Financial education and management does need to be taught in highschool and college.  In college, as a business school major, it seems as though the teachers are as bad as the students.  We talked about big cars and big houses like it was owed to us just because we graduated...  That being said, the lack of financial guidance or education does not take away personal responsibility.  This is a hard situation all around.. There are those who are in this position because of an illness or a lost job and have lost everything because of it... it is for those people that my heart aches and I feel truely sorry for.  There are numerous others though that overspent, bought huge houses the couldn't afford, or vacation homes, or home to flip.  That bought cars they really couldn't afford and wore clothes and purses they couldn't afford.  It's those that I don't feel sorry for.  If your selling your dooney & bourkes on craigs list... big deal.. I have a garage sale once a year.  I don't feel sorry for you.. maybe you shouldn't have bought the Dooney in the first place.  Nobody NEEDS a $200+ purse.  

I think the main problem in our country is that we measure success by the car we drive and the house we live in and the clothes we wear.  But no matter what if we can't see our own personal responsibility, undeducated or not, we will never be able to avoid these messes in the future.  I know what the pressure cooker is like, my mortgage broker laughed at me 4 years ago when I only wanted a $200,000 house vs. the $340,000 he approved me for.  At the end of the day I knew I didn't even need the $200,000 house let alone a bigger one.  

To all of you in debt trouble, read "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.  Its changed many lives.  You'll especially like the chapter about being "Broke and driving a Jag".

The truth is, some financial disasters are hard to avoid. A sudden job loss, injury or illness can send anyone reeling, even if they have some savings set aside for emergencies.  I do feel bad for  people dealing with financial hardship in those situations. The frustrating thing is,that there are so few people with valid reasons for financial hardship, that good people, who truley need help, get over looked because the majority of debt holders ar just plain irresponsible. I look at many of my friends, barely 30, driving 50-60K cars, living in 200-400k homes (We live in a rural area, normal houses sell for less than 100K), and I can't believe how irresponsible they are, so many are now filing for bankruptcy, and are coming to me wanting to borrow money to cover there irresponsible behavior. I just want to screamat them "Grow up and be accountable for the mess that you have created!!" Nothing will change until the American mentality of More, More, More changes. Everthing in moderation people, including spending.

May I add...  

People need to remember that the mortgage "crisis" and credit "crunch"  isn't necessarily due to the folks who are in financial straits because of an illness or loss of a job.  That stuff unfortunately happens all of the time, every day of every year and obviously we don't have a mortgage crisis every year.  The mortgage and credit issues are largely due to those who were irresponisibly spending whether it was cars, purses, or houses.  They took loans that were two big for them, or that had a adjustable terms that they couldn't afford after they adjusted. They bet the house, literally, that the value of the home would just keep increasing... which was wishful thinking.  So I do think it's fair for people to not want to "bail" these people out.  A percentage of those that are in risk of foreclosure are house flippers... why should anyone have to bail out a flipper!  

I recently had to get rid of an apatment full of furniture. I put everything up on Craig's list selling at very cheap prices for excellent pieces of furniture and other items. People came and looked and did not buy or I received many inquiries and many did not show up, but I sold very little. Then I got fed up and placed everything on Craig's list for free. All of a sudden I was bombarded with calls and people who came to pickup items. When I asked for some money, since there were many people who wanted the same item. For example a stressless leather chair in very very good condition (Worth $1200), some people were irate saying they wanted it for free even if they planned to show up 2 hours late. Next time I plan to just donate  to a thrift shop. I put a number of items on the street (which were immediately taken) rather than give it to people who were nasty and felt entitled. Aside for one or two very nice people who really needed and valued the items they got I found the vultures who came out of the woodwork really unbearable.

I'd rather sell other people's stuff on the Bay and keep 20% net. I keep my stuff and I pay the bills. Here in PA, evey time the Governor farts my taxes go up. It's outrageous how we are getting pinched. Here in the middle class (I make $50K, my wife stays home with our daughter, we have a $120K house, a Dodge Caravan and a Toyota Yaris; I pay $2600 out of $3K a month take home and we have some outstanding med bills) it's the smart who get richer not the rich.

