Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Boy dies of a tooth infection.

A good chunk of my medical posts last year were about fixing my teeth. I’ve had really poor dental health over my lifetime. I’m ashamed to admit this. But I am proud I overcame my fears and made fixing my teeth a priority. I’ve still got a long way to go, but at least I’ve stemmed the tide and it’s changing direction.

What makes me really sad about this story is that his death was entirely preventable. I had perfectly reasonable dental healthcare till I left for college. I didn’t see a dentist for 4 years. And then I worked a string of jobs where I couldn’t afford a dentist or didn’t have dental coverage. Eventually, you get scared of going because you know it’s not going to be a happy visit.

What drove me finally to take care of it? After three years of having dental insurance, but living in terror, I finally went because I was eating Tylenol like candy from a toothache. Pounding, horrible, headaches. I had an infection of the gums that was reaching into my nasal cavity. (Purposeful choice of word there.)

It’s criminal that this boy wasn’t able to get dental healthcare with other Medicaid coverage. What is wrong with us as a nation that someone dies of a tooth abscess?

As an adult I made my own choice out of fear and strained finances to skip the dentist. I fully accept the consequences, and nothing you can say will hurt more than those headaches or the hours in the dental chair. But in simple terms, $80 tooth extraction vs $250K hospital stay, resulting in death. You tell me what the price of a life is.

[Feeling a little angry about the world right now. Injustice everywhere, but on a personal and private level. (No, not directed at me.) Anyone one know a good lawyer in VA who specializes in employment law? Please email me directly. Thanks!]

Fascinating brief history of usury and lending. It’s offered up by the Americans For Fairness In Lending. It’s an advocacy organization with some well known names like Consumer Reports.

Like any transaction, “Let the buyer beware!”

Payday Loan Math from JLP at All Financial Matters.

Divorce2FinancialFreedom has a great companion story about Payday Loans and what you really ought to do to before you get one.

I wholeheartedly agree with D aka LaundryQueen that if you’re desperate enough for a payday loan, then you’re better off swallowing your pride and asking someone else for a loan. A) It’s not for some exorbitant sum. It’s one paycheck. B) The loan rate you pay your friend could be nothing. Or surely a LOT less than you’d pay at a payday loan place. C) It might be hard to find a way to pay it back, but if like the person in LaundryQueen’s story, you may be able to get an advance from work and have an amount taken out every check to pay it back.

Like I commented at Get Rich Slowly, I recently noticed that these places are in the suburbs and they are no longer the ghetto phenomenon I used to think they were. Urban poverty is turning into suburban poverty. That’s pretty scary. They say that most of the people going to food banks are middle class people who are too busy keeping up appearances when their financial lives are going to hell in a handbasket.

As Boston Gal says, “Today is a great day to start saving!”

I’m sorry, this is the real reason why I want to be rich. Forget that scholarship stuff.

Though this article did not meet the 84th Carnival of Personal Finances’ two-week requirement, I still liked it. The Digerati Life on how living in a rich neighborhood can be dangerous for the poor Yet another reason why inequity can be dangerous. (no second link for you for being a bad submitter!)

George at Fat Pitch Financials reports that Macy’s is asking for your Social Security Number. Don’t give your social security number unless you are applying for an in-store credit card. (which you shouldn’t do anyway!) Someone possibly faking as a Macy’s rep left a comment, so stay tuned to find out what happens.

Frugal Duchess wrote a great post about what teaching has taught her about money. I think her brief lessons are true. I was a better student when I had more discipline imposed on me in life. (Straight A’s in high school, till I was accepted to college, and then 4.5 years of slacking off mightily. Sorry Mom & Dad!)

Frugal Duchess again on John Travolta’s frugal money lessons. I love it. DIY projects with dad make for life long memories. Mom shopping thrift for good looking quality clothes. Good stuff. Did you know that disco was nearly dead till Saturday Night Fever revived it? That white suit? I read somewhere that the wardrobe people found it on sale in a store and it became the indelible image of disco.

