Responding to a comment

Over at We Need to be Debt Free, JW listed me as an inspiration – someone who has been able to get out of debt.

A commenter wrote something that I really feel like I need to respond to.

Mike P said…
I would NOT put Give Me Back My Five Bucks on this list. If you read her blog she routinely puts things on her credit card, mot of the time they do get paid off in the next month, but a job loss or other crisis will put her steep in debt (with a tiny EF). She uses credit a a crutch, and that is not living DEBT FREE. She’s putting expensive LASIK surgery on credit and claims she will pay it off when hr tax refund comes in April. That is NOT DEBT FREE, putting the surgery off until April, when the money is in hand is living debt free. I think it is a mistake to promote her as an inspiration, when she is one bad event from being right along side of you.

Yes, I put things on my credit card. In fact, I try to put all my purchases on my credit card. Why? Because I like getting the rewards back. I pay my card off EVERY month, and I think this is a fabulous way to get paid for everyday shopping – just as long as you have the discipline to pay everything off at the end of the month. Doing this isn’t for everyone, and you have to be really careful. But it’s worth it for me. Last year, I got almost $175 back as a credit on my Visa card, just for using my Visa for purchases throughout the year. Plus, using a credit card is a fabulous way to keep track of your purchases. Again, I need to stress that you have to be really disciplined, and this method is not for everyone.

And yes, I’m putting my LASIK on credit, but it is interest free (zero down, zero payments) for 12 months. Sure, I could wait until April when my taxes are done and I get my refund, but I’d rather get it done now – so that if there are any complications (knock on wood), it can be fixed prior to my trip next year. Also, it will start to get really busy for work now that we’re heading into the spring, so in consideration to my employer (I’ll need to take at least 2 days off), I tried to schedule it so that we wouldn’t be busy (since nobody else in my office is trained on the software that I work on).

I also don’t think I have a “tiny” EF. My EF is over $3,000 – which is 3 months of living expenses if I stay in this apartment. So if I lost my job, I know I would be able to find another one within 3 months. Even if it’s a crappy job not in my field, I’m confident I could find at least something to pay for my monthly fixed expenses. In the worst case scenario, I have no problem cutting my expenses and living like a college student (which is what I was doing when I was getting myself out of debt a few years ago).

And if for some unforseen reason, if things went totally wrong, I know that BF and I are both comfortable enough for me to move in with him until I could get myself back on my feet (I lived with him for a few weeks when I first moved to the city). Not that I’m basing my EF amount on being able to rely on someone, but for the life situation I’m in right now, I’m very comfortable with $3,000, and I hope that by the end of this year, I’ll have over $5,000.

The commenter is right – once I have my LASIK surgery, I won’t be completely debt-free, but I really really don’t believe that I’m one step away from disaster, and going into steep debt. In May, I will have been out of debt for 2 years, and I’ve used those last 2 years to increase my networth and save enough money so that I feel comfortable that I could handle almost any crisis that is thrown my way.

If you have other comments Mike P, I would love to hear from you. Hopefully you’ve read this response, and you understand where I’m coming from.

***EDIT***
I did not respond to this comment because I want people to think I’m an inspiration to them. My goal for this blog was never to be an “inspiration,” but rather to detail my daily financial situation in a way that’s engaging and fun. I wanted to put myself out there and show people that being financially responsible isn’t that hard, and that it’s only a taboo subject if we make it one. So if, through my actions, people can get ideas and take something from the situations I’ve been in, then I’m thrilled. And if people do become inspired by me, then that’s the best outcome I could have hoped for. But I just don’t want anyone to think that I’m angry at this commenter (or that I want to prove him wrong) because I want to be viewed as something that he doesn’t think I am. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

One Response to “Responding to a comment”

Author comments are in a darker gray color for you to easily identify the posts in the comments

1. Give Me Back My Five Bucks » We Need to be Debt Free is gone… says:

   Friday, March 5, 2010 - 08:32am at 8:59 am

   [...] didn’t agree with what he was doing, doesn’t mean he deserved the comments that he got. I even got attacked over there by one of his readers. I was shocked and outraged, and I can only imagine how JW must have felt getting comments like [...]

   Reply

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