We make do, and we are not as frugal as we could be. We seize opportunities when we see them. I shop for cheap Civil War stuff locally (where it is cheap as it happened here) and sell it to folks who live out west where it's much more difficult to come by. Or at Joanne's Fabrics (where I bought ten knick knacks off the clearance rack for $2 each and made $5 apiece on the Bay). I make these stops on the way to and from other places I have to be.

I doubled a small investment in less than two weeks! It's just a matter of scale. You don't have to have money to make money, you have to have, and use, brains!

Don't sell your stuff, sell someone else's!

After reading all the comments, I have just one question.  What about the folks who are buying the stuff that people are selling?  They haven't learned the lesson yet?

all too true!!!

i wish i had the money instead (but if i had themoney, i would probably be spending it on more useless junk)

my problem all started because of the enormous amounts of income tax i had to pay.

i figured, if i spent it on buying those books or things for my work, then i can write it off, then at least i'll have the material goods instead of just handing it over to Uncle Sam.

my thoughts were i'd rather use the money to buy things for me than give it away thru taxes.

however, now that the job situation has been slim and looking grim, i wish i had the money, so i have been selling a ton of stuff on craigslist & ebay (but on ebay, i think i'm actually losing more money)...

I have to say we can all blame our parents for our decisions, but when will we be responsible for oursleves.

I was raised in a middle class family where I wasn't given everything I wanted.  If  I wanted a new book or luxury item I had to do chores around the house.  ( Don't get me wrong, I didn't have to earn everything I had.  New school clothes or supplies and an occasional gift my parents would pay for)  I had fabulous credit and always lived well with in my means, even working fast food jobs for very little money.  My idea of a $200 purse was a $15 purse with $185 dollars in it.  I would panic if my checking account went below $50 (which was alot for me since my average paycheck was a little over $200)  I moved out of my parents' house when I was 18 and did very well.  I always had a roommate to split rent and other expenses, I had 2 credit cards that I kept well below half and always paid twice the minimum.  However, all that changed when I got engaged.  My husband is a compulsive spender, he is manic depressive and bipolar.  When he is in his manic state he spends and spends.  He opened credit cards in my name and maxed them out.  He would hop banks, use the overdraft and then go to another bank.  He was raised in a higher class family, only child (I have a brother).  His mother (an awesome woman)  always sends money or pays off his debts on her credit card or sends cash.  Part of me wishes she wouldn't do this because it is so enabling.  But at the same time....if she doesn't I'm screwed to.  I am getting collection notices constantly and am paying on a car the he had repoed from before we met.  I am the only one with the job, he is going to school, and I have mini panic attacks just getting the mail.  I'm only 23 and this is a horrible way to live.  I would not wish it on my worst enemy.  We don't have alot of the luxury items and if I did have to sell my belongings to make ends meet, it would be no big deal to me, possesions are just things, but I don't have the things to sell.  We bought a cheap condo and the mortgage payments were less than what we were paying for rent.  However, I had to leave my job, many reasons, and had to frantically search for a new 1.  Unfortunately finding a job that pays $10 an hour starting out in my area is a very hard thing to do.  So I am making less so, now we are facing foreclosure.  The ironic thing is that I am seriously considering filing bankruptcy, but the only way I could afford that is with my stimulus check.  I have taken over all finances and my husband is no longer on a joint account with me, in fact he has no checking account, savings account, or credit cards.  All money issues will be my responsibility and he will be given an allowence.  The most frustrating thing about my situation is that, I saw it happening and didn't do or say anything until it was to late.  I didn't want to be the nagging wife or worse off......the b*tch. I have learned through this that being assertive is not the same as being a b*tch.  My biggest hope right now is that I have my whole life to recover from this financial disaster and make better choices.  And yes Mr. Hunt, I blame myself for being stupid and just standing back, letting this happen to me.  

what do you do when all your money is in your house. our place quadruples in value over the last ten years, untill 9/11 and the market went kaput. we are in desperate trouble, i don,t know what to do we struggle to keep the mortgage payment up, the house is for sale at 100,000 under appraised value and we are broke. should i stop making payment and forclose, keep what would have been the house payment for the rent we are going to pay. going from 0 to $5,000 every month just isn,t making it. we have sold off everything of value we own. my only solution is suicide, so my wife can get the insurance money. i'm worth more dead than alive.