That's not entirely true though. You can go to the ER, get treated, and if you don't have insurance, you get a bill. You pay what you can, and eventually pay it down.
I actually did this at one point. I got a bill of several thousand, and paid whatever I could each month. It was a good 2 or 3 years of paying on it, before I paid it off. But eventually I paid it off.
In addition, there are numerous charities that can help people with health care needs. I actually fund a few myself.
Wow. From too poor to have insurance or pay outright a "several thousand" dollar medical bill in fewer than three years to being a philanthropist who "funds numerous" charities. That's quite a change in financial position. How did you achieve that? Truly, you should write a book sharing your methods and lessons learned with the folks who today find themselves in the state you once found yourself.
Yeah it is. In the early 2000s, I found myself absolutely broke. Numerous poor choices, and bad fiscal decisions, left me with roughly $12,000 in debt while earning barely $20,000 a year.
However, I'm a right-winger, not a left-winger, so I didn't complain or starting trying to blame the rich.
Instead, I simply got a second job for a time, and started paying down my debts. However, as a low-wage laborer, it still required about oh.... I think 2006 was last year I paid on that particular debt. But Murphy moved in, and I had this medical thing, which required several years to pay off, because I didn't have health insurance. So I just paid what I could on the bill each month until I paid it off. I can't remember exactly how long it required, because it blended in with the other debts I was paying off at the time.
Today, I have zero debt. No credit cards. No car loans. No rent-to-own. No nothing. I owe no one, anywhere, anything. Not even a credit card that I pay off at the end of the month. No cards.
Funding charities isn't millions of dollars. But I put at least 10% of my income towards my church which in turn funds various charitable activities, and an additional amount which varies on my ability to give, towards certain charities, typically battered women's shelters.
As for my investments... it's nothing super special. At this point only 50% of the money in my investments, is money I put in. The rest is growth. Which is the whole point of an investment... it grows.
As for the thousands on thousands I put it... that too isn't all that special. I've been working since the 1990s. I put 5% into 401K every chance I get. Some of my jobs had a 401K match. Regardless, I made the choice that when my life crashed, and I had debt coming out my ears, I was going to leave my investments alone. I wasn't going to sacrifice my stocks and bonds, to pay off my debt.
So even during the years I had debt, I still had those investments, and they continued to grow during that time.
Now that I paid off all the debt, I have tons of money invested, and no debt.
See the typical American way is that you borrow up to your eye balls, and then pull all your money out of your investments to pay your debts, and then you are broke again. I didn't do that. I left my investments alone, and just cut back the life style to nothing, and paid off my debts that way.
More importantly I'll never borrow anything ever again. That's why I don't even have a credit card. People complain they give all their money to the banks..... not me. Nope.
, end result let's keep picking on poor folks and that will solve all our problems huh
