This doesn't really have much to do with the primary focus of of this discussion board, more about personal financial decicisions in general, but I'll bet it will strike a common chord with many of you.
Yesterday on the 4th we gathered with many of our family for a cook out and firecracker shoot.
During the day my brother-in-law asked me how my real estate investing was going (Last year I started buying small rental properties and setting up the deals to provide a really nice monthly cashflow. I now own 3 SFHs).
Well this is the family member that we all have. He's 50 years old, has started several businesses that have all failed, has never made a good financial decision in his life. And has just filled bankruptcy.
So I tell him what I've been up to and the conversation leads to his situation and he asks me what I would do in his situation.
So for the next 2 hours I tell him very basic things he needs to change like quit living on his credit cards, try getting rid of his brand new GMC Jimmy that costs him about $600 dollars a month and get him a $1500 Honda to drive for awhile. You know the basic "minimize your liabilities and maximize your assets thing".
Well from the look on his face you would have thought I just came down from Mt. Sinai with the 10 commandments. He says he's never thought about in those terms before and it sounds really good to him and says how he's going to start doing things different right away...then he says "Well I've got to go. I've got to stop at Home Depot on the way home and get some stuff. I'm going to install a sprinkler system in my yard this weekend."
Well I guess it just proves what my Grandpa used to say "There just ain't no cure for stupid."
I’m not surprised by your story. I’ve worked with the finances of too many people over the years to be surprised at anything when it comes to people mishandling money.
One of the most extreme examples that immediately comes to my mind is a client that I had about ten years ago. He was (still is) one of the more prominent heart surgeons in Houston, and was making about $700,000 a year. He was so far in debt that we literally had to cut up his credit cards in my office.
You should read a book called, “Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes,” by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich. It’s a real eye-opener. The study of behavioral economics is fascinating.