Til Reality do us Part

I enjoy watching Til Debt do us Part.  Gail does have some good ideas for cutting back on expenses and saving money.  And, you know, paying off debt.  Sometimes, however, watching her show is very frustrating.  There's nothing like trying to drum up sympathy for a couple whose combined take-home pay is $7000/month and who are trying to claw their way out of credit-card debt.  How does a couple making $84k net per year end up owing anything?  I'm sure that couple felt they didn't have enough money.  I'm sure I don't care.  When their variable spending is cut back to an amount well above our variable spending, and they have a difficult time "surviving" on such a paltry sum, it's hard to shed a tear.

This is the great downfall of the show: generally speaking, it only looks at the upper-middle class.

Same with Gail's book, Debt-Free Forever.  Again, great ideas. The jar thing?  Love it.  But she seems to be out of touch with reality.  Some goal suggestions from the third chapter?  Save $8,000 each year to put towards a house downpayment.  Already own a home?  "[Y]ou might decide you're going to put a principal prepayment of $6,000 against your mortgage every year.  That means you'll have to set aside $500 a month in your budget."  Aaaah. Well, if you have an extra $500 in your monthly budget, I don't think you need this book, do you? And what about saving $8k for a downpayment, as opposed to a retirement or emergency fund?  Usually people with a lot of debt don't have much in the way of savings. Reality is what Gail is missing here.

What about the lower-middle or lower classes?  Do they have debt?  Of course.  But I guess people scraping together $800 for rent each month and foregoing driving the car for a week because they literally don't have money for gas is not as TV-worthy as the $7,000/month couple with the $300k mortgage and the two SUVs they haven't paid off yet.  Which one do they keep?  Oh noes!

So yeah.  Sorry for the rant.  Someone should pitch a "Til Bankruptcy do us Part" show.  We can follow a couple trying to find a decent apartment for less than $600/month, a car that will run for less than $3000 total, and some part-time work that doesn't involve anything illegal for someone who didn't graduate high school.  While that's certainly not our situation, it's someone's situation and I'd find far more useful advice in a show and book providing financial help for the truly struggling.

 

Comments

[www.moderncountrymom.com]

Well no one wants to look at how poor people try to get out of debt...because you know it's always the person's fault they are poor in the first place.

It's more interesting to see how the wife gives up her $300 bi-weekly salon appointment to slum it with a $100 bi-weekly salon appoinment or has to trade her personal trainer for a regular old gym membership. Or the poor poor husband has to trade his country club membership for outings on a public golf course. Oh the horrors that the upper middle class have to face!

It's not interesting that people facing real financial problems have to scrape together rent or mortgage money every month, live paycheck to paycheck, get $10 hair cuts or paint their own nails and don't have a revolving line of credit available for emergencies. Boring! Or is it just hard to face the fact that people who DO have jobs and go to work every day still have to live like that because they make shit wages?

I'd like to see them live on 1/4 of that with a couple of kids and try to make ends meet with no credit, no savings and no financial security. Oh, and no health insurance.