Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Don’t Pay Your Debt

Retirement is great! I am sitting on a hilltop with enough coverage to listen to Rush and still shoot gophers. I have been out here 3 of the last 4 days shooting gophers.

While listening to Rush, I keep hearing the ads on the radio of debt release. You don’t have to pay your debt you have accumulated with your credit cards, you can pay little or none of your debt to the creditors by using this service that settles you debt so you don’t have to pay what you owe.

Since when should you not pay what you owe?

I pay back what I owe.. 100% debt free here.

If you are lucky enough to be Canadian and had a Chase Bank Card your debt was forgiven. That firm settles debt and by doing so phuggs up your credit but those things are left out of the Ad.

Yep. Good luck buying a car or a house in the future...

Lets buy a bunch, see how it works!

So, what’s wrong with that? If you don’t pay your bills, why should anyone invest in you?

I knew a guy who was trying to be 1 million dollars in debt when he died. I haven't seen him in 10 years but last I knew he was at $857,000. He had bought his 3 kids houses and cars and vacations. A brilliant scheme when you think about it. His kids benefited more from $200,000 at age 25 than $2,000,000 at age 60. When he dies the banks take everything but so what, he had already paid for his funeral.

I have heard of high end real estate developers who amassed a fortune by way of strategic bankruptcies and failing to honor debt. In fact, there is a developement just down the road from us which has had four different owners who have milked the bank, scammed buyers, and skulked away into the night. Most working guys are too honorable to operate that way so they just work some overtime and pay the debt.
I know one guy who, during the last recession, lost a bunch of money when investments tanked. His response was, "Hell, I didn't earn the money anyway. I was investing money which mostly just appeared from nowhere. I didn't earn it so why should I cry when it disappears the same way it appeared?" GD

This is where greed has sunk many a contractor's ship. Large development, pay outs fall behind to contractors/sub-contractors, they then reorganize under bankruptcy laws passing all entitlements to newly organized shell corp, then paying a negotiated ~$0.10 on the $1.00 to contractors. I've told contractors (they were friends) they should pull off the job site until payment. That big payday is always just around the corner so they keep their meter running - paying employees, materials, etc., while letting the client off the hook. All I can say on this is if you don't get your scheduled payout, leave the job site and file a suit to collect. Most would be better off sticking to smaller jobs.

As to the personal debit relief, I believe its out of control on both ends. How many borrowers actually read the contract for a credit card? These people give a green light to CC companies to charge about whatever they want. No surprise that people who couldn't afford the (cash) purchase of a good can not pay that plus a double digit interest rate compounded daily. Created a new industry to avoid payments, yet the CCs keep rolling out.

Lack of personal accountability is the worst character flaw there is IMO. We all screw up -- be accountable, make it right.

I only owe for a new truck I bought, should have it paid off in a year. I hate owing money!

I only owe on the two houses I bought. I should have them paid for shortly after the coming Apocalypse. I hate owing money but really hate owing a crapton of money. Gonna be 3 survivors of the nuclear holocaust. Me, the wife and the mortgage guy at our bank. I told the wife we should buy another house, we can't get any more broke.

Boomer virtue signalling at its best. Way to go, guys.

Been working the last 43 years, only retired because of health issues. Would have been debt free long ago if I could stop buying guns. I have never made a minimum payment on a credit card, they make it to easy to get deep into debt.

Well, if you say its alright....I'd just as soon not pay mine.

I would bet that most of the people who would be interested in that are so deep in debt they have missed a bunch of payments many times and their credit already sucks.

i was raised to pay my bills and not steal.but i owe some on my home for a reason. when you have no mortgage at all on your home my county and i bet other counties do it too,your county raises your taxes because county feels now that you don`t have a mortgage you can afford to pay more taxes and i know it happens.

Not advocating dead-beatery, but why would you need credit to buy a car? Or a house, for that matter? Last I checked, dealers and sellers still happily accept cash....

Most likely the case. Those ads and the lawyers that tell one to file for bankruptcy should be outlawed.

Not so much.

My wife's sister and BIL have declared Bankruptcy at least three times since 1985, and he had done so at least once before they got married.

They have purchased two newly built houses, each one within a year of a bankruptcy. After their last bankruptcy, they settled for an older home in an exclusive neighborhood, where their back yard fades into the side of a eighteen hole golf course.

Yes their interest rates are a bit higher than mine. But they have lived the lifestyle of the rich and famous on our dime for thirty years.