The Broke American

I am so tired of being broke. Every Christmas, every vacation, I never have any money. I know most of it is my fault. I have way too much credit card debt at a high interest rate. But as much as I save, scrimp, use coupons, buy generic, buy things on sale, I never have enough money left over. Where does it all go?

Is it the economy or just my bad money saving habits? Everything is going up except incomes. My husband didn't get a scheduled raise this year, is forced to take furlough days, and is paying more for health insurance. How can we save when everything is going up? Does the whole country have to go broke to bring prices down? Maybe we should all go into foreclosure and claim bankruptcy and start from scratch.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to live an exorbitant lifestyle. I just want enough to be comfortable, is that too much to ask? I want the American dream just like everybody else. I'm starting to think it really is a dream, a dream we all blindly chase until at some point in our lives you give up and realize it's not coming true.

I'm tired of playing the game. I got a college education because I was told I would be better off, but I'm not. I got a job, several jobs, showed up on time, did my job to the best of my ability, and in the end all I got was a pat on the back. I'm playing the game and I'm losing-big time.

It seems at this point in my life I will never catch up. I'm in my mid-thirties, have more debt than savings, and very little in retirement. When I was young I was very naive. Of course when you're young (late teens to mid-twenties young) you're fed a bunch of crap about life. You may no longer believe in Santa or the Easter bunny, but now you're suppose to believe in the power of a good education will lead to a high paying career (notice I said career, not job-big difference), you'll get married, buy a house, and have beautiful, smart children. If you believe in that crap, then you might as well still believe in Santa and the Easter bunny. Good luck, young people, because it doesn't always happen that way.

When I was young, I had a dream to take care of my parents and give them all the things they sacrificed for me. Now, every year, I look forward to the check they still send me at Christmas. I also naively believed that my income would steadily rise as I got older. Wrong-not only hasn't that happened  but my income has slowly decreased over the years while my credit card debt has increased (along with the interest and minimum payments).

I know life's not easy and life's not fair but I'm at the point of giving up. Why play the game when the odds are stacked up against you? I've seriously thought about defaulting on my credit cards. Sure, I can afford the minimum payments, but why keep paying it? At this rate, it will take me the next twenty years to pay it off and then maybe I'll get to retire, but only if social security is still available. At the end of the day, after the bills are paid, gas is in the car, food on the table, I'll have nothing left to give and sadly America neither will you.