Money Talks
Alex and I were talking last night about money and our job search. I can’t believe as young as he is that he owes so much money already and still has a year to go with classes before he can get a real job and have the earning power he needs to handle a debt load like his.
First of all, there’s all the student loans but most people expect to have that burden for a few years after school is done. But all last year he was living off of his credit cards, and his folks back in California were helping a lot at first by sending cash for spending money. But then after Christmas his Dad got sick and the money back home dried up. So he charged a lot of stuff on the credit cards. Then he got into a wreck and had to pay for his car repairs deductible ($1,000 out of pocket is a bite!). Then he got a bad case of flu and ended up with pneumonia because he wouldn’t go to the clinic like I told him to and he ended up in the hospital for 3 days with IVs and a respirator. So he has a load of medical bills. And even though he had a job out in L.A. over the summer, he’s in worse shape because of the DUI lawyer’s bill. This guys finances are a freaking train wreck and he’s the same age as I am.
We had a big talk last night about money and I shared some info with him that I’ve learned from my Dad and from the guys at work. He needs to get a grip on his debt load right now and maybe even check into a debt consolidation loan or something drastic to help get him out from under all these financial worries.
He has so many different bills coming in, if he finds a way to consolidate debt and have only one payment, that will help the stress level and make the payments more predictable and easier to manage. He should have been saving his money over the summer instead of paying bills with it, especially the way the economy is going down the tubes. After the election, who knows what will happen to the job market? And the price of gas?
I showed him a web site about paying bills and managing your money. It has a whole lot of information about the ways to manage your debt and get out of trouble. I guess I’m going to have to mentor Alex on this for the next several months and help him through this with tough love. After all, I have my own money concerns and I can’t afford to have a freeloader chasing me around all year. I can help him get a debt consolidation loan and then I’ll have to be tough about not loaning him any cash and making sure he sticks to the plan. And I told Alex that I was putting this personal information on the internet to maybe keep his nose to the grindstone, and I’ll report his progress here.