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Yes, It’s Expensive to Not Have Money
Boots, bootstraps, and economics
I had a financially rocky couple of months. An unexpected trip to the vet, several car repairs, and some college expenses I wasn’t anticipating; my emergency fund was wiped out.
A popular saying when people are struggling is, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” The thinking goes that poor people just need to “bootstrap” themselves out of poverty; that is, work harder. Except, this expression was a play on the fact that people can’t pick themselves up by their bootstraps. And when you run out of money, new problems emerge.
I couldn’t pay off my credit card balance this month, so I paid what I could. No problem, said the company, that’ll just be a $28 fee. Oh, and your rate went up, so if you’re in the same spot next month, you get to pay more.
Also on my mind: someone called me, telling me he’d just closed a bank account. His account had been overdrawn, due to fees that had stacked up. He had just closed an account at another bank, after being hit with fees for not having enough transactions, and thought this one would be better. Now he was facing monthly fees for statements, and a $1.50 charge for checking his balance at an ATM. He hadn’t even taken money out.
