Monday, August 8, 2011

Strategy 2012 ..Shoot the messenger and the ones who warned you about the message.


My uncle's daughter ran up a ton of debt on her credit card ( he was a co-signer )...mostly shoes and handbags and quite a few expensive dinners for her friends, ...

rather than reign in his daughter's spending, my uncle called his daughter's boss and asked if he would give her a raise...

her boss laughed and said it wasn't his fault his daughter ran up all that debt, and maybe he should teach her some simple economics.

That went over like a lead balloon on a cold day.

So my uncle called the credit card company and got her credit limit raised.

Then my uncle asked the other members of the family to chip in and help pay off the debt...I said no and he called me unkind...my niece called me selfish and greedy ...I called her a spoiled brat and reminded her that I had always given her money before, but not anymore, gravy train out of gravy baby...and stop trying to live like a Kardashian on a Walmart paycheck... I told her to sell some of her shoes on ebay for some extra cash...

After badgering more family members, my uncle compelled her brothers to agree to pay in until one of the brothers caught my niece charging even MORE things on her card and mapping out daily shopping sprees for the next 2 years.

The word got out and other family members withdrew their support until little Miss Spendy Pants agreed to stop her bad habits.

She wouldn't and didn't.

Now she can't pay her bills and she needs a new car to get to work but can't get a loan because she has bad credit.

When the bank called to tell my uncle that they wouldn’t do the deal, he screamed at them and blamed them for the bad credit rating…he blamed THEM.

I saw him the other day at Starbuck's of all places, and he blamed it on me too, for not being supportive and my negative words, and said I should just keep my mouth shut.

So , I ended that conversation right then and there. One can't argue with idiots,fence posts or drunks...

I just patted my ol' Uncle Sam on the back

and took a sip of my tea and walked away....


...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yikes. It is a rough entry into the real world for young people learning about money these days. Even tougher when someone is supporting all your bad decisions. Hope it worked out! -kate