Reply #40: I can believe it happened.

[noamnety]

I worked with a woman who was busy trying to refinance their home and consolidate huge credit card debt, and continued to spend an unreal amount of money on clothes and cars that were way beyond what I'd ever consider. I tiptoed around the subject once. Her feeling was that she "deserved" good things, and there wasn't much point in depriving herself now so she could live in luxury after she retired. She grew up poor, and didn't want to spend her whole life depriving her self and her kids of "the good things.

It's not really all that surprising. The you-deserve-it concept is used in marketing all the time, shouldn't be such a surprise that some people buy into it.

In the same office, another guy had a wife who did the same sort of thing. He didn't know until he went to buy a moderately expensive toy, one he should have been able to afford, and was declined. He went home and made the wife, who did all the budgeting, show all the statements to him. They ended up divorced and he had to pull money from his 401k to cover bills.

When I hear someone has gone bankrupt or been foreclosed on, my first assumption is they were laid off or had medical issues or just couldn't keep up because of less than living wages, which is most often the case. But that doesn't negate that there are also other people who have bought into the culture - that because we are Americans, we deserve certain things in life.