Very interesting thread with some very thoughtful posts. I feel a little conflicted when I read the original article and the Bloomberg response. Clearly things are not going well for the middle class. Certainly there are ways to manage this but most people don't. The classic "American Dream" is a lifestyle that is increasingly out of reach for many. Income inequality is getting worse and the ideal of upward financial mobility is not present as much as we would like. This is not a good thing and will need to be addressed. [mod edit]
It's better not to be smug or self righteous (seems to be a fair bit of this on this site) but it's hard not to be if you have successfully saved for a well funded retirement as many here have done or are doing and read these stories.
So in the end I am just thankful how lucky, smart, goal oriented, focused, I am and call it a day. Sorry everyone can't be these things but if they were it would be a different and tougher world for us lucky smart guys. I try to help friends and family that are less fortunate but there is only so much you can do.
I appreciate your thoughts but couldn't disagree more. The author put himself in the situation. This wasn't "bad luck" or "income inequality"...it was being an idiot. As an author, I assume he writes from home...so why continue to live in the HAMPTONS?!? Sell your house and move to Kentucky. Second, I would love to know how many Apple products adorn his home. I would like to know what he sets his thermostat in the winter. I would like to know which package he has selected from the cable provider. He felt the need to send his kids to two of the MOST EXPENSIVE schools in the country and spent his PARENT'S $$$ doing it?!? Wow...what a piece of work. Luck has NOTHING to do with this man's decision. I wound up dropping out of HS (long, drawn out story) and joined the military as an enlisted man. And yet, somehow, I retired much earlier than most folks. Was it luck? Hell no...it was a LOT of damn hard work and to say "luck" had anything to do with it is offensive to me.
The American Dream is nothing more than a marketing scheme put out there to encourage Americans to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND!!! If Americans stopped spending EVERY DAMN DIME they make on everything under the sun, then perhaps they would have $400 for "an emergency."
Oh yeah...a few tidbits about the author (from public records):
2012 Judgment for AMEX Balance: $36,442
2012 Judgment for CITI NA Balance: $14,066
2012 Lien NY Taxes Balance: $2,812
2010 Lien US IRS Balance: $15,431
2010 Lien US IRS Balance: $60,968
2010 Lien NY Taxes Balance: $10,170
2008 Lien NY Taxes Balance: $12,790
2006 Judgment Penguin Group Balance: $189,919
2005 Lien US IRS Balance: $51,110
OK...I am tired of transcribing this information, but it keeps going and it goes back to 1993. Does anyone else here see a trend?!? This is NOT a case of "keeping up with the Joneses", this is nothing more than FINANCIAL IDIOCY. And all the while, carrying a $650,000 mortgage. Oh...one last thing. The property in East Hampton with the $650K mortgage is showing a Zillow value of
$2.65 MILLION DOLLARS. What am I missing here?!