Paying off debts ...

I was watching a documentary on telly where they interviewed three people who had their cars repossessed because they could not make the monthly payments. It happens and may be even more now with the economy going the way it is.

But what I found rather unsettling were the reactions of the people. One guy had his car repossessed for the fifth time and he claimed that he needed the car for work to help him get from one place to another. He is on to his sixth car and I wonder when that will get towed away. He said that he wasn't able to make the payments for three months and he was SURPRISED when the repo man came for his car. Hmmm, I remember my reaction to that was like 'huh?'. You don't pay what you owe and you are surprised when the owners come to take what's rightfully theirs.

Another fella shared that for him making the pilgrimmage twice was more important that using the money that he has to pay off his car loan and he was upset that his car was towed away. Firstly, it is not compulsory for you to make the pilgrimmage if you still have outstanding debts. And when you can afford, it's encouraged that you make the trip once and only you can afford, you can make other trips but not when you still have debts. And he actually said the religion was more important. Yes I understand that but I am pretty sure that no religion will encourage you to get into debt!

And the last guy said that he was earning good income until things didn't work out between him and his wife and he had to provide for his ex-wife and kids each month and that caused his income to go topsy-turvy and he is in financial difficulties because of the addition cost. I didn't understand that because when they were married, he would still have to support his wife and kids no?

I guess I just find it hard when people seem to think that they are able to get away from not paying off debts that they accumulated on their own. I was in a deep debt pit but I never depended on anyone to pay off my debts and as painful as it was, I had to settle them myself. I knew of friends who had parents who settled their debts for them and yes, they are 'lucky' in that sense but after finally paying off the debts myself, I swore to myself that I would never get back into that debt pit again and if I have kids, I will make sure that I start their financial literacy way way early! I also have friends who have remained in debt for years and years and years because they feel that they need to maintain a certain lifestyle that they cannot afford yet each month, they happily do a juggling act to move their money around.

Like I said before, I haven't got it all right yet and am constantly looking at how I can do my planned spending better. It takes time and it's never too late to start getting control of one's financial state. My goal is to look into my retirement plan and also into investing to make my money work harder for me....