Making Money Work for Everyone

I was reading Poor Richard's almanac (see link on my sidebar) this morning. They were discussing how people often misquote the bible saying that "money is the root of all evil". That's not the case though, as they point out. It is the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil.

The constant addiction to consuming things, having the best of everything, letting money control our lives, THAT is evil. I suppose that many of you might say that means I have been a bit consumed by evil evil lately. I have been discussing money quite a bit lately afterall. I know that many of us are uncomfortable with this topic, but I feel that opening up and discussing these issues is the only way that we are going to get past this crisis.

I am sorry if some of you are offended or turned off by this topic, but it really isn't a dirty word. I wonder why we ever got to be the way we are.

Why don't we feel open to money discussions, especially with our children and loved ones? I don't mean that we should go out and talk about how much our new car cost or anything, but how to manage your finances is perfectly legitamate to teach our youngsters about.

Most of us were taught nothing about money when we were growing up. We were thrown out into the world knowing absolutely nothing about money, having no experience with managing money, and many people ending up with unmanageable debt because of this lack of knowledge.

Why should we have so many financial difficulties? We are one of the most well off countries in the world, why the credit crisis?

I think that is part of the current problem. We are a consumerism driven society. When people finally start learning that they can't maintain their current buying frenzy with increased healthcare costs, higher gas prices, more expensive neccessities. It makes us think about the things we really need and makes us step back and reflect more on the ways we spend our limited resources. We aren't buying so many of the wants because we are spending our money on the needs we have. We aren't using those once overused credit cards as much making our banks panic because they don't have enough to pay their ranks upon ranks of employees.

Banks are cutting back on their kindness and understanding. Their love of money is sinking the economy further into the murky mires of evilness. In days past you could easily get at least part of a late fee dismissed if you had a good excuse. I thought that I had a solid story (I'll let you be the judge) and called in yesterday to discuss this very thing with Bank of America.

We had a bill that wasn't received in time to get a payment sent back to them on time. I didn't realize that my husband had used a card that I knew to have a credit balance on it. The $1.78 balance we owed the bank once our credit balance was used on the card, gets a $29 late charge. The bank is no longer wants to negotiate these issues even though the payment was gotten 3 days after it was due. The operator claimed that we were sent a bill and I needed to get the payment paid, that was their notification. How can a person pay a payment on time if they don't have a bill with enough turn around to send it in? They apparently want more money. With less coming in since people are using their credit cards less, they need to stick those of us who are left to make up for their excesses. That causes them to take out their anger and frustration with this situation on people like you and me. Needless to say I told her I wanted the account cancelled and cut up my credit card from their greedy institution.

Do you think businesses are less willing to cut us some slack than they were in the past? How do you think we are going to get past this current crisis?

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy