. Phil relied on Loral Langemeier to help people in a financial crisis. Her philosophy on how to "build wealth" is reflective of the thinking that gets people in these situations, not out of them.

 

Here's a quote from a 2007 Loral Langemeier seminar:

 

"Wealthy people do not get out of debt. Wealthy people have an incredible relationship with debt. In fact, they actually carry debt. Like, they don't pay off all of their mortgages. They don't pay everything down and live on cash. That's what poor people do. That's what people who are based in absolute poverty in a sense of, what I call insecurity, need. Wealthy people carry millions and millions of dollars of debt."

 

This is NOT the philosophy of someone who helps get people out of financial problems. It's exactly the opposite.

 

As others have said, Dave Ramsey would have been a much better fit for this show. Loral may be better at marketing, and perhaps she's changing her philosophies now to better suit the current economic situation (and continue lining her pockets with seminar fees), but what she's been espousing for many years is exactly the kind of behaviors that have gotten people into these bad situations.

 

Color me disappointed.

 

OUR FINANCIAL SITUATONS ARE CAUSED BY MANY THINGS...
HERE ARE THE FACTS AS TO WHY WE ARE HAVING A HARD TIME MAKING ENDS MEET...
INFLATION AT 5.4%
PAY INCREASES ARE 3.3%
FOOD PRICES ARE UP 7.5%
GAS PRICES HAVE INCREASED 35.6%

11 FEDERALLY INSURED BANKS HAVE FAILED CAUSING US TO WORRY ABOUT OUR MONEY.
CONGRESS IS NOW TRYING TO PASS A 700 MILLION DOLLAR BAILOUT!
THIS COUNTRY IS IN A FINANCIAL MELTDOWN

SO MY POINT IS THAT WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. LET'S GET ALL THE HELP WE CAN FROM DR.PHIL AND GET ANY IDEAS FROM THIS MESSAGEBOARD...

MY ADVICE IS TO WORK THINGS OUT WITH YOUR FAMILY IN TRYING TO SAVE MONEY AS BEST AS YOU CAN. UNITED IS HOW YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR FINANCES ON A DAILY BASIS.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

What was the name of the job placement/recruiter from Dallas that Dr. Phil spoke of during this show?

A GOOD WAY TO SAVE MORE MONEY IS TO LOOK ON THE LABEL OF YOUR FAVORITE PRODUCTS AND LOOK FOR A WEBSITE OR A PHONE NUMBER THAT YOU CAN USE TO GET COUPONS. I HAVE BEEN RECEIVING COUPONS FROM $1 to $5...IT IS SO WORTH IT. ANOTHER WAY OF GETTING COUPONS IS TO GO TO THE LIBRARY WHERE THEY USUALLY HAVE A BOX FILLED WITH COUPONS THAT PEOPLE CUT BUT DO NOT USE. YOU CAN DROP OFF COUPONS YOU DO NOT LIKE IN EXCHANGE FOR THE ONES YOU DO LIKE. IT IS A GREAT IDEA AND IT IS LIKE LOOKING INTO A TRWASUE CHEST.
IT DO AGREE WITH YOU ON STOCKING UP ON ITEMS YOU USE FREQUENTLY USE WHEN THEY ARE ON SALE. WITH THE PRICES INCREASING ON A WEEKLY BASIS IT DOES MAKE SENSE. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS AND HAVE SAVED A LOT OF MONEY. HOPE MY IDEAS HELP YOU TO SAVE MORE MONEY...COUPONS ARE THE WAY TO GO IN THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were in your situation.  We ran up credit cards trying to take care of my mother after she had a stroke. We tried doing debt managment  too.  It didn't work.  The bill collectors still called and harassed us day and night.

Atfer the took our car for non payment of a credit card (which had nothing to do with it, it was an asset)  We filed for bankruptcy.  It was hard but worth it .  No more calls! And our credit score actually improved.  In 41/2 years we will be out of this mess and have paid everyone back in full.  The weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

BANKRUPTCY DOES WORK FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE. YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANYMORE STRESSFUL DAYS AND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS! ONCE YOU FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY, YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON'T GO OVER YOUR BUDGET AND LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. YOU MUST REMEMBER IT TAKES
10 YEARS OR LESS TO GET BACK TO A GOOD CREDIT STANDING. YOU WON'T BE ABLE
TO GET CREDIT CARDS TO BUY LARGE PRICED ITEMS, BUT AT LEAST YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SURVIVE ON A DAILY BASIS WITH YOUR BASIC BILLS. THERE ARE LOTS OF PEOPLE GOING THROUGH THE SAME THINGS YOU ARE WITH INFLATION AND THE COUNTRY'S FINANCIAL CRISIS. YOUR LIFE WILL BE MADE EASIER STARTING OVER AGAIN!
I DID CLAIM BANKRUPTCY OVER 12 YEARS AGO AND KEPT TWO FULL TIME JOBS AND ONE PART TIME JOB TO GET MYSELF ON MY FEET. I NOW HAVE GOOD CREDIT AND I
AM MAINTAINING MY FINANCES ON JUST ONE FULL TIME JOB. THERE IS ALWAYS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL! MAY EACH DAY BECOME BRIGHTER FOR YOU!