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ECONOMICS
The $649,000 Price Tag of Being Broke
How interest keeps the poor paying and the rich earning
Imagine you’re a young adult from a non-wealthy family.
You need to pay for college, a car, a place to live and perhaps to eventually raise a family, but you make entry-level wages. That means one thing:
Debt
How much will the average American pay in interest fees over their lifetime? It’s a shocker: $649,068, according to Self Financial Inc.
The poor stay poor because they are paying interest. The rich stay rich because they are always collecting it.
The payments eat up every spare dollar. Even if you delay having kids or are making a respectable beginning wage, you’re probably surprised at how little spending money you have.
You may think to yourself, “How am I struggling so much? I’ve done all the right things, and I’m making more money than I thought I would be at this point, and yet I can barely contemplate ordering a pizza some weeks. I’m broke.”
Why the poor buy cheap crap
Privileged people say you should buy quality goods and never have to replace them. Why buy a cheap new pressed board desk multiple times, they say…
