Canada #1 in personal Debt

[ZenOps]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/oecd-debt-1.4415860

101% baby.

[firebane]

Sure you linked the proper article? Most of this talks about household debt.

[A790]

Not me, baby. Fuck debt.

[Masked Bandit]

Personal consumer debt is a cancer on modern society. I'm not judging anyone who is in deep because I've been deeper than deep but I think we take it far too lightly. Western culture as a whole could be so much better off if personal debt was attacked and virtually eliminated. It spiders into so many corners of our life that it takes up far more financial and emotional resources than it should.

[Disoblige]

I like TD's commercial about educating kids about finances early on so they're not a burden down the road. IMO that is what needs to be done if there is serious thought about addressing this issue.

[revelations]

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Personal consumer debt is a cancer on modern society. I'm not judging anyone who is in deep because I've been deeper than deep but I think we take it far too lightly. Western culture as a whole could be so much better off if personal debt was attacked and virtually eliminated. It spiders into so many corners of our life that it takes up far more financial and emotional resources than it should.

Its the fact that so many think that living an unsustainable lifestyle is somehow normal. Buying latest cars, clothes and electronics - as a student even - makes zero sense.

In Canada, we have Canadian prices on items and American mass media which promotes said lifestyle.

[rx7boi]

What I wanna know is how many Beyond ballers have the sustainability to keep getting nice cars and grow personal wealth

[dj_patm]

I'm making huge sacrifices in my life for the next 4-5 months to get rid of mine. Have a perfect opportunity to do it so it has to happen.

It truly took over and nearly destroyed my life over the last two years when it got out of hand (wasn't spending frivolously, just the consequence of some life events and poor planning). Dark, dark times with a lot of dark thoughts.

Luckily I've been making my payments no issue so my credit should be fine (although I'm sure it dropped cause of my utilization?) but yeah, fucking awful. The crazy part? They kept calling me throughout the rise of my debt offering me limit increases.

Fuck CC companies. On the other hand, that is why I don't judge people who declare bankruptcy.

[tonytiger55]

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I like TD's commercial about educating kids about finances early on so they're not a burden down the road. IMO that is what needs to be done if there is serious thought about addressing this issue.

I did that with my clients at TD. It was so they my customers make prudent investment decisions with savings and mortgages. It was until I was called into my managers office and told to stop.

[Masked Bandit]

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I did that with my clients at TD. It was so they my customers make prudent investment decisions with savings and mortgages. It was until I was called into my managers office and told to stop.

And that's a big part of the problem, there is a large chunk of our economy built on providing and servicing life-long debt.

[Seth1968]

Banks: Charging you to make money from your money.

[dj_patm]

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I did that with my clients at TD. It was so they my customers make prudent investment decisions with savings and mortgages. It was until I was called into my managers office and told to stop.

Case in point.

Fuck banks.

[Seth1968]

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Case in point.

Fuck banks.

Billions every year in profit from our money.

It's legal loan sharking and the like.

NDP, PC, Libs? It doesn't matter as they're all OWNED.

If you hear anyone that claims we are a Democracy, then walk away, as they're the typical victim of government propaganda.

[Buster]

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Case in point.

Fuck banks.

then don't use them.

[dj_patm]

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then don't use them.

Necessary evil.

[J-hop]

Granted banks do facilitate and profit off of people’s debt but if people are honest with themselves are banks really the root cause behind personal debt problems?

Or is there significant blame to be placed on the average individual for living well beyond their means?

[dj_patm]

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Granted banks do facilitate and profit off of people’s debt but if people are honest with themselves are banks really the root cause behind personal debt problems?

Or is there significant blame to be placed on the average individual for living well beyond their means?

Both.

Like I said, I was racking up debt when I was going through my financial struggles and they kept calling me offering more credit. That is clearly a problem.

I fucked up by getting myself into a mess with poor preparedness and then they tried to take advantage of me to make more profit. That's not as crazy of a deal for a lot of things but life altering debt? Pretty messed up.

[tonytiger55]

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Granted banks do facilitate and profit off of people’s debt but if people are honest with themselves are banks really the root cause behind personal debt problems?

Or is there significant blame to be placed on the average individual for living well beyond their means?

Part of the issue I found is my clients (even including myself at one point in my life) don't know what is normal in terms of savings, interest rates or rates of return. We have no point of reference.
Secondly banks intentionally exploit this lack of understanding.
Think of it like trying to figure out how much is the normal amount of alcohol to drink? Then walking into Superstore and having the walls lined with alcohol and then your told Gin is a made of plants, Humans need a plant based diet. You should drink Gin, DRINK ALL THE GIN! You never know when you might need it. Thats kinda the problem. They exploit people. Not only do they exploit they exploit the most financially vulnerable and its all legal.

When i worked for TD, I'd have clients approved for lines of credit. They would say Mr Tiger do I need this. I would reply and say would you like a honest or professional opinion. They would say both. I would say as a banking professional yes you need it and give them scare stories. As a honest opinion, after reviewing their accounts and financial standing, they do not need it.
After seeing so many peoples accounts, I kinda worked out what is normal and what is not. Thats the issue. We don't have a library of reference to validate our finances.

[tirebob]

Banks are terrible for this shit...

Years back, my wife and I wanted to get our debt paid off and save enough to buy our first house. We had been living on a single relatively small income in Vancouver with two kids and ended up almost 30k in debt. We did so knowingly as we wanted my wife to stay home and raise our kids rather than have her work. So topping up a couple hundred bucks a month to groceries, surprise invoices etc, we ended up deep. When we moved here we decided we wanted a house so I called up my bank (RBC) who I had been dealing with ever since I was a kid, has a small mortgage on a cheap condo, etc, and in all my life I always made my payments, never bounced a cheque and was never a credit problem. I told them I had 30k of debt and that I was want to get a consolidation loan to pay down all my revolving faster and lower the interest rates etc. They came back saying that they couldn't give me a loan because my debt to income ration was too high *BUT* to help me out, they would give me a visa card with a 30k limit that I could pay off all my other debt with and just carry the one credit card!!! I was all like "seriously, what the fuck??? You don't want to help me out of debt, but you sure seem happy to try and drive me further in!"

I closed my account with them and worked my ass off to pay everything off and bought a house 2 years later. Fuck the banks...

[Sugarphreak]

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