I have blogged from time to time about the importance of having financial priorities in order — including not carrying debt on credit cards and having an emergency fund.
I was saddened on Saturday when a guy in his 40s asked someone at our local Harley dealership…
…if he could borrow my friend’s car so he could drive to his mother’s house to get $300.
Huh?
This biker bought a new Harley recently. He brought his bike in for a quick service, but they decided to do the first full service which is done at about 1,000 miles. The cost for this biker’s service visit was $300. This biker didn’t have the money.
I was speaking with an employee of the dealership when the biker came up to him and explained that he did not expect to have to pay so much for a service visit, and that he didn’t “have the cash on him.”
If it were me, I would not be carrying around that much cash, either. That’s what credit cards are for.
My friend asked the biker if he had a credit card. The biker replied, “my card got all maxed out and the bank canceled it.” He then mumbled something about having to have his mother co-sign the loan for the new Harley he was riding.
Now the biker wanted to borrow my friend’s car to drive to his mother’s house to borrow $300 to pay the service fee. He pulled out his smartphone to call his mother to make sure she would be there and explain what he wanted.
I dunno… there are so many things wrong with this picture.
Suffice to say, if you are a middle-aged adult and your personal finances are such that you have maxed out credit, have to have a co-signer for a loan for a motorcycle, have to go to Mom to borrow money for an unexpected bill, yet support paying the ransom for a smartphone, then something’s wrong. Just my opinion, but it appears to me that the financial priorities are messed up.
As I was raised, this scenario would not happen. If I could not afford to carry the expense of maintaining an expensive motorcycle, then I just would not have one. Also, this is another reason why I refer to smartphones as “wallet-suckers.” The monthly expense for data packages and phone plans are outrageous and are designed to keep rich companies and their greedy corporate officers richer.
Okay, I admit, I am definitely unusual when it comes to still refusing to have a smartphone. I can afford one if I wanted one. It’s the principle of the matter. I really detest corporate greed.
Enough… life is too short to have personal finances out of whack — at least by the time you are in your 40s.
I’m in the same boat that the guy is in right now. Like him, I’m also in my 40’s and my finance isn’t in the shape that I want it to be in. I have been underemployed for almost 3 months since a job that I did earlier this year came to an end and I have been struggling financially ever since. Although I have worked for the past 3 months, my funds have been very small. It has been hell. I went to churches and other organizations to ask for financial assistance for my bills to be paid but no one would help me because they don’t work on the bills that I have. To add insult to injury, I didn’t get any money for my income taxes this year because I was working as an Independent Contractor this past year. And I have had to ask my dad to pay my car insurance bill for the past 3 months. Not good!!! Back in April and May, I also applied for jobs but I didn’t have any luck in landing a job. Things are starting to look up. I have about 2-3 job lined up right now and I will be working one way or another this summer and I am also working on getting a couple of businesses going right now. I have made a promise that from now on, I’m going to have multiple streams of income, therefore I will never have to worry about money again. As soon as things get straight, I’m going to be financially stable from here on out.
But you didn’t go buy yourself a Harley when you knew that you could not afford to maintain it or possibly pay the monthly payments. That’s what I’m talking about.
Sorry about your financial situation. Your promise to yourself is a good one. Best wishes for success.