Dick, the opinions and assertions you stated in your original post would have been just as valid (or invalid) years ago. Adjusting for inflation and the increase in the number of card holders, over time the average credit card balance has been flat for decades. In fact the percent of consumer credit card debt as a share of disposable income is lower than it was ten and even twenty years ago. In short, the type of consumer credit behavior that you would approve of, has improved ever so slightly the last thirty years. Despite the undeniable debt wastage you decry, I am saddened by - and "haughty" while not a bullseye hits close to the mark I'm afraid - the statement: “I think it can be summarized, in most cases, as poor financial planning and irresponsible behavior.” You nor I can, in all fairness, summarize "most" of the millions of cases and judge them as "irresponsible". Consider putting down the broad brush. Rest your ever-sensitive hackles. Walk with your beloved wife along the sandy Cape beach and let thoughts of credit cards, shopping carts, and social security recede with tide into the great ocean. With much care and respect, Mark
Chris, thank you for reviving redolent memories of The Coffee Connection. It was bought - but not improved upon - by Starbucks sometime in the early 90's.
Venicio, while condolences are in order, so might be congratulations. I’m sure being laid-off after thirty years of commitment and service feels like (and is in my opinion) a form of betrayal. And I’m sure you both feel unmoored and mournful. But if you both are in fact financially fine,, I suspect that given time you will look back at this unsettling event as an unintended but ultimately fortuitous gift (i.e being able to fully share your retirement together, sooner rather than later). Major marriage altering events such as yours bring to mind the last lines of Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. As you may recall, having been “laid off" by the boss, Adam and Eve are forced to retire from Eden. I’ll leave you in the hands of Milton:Some natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon; The World was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
On this very day some 174 years ago Thoreau pondered a related question:
"I wished for leisure and quiet to let my life flow in its proper channels, with its proper currents; when I might not waste the days, might establish daily prayer and thanksgiving in my family; might do my own work and not the work of Concord and Carlisle, which would yield me better than money."
Comments
"Fire is the most tolerable third party." Thoreau
Post: Bad Maths, Good Fire.
Link to comment from August 29, 2026
Dick, the opinions and assertions you stated in your original post would have been just as valid (or invalid) years ago. Adjusting for inflation and the increase in the number of card holders, over time the average credit card balance has been flat for decades. In fact the percent of consumer credit card debt as a share of disposable income is lower than it was ten and even twenty years ago. In short, the type of consumer credit behavior that you would approve of, has improved ever so slightly the last thirty years. Despite the undeniable debt wastage you decry, I am saddened by - and "haughty" while not a bullseye hits close to the mark I'm afraid - the statement: “I think it can be summarized, in most cases, as poor financial planning and irresponsible behavior.” You nor I can, in all fairness, summarize "most" of the millions of cases and judge them as "irresponsible". Consider putting down the broad brush. Rest your ever-sensitive hackles. Walk with your beloved wife along the sandy Cape beach and let thoughts of credit cards, shopping carts, and social security recede with tide into the great ocean. With much care and respect, Mark
Post: This would be a great posting on a web site with the name “HaughtyDollar.”
Link to comment from August 28, 2026
Chris, thank you for reviving redolent memories of The Coffee Connection. It was bought - but not improved upon - by Starbucks sometime in the early 90's.
Post: Dickie and his magic beans
Link to comment from May 7, 2026
Venicio, while condolences are in order, so might be congratulations. I’m sure being laid-off after thirty years of commitment and service feels like (and is in my opinion) a form of betrayal. And I’m sure you both feel unmoored and mournful. But if you both are in fact financially fine,, I suspect that given time you will look back at this unsettling event as an unintended but ultimately fortuitous gift (i.e being able to fully share your retirement together, sooner rather than later). Major marriage altering events such as yours bring to mind the last lines of Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. As you may recall, having been “laid off" by the boss, Adam and Eve are forced to retire from Eden. I’ll leave you in the hands of Milton: Some natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon; The World was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
Post: Laid Off
Link to comment from February 8, 2026
On this very day some 174 years ago Thoreau pondered a related question:
"I wished for leisure and quiet to let my life flow in its proper channels, with its proper currents; when I might not waste the days, might establish daily prayer and thanksgiving in my family; might do my own work and not the work of Concord and Carlisle, which would yield me better than money."
—Journal, December 12, 1851
Post: What’s Your Perfect “Normal” Day?
Link to comment from December 12, 2025
The essayist Joseph Epstein wrote that at a certain age "Hypochondria is the better part of valor"
Post: No, I did not have a heart attack, but I surely got a lot of tests
Link to comment from August 30, 2025
Not saving and investing until my mid-thirties. Not actively educating myself about retirement until retirement was thrust upon me.
Post: What’s your biggest financial regret?
Link to comment from April 13, 2024