Why Being Broke Is Costing You A Fortune
--
What does a Lamborghini, a mansion and being broke have in common? Did you figure it out? The answer is that they all cost you a fortune. Now, I’m sure it’s obvious that the first two items come with a hefty price tag but you may be scratching your head about the third. Well, I hate to break it to you but yes being broke is a lot more expensive than people think and here’s why.
First off, let’s analyze the day to day lifestyle of someone who is broke. Chances are, they wake up early, commute to a job they hate, work for 8 hours, commute to a second job, work some more and then finally they come home late at night and do it all again the next day. Now, perhaps this chain of events seems preposterous to you and if this is the case then I am going to guess that’s because you aren’t broke and have never known what it’s like to not even have two pennies to rub together. If this is the case then I’m happy for you but sadly there are a ton of people who go through this hellish cycle every day and the worst part is that in the end, they have nothing to show for all the hours of work they put in!
At this point, you already have a taste of the less than ideal many financially destitute people experience every single day but sadly this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the expense they pay every single day. Speaking of those expenses that they are paying every day due to their subpar financial position, let’s get into some of those now!
Debt
First off, it’s rather common to see people who struggle financially finding themselves in a fair amount of debt. Data from the latest Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances report found that the average credit card debt of a US family was just over $6,000. Now, this may or may not sound like a lot of debt to be carrying but it can snowball into a ton of extra expense if you aren’t able to tackle it given your lack of access to cash.
For instance, if you had a credit card balance of $6,000 at 18% and only paid the minimum $200 payment every month, it would take you 41 months or almost 3.5 years to pay it off. Not to mention besides repaying the initial $6,000, you’d also end up handing over $2,000 in interest payments as well!
