Financial Disaster

Filed Under Debt |

My favorite line from Ocean’s Eleven is when Andy Garcia looks at George Clooney and said, “You know…a guy?”

Well, I know a guy. I know a guy who has his finances in order. His debts, including his house, are paid off and have been for some time. Over the past few years, he has done everything right and has gotten on track with money. He was prepared for emergencies.

Then disaster struck. Cancer decided to pick on him and he’s been battling it down with the biggest hammer he has. Even though he has no payments to make on debt, his expenses are still shocking – and not all covered by insurance. There will be thousands of dollars out of his own pocket. For just one trip to the pharmacist for medicine, the co-pay was over $600.00.

But this guy is not normal. If he wanted something, he paid cash for it. A few years ago he needed a new roof. Rather than take out a line of credit loan on his house, he saved up the money and paid cash for it. He and his wife made a decision that they were going to put their family first and make sure all financial matters were taken care of. As I said, they were not your normal American family.

Even with all of his brilliant financial planning, his expenses may exceed what he can pay.

What if you were diagnosed with cancer tomorrow and had to quit working in order to be admitted from the hospital for intensive chemotherapy treatments? How would your bills get paid? If you owe people/banks/stores money, how would they get paid? How would your kids feel when the house was foreclosed on because you couldn’t meet the mortgage payment? How would your kids feel if you had to file bankruptcy to pay your bills?

The most frustrating comment I hear all the time is something like, “We don’t make enough money to do what you guys are doing.” Their solution is to do nothing. They are going to keep spending like they always have, or keep working at low paying jobs like they always have.

While I hope you live a life of amazingly good health, chances are that someone reading this blog will have a major health crisis in the next few years. Is your family financially able to take on such a challenge?

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