Trent says Change your routines to change your financial habits. Absolutely. They say that it takes 21 or 27 days to create a new habit. Just think about your daily financial wastes. Can you break yourselves of those wasteful habits?

HC at One Big Mortar Board tells it like it is when it comes to helping your kids pay for college and why. She wrote something pretty compelling. The quote I liked best? In contrast, while I’m immensely proud of getting a master’s degree from Big 10 U., the fact that I paid for all of it out of my own savings, work-study, and lots of loans doesn’t make the accomplishment any more meaningful to me. I spent a lot more time being worried about money than being proud that I was paying my own way.

Make Love Not Debt tells us to hit White Castle for a frugal, yet romantic Valentine’s Day dinner. There’s something about those little sackfuls of burgers. But now that I’m in DC, I prefer Julia’s Empanadas as my late night post-nightclubbing snack. SOOO GOOOD… SOOOO CHEAP…. SOOO TASTY…. Even the next day. I ignore the first reviewer in the link because I don’t eat fruit so her review does not apply. I go straight for the meat ones and they are amazingly tasty.

Usury is unChristian. It used to be a sin. In our current economic state of affairs, is it still a sin or a necessary evil?

I avoid religion in my blog, and that’s as far as I’ll go. Think of it as a philosophical question instead of theological and continue forth with the rest of the questions I am going to pose.

Boston Gal points us to an article about ‘auto title loans’. I’ve never heard of such a thing. But whatever it is, it can’t be good since it’s aimed at keeping poor people poor.

The first thing that came to mind while reading BostonGal’s pull quote is just what is the interest rate being charged? Looks like 200+% in some places!!! Three digit interest rates? Surely you are joking!
Shopping for credit is just like comaparison shopping for clothes or shoes, the products are the same thing, but embellished differently enough to charge you crazy rates across the spectrum. (I want to know who the heck gets 1.9% APR financing for car? NOBODY. That’s who.)

I shop for credit, and just like shopping for anything else, I say to myself, ‘I’m not going to spend more than X for it.’ For credit, X is your interest rate. (Formally, this is what’s called your reservation price.)

When I shopped for a mortgage 3 years ago, I knew I didn’t want to pay anything more than 6% for my primary loan. I had looked around at various places for interest rates in my area and got a feel of what I should be able to get and what was too high. I didn’t really know what I qualified for, and I played it pretty conservatively. I did ok with that. But the HELOC on the house climbed to 10+% before I figured out how to convert it to a lower fixed rate loan without penalty. Yeah, I didn’t think I should pay 10% APR for a home loan. Not at all.

Recently, I looked into refinancing so I could consolidate into one single payment per month. (Drives me nuts to track a second account for a single thing.) But my reservation price tells me it’s not worth it at today’s credit rates, high 6’s and low 7’s.

Lately I don’t like to pay more than 15% APR for a credit card. I know I’m borrowing money for a shade more than that, like 15.9%, but as soon as it hits 16%, I give those guys a call and ask them to lower the rate. I’ll call every 6 months if I have to.

I don’t think there is any reason in life to pay more than 20% interest on anything. No payday loan, no direct deposit advance, NOTHING. Even when my credit card rates were high about 5 years ago, I got that stuff consolidated down from 17-21% to 15%.

Ask for a Truth-In-Lending sheet from the loan provider. I got one when my mortgage papers were sent to me. I didn’t understand it, but none of the interest looking numbers said over 6%, so I was happy. TILA also covers credit card companies as well, so read your fine print. Even if your rate is variable, it should give you an example of the current rate and even sometimes how to find the rate in the Wall Street Journal.

I gotta learn to make a poll. What is the highest interest rate you will tolerate for a credit card? What about a mortgage?

Sidenote: OMG!!! I just figured out how to cut my posts with a MORE tag. No more lengthy posts! I have sneakily figured out how to make you suckers click more for greater page views. MUHAHAHA!