I cannot even imagine the big picture. CUrrent effect on me at our huse? This morning I called to confirm my credit limit and balance etc on a credit card, left the house, a few hours later tried to USE that speciific card and..nope sometimes after I called to confirm balance etc, my credit limit was DRAMATICALLY reduced. My card was no good.
Several weeks ago, this very same thing happened when I had to use a credit card to geet a hotel room.
I pay my cards off in full each month.
I use my cards on occasion, for hotel when we go to doctor becuz they will not accept cash.or in an emergency....I also rotate them and use each once or twice a year to keep them active, if I have not used them.
My credit is awesome. My score was high.
Our house is tiny, when we bought it 20 years ago bank tried to tell us we could but like 5 times as much home. I was far too scared, went with this itty bitty starter home. Good thing I did....when we bought it, it was out of the town we grew up in cuz THAT town was out of reach financially, and this town was blooming. BUT our county had some ugly issues and property taxes exploded enormously right after we moved in, and then our property values began to drop..and drop and drop.....on top of that, my husband became very ill, and while we had bought and paid for expensive private disability income protection insurance, THAT insurance co went bankrupt at the time we went to file a claim. If we had not bought such a tiny little itty bitty house, we never ever would have been able to keep it.
And then I wound up getting so very ill....
and then the kids disabilities began to cost and cost and cost.
We have managed to keep our house all these 20 years, its value is the same now as it was when we bought it 20 years ago. Our property tax is now 10 times what it was 20 years ago.
Becuz husband veterans benefits took 10 years to get rolling, our kids did not have medical insurance after I also became disabled. Our income was right AT the income eligibility cut off and some years they got Medicaide and some years no. We could not purchase private coverage for them becuz they were considered "uninsureable" For years we have paid out of pocket huge amounts on our childrens medical needs.
We have taken exactly ONE vacation ever. I do not have all the hi tech things many people think they NEED. I still use a vcr. I still use my $39 webtv I got in 1995 to go online. We went to a movie -and saw Ladder 59. And the movie we saw in a theatre before that one was Titanic.
My kids have never been bowling as a family outing, it costs too much.
No, we do not exactly live beyond our means. We have no retirement fund, no stocks, and no savings, - we supported all of DHs family for years and then husband got sick. We never had an opportunity to even try to grow saveings.
BUT yes, we are already feeling the trickle down of the effect of this financial mess. And it is scareing me bad.