by Tricia
If you missed the ABC 20/20 Special on Flat Broke: Begging and Borrowing in America, you didn’t miss much. It’s so sad when shows like this try to cram so much into one hour that they just skim the surface of things. What could have been a great show that could have helped many people ended up being like a water spider zipping across a pond aimlessly.
The show was broken down into segments:
The Spenders
Matt and Suzie Peterson have three little girls, a big house with a pool, two timeshares, nice cars and $60,000 in credit card debt. Their financial situation really went downhill when Matt lost his job and he was unemployed for a year. Suzie tried a scrapbookking business only to have it fail. All that time of limited funds, they kept spending like they were before except it was being finances with their credit cards.
One statement that Suzie made that sticks out in my mind is that she doesn’t regret spending money. Even Elizabeth Vargas seemed a little surprised at her comment. Suzie argued that you could be gone tomorrow and you should live life now. I agree you should live life, but if you have to claim bankruptcy and you lose everything…well, I shudder to think about that happening to us. There is a healthy balance that needs to be found.
To help the Petersons, they brought in Robert Pagliarini, a financial advisor, to help them. After Robert took a look at the Peterson’s finances, it was determined they had a net worth of $8,000. In Robert’s words, this family was close to the edge of financial ruin. The Petersons were hoping to win the lottery but Robert gave them a pretty strict set of things they need to do to make things better. It was an all or nothing plan. On it, they had to sell their house and their timeshares and the rest of the list I couldn’t catch because they didn’t discuss it only showed it quickly on the screen. While Suzie wasn’t really enthusiastic about the plan, both husband and wife agreed to do it. I wonder how the Petersons are doing now, and if they kept with it.
The Savers
Steve and Annette Economides (what a last name, eh? :)) and their 5 children live debt-free on an income of less than $35,000/year. They attribute their success to careful planning. Their monthly trip to a grocery store is planned down to bringing walkie talkies so Steve and Annette can talk and compare prices on different sides of the store. They shop monthly because Annette plans their meals in a 30-day menu system. And coupons? They use lots of coupons. They say that the pennies you save all add up. Very true.
We actually have a lot in common with the Economides. When they find food at a price that is low enough, they stock up and buy a lot. I love to do that. They also purchase lunch meat (pre-packaged) that is about to expire. Annette claims they do that because they have never gotten sick. Well, as someone who worked in a grocery store I can tell you that the expiration dates are the dates that the stores need to pull product from the shelves. Most products are still good for a while after those dates. I wish they focused more on the other things they do to live on so little, but the show didn’t.
Debt Collectors
The next segment of the show was about Debt Collectors. Wow, this part made me feel sick to my stomach. One of the recorded calls they played on a show exampled how crazed some debt collectors can get, “Why don’t you just go jump in front of a train…get it over with.” Man, that made my blood boil. They played more and more calls that again showed how agressive, mean, and ILLEGAL some of these calls can be.
Consumer complaints about collection calls have risen 14%. If you happen to be a victim of overzealous debt collectors, the show gave a few tips: 1.) Contact the Federal Trade Commission 2.) Contact a lawyer and 3.) Tape the conversations. Debt collectors have no right to call you at work(EDIT – A commenter mentioned that they CAN call you at work. I’m striking that statement out until I can take a look. What I wrote was information I obtained from the show), threaten dire consequences or say that you have committed a crime. This was good information from the show, but I barely wrote it down because they went so fast!
Beggars, a.k.a. Cyberbegging
Dustin Diamond, before recently, was best known for his role playing “Screech” on the teen show, “Saved by the Bell.” Now that Screech is all grown up, most of the money earned while on the show has been spent due to mismanagement by his father. He left the limelight and bought a home in Wisconsin and found himself in a shady land deal. They gave Dustin 30 days to pay $250,000 or he would lose his home. Since he didn’t have any money, he started up a website where fans could buy T-shirts for $15.00 each to help save his house. He ended up selling 22,000 shirts and he still has his house.
Dustin also had some “adult” things surface on the internet that has since helped his financial situation but we will not go there. Not sure why they mentioned that in the show. I always wonder about things when they “leak” out.
The next gal they mentioned I have heard of before, Karyn Bosnak. She admits she is a shopaholic and wracked up some credit card debt. She created a site, Save Karyn where she asked people to donate a dollar each to help get her out of debt. Well, it worked. Strangers paid off her debt and now she’s published a book and a studio has movie rights to the book.
I checked Karyn’s site tonight to make sure I spelled her last name correctly and I found this tidbit:
“I was interviewed on 20/20 tonight for a special on debt. If you saw me on the show and are new to this site, thanks for stopping by. What 20/20 failed to mention is that after publishing my book, I donated all the money I received from savekaryn.com to charity. So I essentially DID pay off my debt and helped raise $20,000 for charity in the process. Funny how this was edited out of my interview. I only said it, um… three times.”
That was something important that I feel ABC left out and I’m glad Karyn put that on her site for clarification. There’s always a part of the story missing.
Dave Ramsey
I didn’t catch everything with the little bit they have about Dave Ramsey. I became upset when they played a clip of him on his show demonstrating “tough love” by using the word stupid. It sounded just like the nasty debt collectors. That’s all I’ll say about that.
Debt Collectors…Again
Here’s the other side of the debt collectors story on how they do good for the economy. After all, the small business owner who has to write off bad debt will have to raise prices to make up for the lost money. I do believe that debts should be repaid, and this part of the show made me feel a little better about debt collectors. The ones the showed here worked with people to try to pay the debt and make things right. They even gave options for payment plans or offered to lower the total amount due to settle the amount.
Easy Formulas
As an afterthought as a conclusion for the show, John Stossel and Elizabeth Vargas took turns explaning two formulas to use to see how you are doing financially. Seriously – those forumlas were on the screen for a few seconds! I was getting accustomed to scribbling notes as fast as I could through the whole show, so I was able to catch them.
– Add up all of your monthly debt payments. They should not be more than one third of your monthly pre-tax earnings.
– Take your age and divide by 2. That is the percentage of your income that you should be saving.
MY CONCLUSION
The show had interesting tidbits, but it was a lot thrown at you yet not enough (if that makes sense). I think it would have been much better if they took each of the big segments (the two families, the debt collectors, and the cyberbeggers) and made one show on each. I was left wanting more after the show but that was it.
