Seems like this is one of those things where people will eventually look back and be reminded that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. 

I followed your conclusion like one step down the logical road. You believe what happened to you is predatory and and exploitative. You believe the credit card company deserves some (or maybe even most?) of the blame for what happened? Presumably that means you believe that in a more “fair” system something would be…

What is the age when people are old enough to be accountable for their choices? What are the other rights/privileges that shouldn’t be afforded to people below that age? How do you account for the fact that age and maturity aren’t really the same thing? Take away the government incentives and the political pressure to…

Focus. When I got tired of writing checks each month I downsized my living arrangements and my social life. Trying to juggle everything just makes for mediocre results.

It’s kinda funny that all the “financial gurus” essentially offer the same advice. Could it be that money isn’t actually very complicated and people knowingly screw it up?

Everyone needs to stop thinking about saving as something you do with “extra” money. Saving is an obligation that’s at least as important as housing. Pay. Yourself. First.

Filtering is probably fine. I wouldn’t vote for lane splitting.

I hate it when people talk about “deserving” things that are lifestyle choices. No one “deserves” to retire. It’s a lifestyle choice you make for yourself. You either prioritize that lifestyle choice in your working years to enable it or you don’t.

I’m pretty sure cutting back on unnecessary expenses, spending less than you make, doing the math, and deciding what your real priorities are doesn’t target “people who are decently off”. Most financial advice seems to come down to those basic concepts and they’re nearly universal.

I’m talking about financial security. The ability to sleep at night with the knowledge that when something goes wrong you aren’t headed for the street. If this hypothetical person is 2-300 dollars/month away from being able to handle the monthly payment they’re considerably more than 2-300 dollars/month away from…

You’re talking about professions where median compensation is near or above six figures. That is literally funneling money from the bottom 90% up to the top 10%. It’s probably even worse when you look at households because, as we know, educated people tend to cluster around each other which is another driver on wealth…

I’ve thought a decent amount about the idea of the federal government deciding what is/isn’t valuable and allocating subsidies that way. Rationing is another likely consequence of all these “progressive” ideas as well. I don’t think that system would work out very well.

Gillibrand’s “transition” plan is trash.

If you work for a medium to large company... your employer.

It’s what happens when society optimizes around coddling the ones that would have been eaten by something or starved a few hundred years ago.

If her point was that Americans spend truckloads of money dealing with avoidable or preventable chronic illnesses then she’s absolutely right. A lot of those countries with all that “free” healthcare put a premium on prevention because prevention is a shitload less expensive than managing an illness or attempting to…

It does. How many times in your adult life could you commit to not seeking any substantial credit for 7-8 years? How many 23-38 year olds (You said millennials) can commit to not wanting to attempt to buy a house until they’re 31-46? We’re talking about the same group that feels like mid-size sedan level debt is…

Credential inflation is already a thing. Post-secondary education is already worth less than it was a decade or two or three ago and there’s no reason to believe that trend isn’t going to continue. Consequence free post-secondary education will just continue to devalue the product until it’s basically 13-16th grade.

You forgot inflation.

The median student loan balance in the US is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15k. The median monthly student loan payment in the US is around $200/month.