The Bank of Mom and Dad

I spent a very interesting, albeit very long day watching the show the Bank of Mom and Dad on hulu. I think in all I watched ten episodes. The show, if you haven't heard about it yet, is about 20 something year olds and in some cases 30 year old women who are living way above their means and have a ton of credit card debt and other debt to their name. This is where mom and dad come in. They move into their daughter's house/apartment and take complete control over their child's finances, with the help of a financial expert. The first thing that they do is write down how much they think their daughter owes, the daughter then writes down what she thinks she owes, the numbers are swapped, and then finally the true amount of debt is revealed. A break down is then given of how the money is being spent each month. Usually in many cases an astronomical amount goes to clothes, shopping, and food. In some cases these women have had their bills go to debt collectors and they are still spending money that they don't have like it is going out of style. I honestly couldn't believe it. The show goes on to have some scare tactics to try to help the women create new budgets and a new way of living.

I watched episode after episode of this, and it was just astounding to see the audacity of some of these women. I have 1500 worth of credit card debt and it keeps me up at night. I've basically put my spending on complete lockdown until it's paid off. How in god's name did these women feel like they had the right to shop when they were over 10,000 in credit card debt. This wasn't medical debt, or student loans, car loans, or anything-this was pure-I want it so I'll buy it. In most of these cases I had a little trouble identifying with some of these women. Most had an income of 2500 a month. Right now my income is a paltry I'd say 400-500 a month depending on how many hours I work and how much tip money I get.

I'm living at home so I'm not paying for food, utilities, rent, or anything. It's just a part time summer job that I've had for the past 6 summers. Not very glamorous. I am going to school in August though for a post baccalaureate certificate to become a paralegal. My goal is to get a good job and pay off my student loans off as fast as I can once I'm done with the program. Any way, I digress. I guess I was just trying to give myself some justification. I know what everyone is thinking, I can pay off my credit card in one summer and be done. Ideally, yes. Realistically, no. I need to have money saved for the year for when I'm at school. I'm not going to fall into the credit card trap. I'm also not going to depend on my mom to foot the bill like my sister did this year. She went to chicago every single weekend to see her friends and go to the bars pretty much. How did she afford this? Well she had some money saved, but as I've found out recently, much of it has come from my parents. I'm not going to do that to them. My parents also pay my sister's credit card bill I think. Wow...I'm really bad at digressing, sorry everyone! Ok let's get back on track!

As I was saying most of these women seemed to be living a different lifestyle than me...all but one. There was one girl whose income was around 800 a month. She was over 30,000 in debt at the ripe age of 22. MY AGE! 30% of that was from credit cards! She spent 200 a month on clothes for her freaking dog! Another part was from a car loan which who grandma cosigned on with her, and she wasn't making car payments. Yet she had a hissy fit when her parents wanted her to sell her car to pay off some of her enormous debt. The final part of her debt was from student loans. Granted this was a small amount, only around 6,000. Get this, she never even finished college. Twice she took breaks from school. I thought to myself, what was wrong with this girl! I finished college in four years with a major and a minor. I had a 4.0 in my minor and I graduated cum laude. I went to a state school and here I am with already over 30,000 in student loans because my parents couldn't afford to put me through college. I didn't take out maximum amounts of money on my loans, I took only what I needed to get me through the year. I was in a sorority and I paid for all of my dues and misc. fees with the income that I made from my part time job at school.

I guess it just irked me to see this girl have a total disregard for education and to not even care that her debts were all in collection. Anyway, this show just really motivated me to get out of debt as fast as possible, save money from my meager paychecks aside from debt payment, and start putting aside money for my student loans. I want to be financially independent. I don't want to have to depend on mommy and daddy.

Thank you Bank of Mom and Dad for opening up my eyes today.