It's Expensive to be Poor

That's what comes to mind as I read this article on unregulated debt settlers ripping off indebted customers trying to pay off credit card debt.  Using the featured West Virginia couple as a hypothetical (we don't know why they accumulated $25k in credit card debt, but he's an injured retired miner and she's a homemaker - neither particularly financially rewarding professions), we get a sense of how households with little financial wiggle room end up paying significant costs that more affluent households manage to avoid.

Consider my laptop woes this week.  When my PC died, I borrowed one from a friend, who has two - a work PC and a personal PC.  Now that I'm home, I'm using an old one that runs pretty well still.  Beginning with the fact that I have a computer and wireless web access in my own home and at those of my loved ones, I also didn't have to take the time or spend the money on bus fare or gas or parking to get down to the library to use the web for work or a job search or a school assignment, etc.

That's just a tiny example.  I'm fortunate in that most of the time, I'm not paying in excess of 30% of my income on rent. I've managed to build good credit through parental support when I was young and earning a good salary over the years and becoming a homeowner a few years ago, so I'm able to get low credit card rates, often locked in, with limited fees hidden in all the supposed benefits.   I have a bank account with direct deposit, so I don't have to pay hefty check cashing fees every time I want to cash a check.  I'm not preyed upon by economic charlatans.  I'm not living in a building with an absentee landlord and sudden foreclosure seems unlikely, therefore minimizing unexpected moving costs.  I have health insurance.  I can afford to live within the city of Boston, so I don't have a far commute to school, minimizing the wear and tear on my car or lengthy commutes on public transportation.

One thing I am sadly familiar with renting different apartments in New England is shabby insulation during frigid winters, and paying outrageous, unpredictable heating bills despite the fact that I'm wearing multiple layers in my own home.  This winter was the first time my boyfriend and I really struggled to cover those bills, and fortunately we had savings accumulated to help during these anemic economic times.

As you can probably tell, I'm not doing justice to all the hidden costs of living in poverty in the U.S., a terrible irony given all the tired rhetoric still circulated about poor Americans freewheeling on the government dole at our expense.  I'd love to hear from PiA members who really struggle to make ends meet in the richest country on earth.

(Photo by moriza)