“Weekly Poll” Archive
Dec
13
With the heart of the Holiday season rapidly approaching (or in some cases already over), gift giving and the expense of gift giving can often be a problem for folks. I know holiday spending was an issue for me, particularly when my illness wasn’t being treated properly.
This week’s poll poses the question: How Will You Pay for Your Holiday Shopping? With debit cards now providing much of the same purchase protection as credit cards, I’m curious to see if the majority of folks will use credit cards rather than debit cards. Next week’s poll will likely look at the question about how much do you spend and will have a spin associated with the answers to this week’s poll.
Jul
11
I apologize for the lack of posting over the past week, although I made an explicit promise to post. Both Dollar Buy Dollar and Pound Buy Pound were having technical issues whereby I couldn’t get anything more than a one-liner to post regardless of whether I used Wordpress or Windows Live Writer. VERY FRUSTRATING as you might imagine as I have spent a fair amount of time brainstorming posting ideas lately.
I’m doing some final editing of some posts as they are lengthy but I will get them up as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can check out my latest post at Pound Buy Pound, where I explain some of the goings on in my life lately and how I’m back on track with the diet, exercise and mental health status.
To whet your appetite for something new, I have a new Poll of the Week up, thanks to a suggestion by a faithful reader. This week’s poll wants to get to the bottom of what types of expenses caused people to charge away on their credit cards and get themselves in debt. Many of these categories surely apply but everyone probably has a ‘hot button’. In my case, the top expense type was far away travel.
I took many vacations with my ex-wife that, in retrospect we couldn’t afford. We often stayed in hotels that even my parents wouldn’t have been staying in due to cost. Visiting family often, particularly when we had a child also added up quickly. In retrospect, we should have asked people to come visit us if they wanted to see their niece/granddaughter that bad.
I’m curious to see how things fall out with this poll, particularly if a lot of folks charged their living expenses, a clear sign you are in WAY TOO MUCH DEBT! How do I know this? I’ve been there myself.
UPDATE: Thanks to reader feedback from Mark, I have added a category to the poll that I overlooked. The category ‘Crap I Don’t Remember Buying and Apparently NEVER Use’ has been added. I certainly have plenty of things that fall into this category as well, some of which I am now trying to sell on Craiglist, so I expect others do as well.
Jul
5
The latest poll results are in and to me the results were absolutely amazing, but not all that surprising. A total of 64 people voted and the results were as follows:
- 12 people (19%) said that neither their physical nor their mental health has been impacted by their debt
- 3 people (5%) said that their physical health has been impacted by their debt
- 18 people (28%) said that their mental health has been impacted by their debt
- 31 people (48%) said that BOTH their mental and physical health has been impacted by their debt; AMAZING!
The mental health side of the equation is probably the easiest to explain as sociopsychological factors often play a large role in depression. I can speak first hand on this point, so don’t underestimate the impact a job loss, extreme debt, or other traumatic events can have on your mental health.
The one point that didn’t surprise me is how many people also report their physical health being impacted. One thing I have learned through my recent treatment for my bipolar disorder is the physical impact that stress has on your body. When you are stressed, the body releases a hormone called cortisol, which helps the body return to a “normal” state after a stressful event. The problem with being buried under a tremendous amount of debt, is that your body vis-a-vis your mind, is under constant stress. As a result, this “stress hormone” can be released in elevated amounts, causing things like headaches, high blood pressure and increased blood sugar. For those of you who find yourself under constant stress because of your debt, you need to find ways to reduce or other cope with your stress. Personally, I have found exercise to be the best stress reducer out there.
Now for the next poll, I would like to open it up to my readers. What would you like to see as the next poll? What issues are real hot buttons for you? Post your ideas in the comment section of this post. In a few days I will choose what I think is the most valuable idea for the broader audience. I look forward to your suggestions. Tomorrow I will also be posting a survey in an effort to get to know my readers a little bit better and to get some ideas as to what types of content you would like to see.
A few folks have suggested I tell more of my backstory and up until now I hadn’t given a tremendous amount of thought as to how I got where I am today. That said, I was inspired by Trent at The Simple Dollar to try and document my story. His series on The Road to Financial Armageddon is far and away the best story I have read about the path to debt AND recovery. I would highly recommend you check it out. It inspired me to give more thought about how I got here and also woke me up in terms of some of the bad habits I have acquired over the years. Thanks Trent for the inspiration!
Jun
13
Well it looks like my readers are on top of their debt, at least from the perspective of knowing how much they owe. Only 70 people took last week’s poll, which asked “Do you know EXACTLY how much credit card debt you have”? An amazing 94% (66 people) said they know EXACTLY how much they owe. Only 6% (4 people) responded that they didn’t know exactly how much they have in credit card debt. Until recently I was in the minority in that I didn’t know EXACTLY how much I owed. So, to those 4 people who responded yes, I hope the simple act of taking a look at the site and answering that poll question motivated you to determine exactly how much you owe. That is a critically important first step in curing the ‘debt disease’.
Now, for this week’s poll, I figured I would ask a question that clearly relates to what I am going through at the moment. This weeks poll question is: “Has your debt load had an impact on your physical or mental health”? I’ve left it wide open in that you can choose both your physical and mental health as a potential impact. The poll is now below the fold but also on the Poll of The Week Page.
May
30
Since I know I didn’t have a clue how much debt I had until very recently, I figured a good question for the poll this week would be “Do you know EXACTLY how much credit card debt you have”. My guess is that a fair amount of folks don’t really know how far in the hole they are; should be an interesting poll.
I’ve received a few emails and comments from folks asking when the credit card balances would be updated. I’m in the process of making my monthly payments so I should have the balances posted in a few days. Also, look for an IMPORTANT update regarding AMEX.
Also, as promised, I wanted to reveal the results of the prior two polls:
Poll # 1 — Do you feel guilty about the amount of money you charge to your credit
A total of 87 people voted in this poll and the results were not all that surprising:
- 23 (26%) people said they feel ‘Very Guilty’
- 31 (36%) people said they feel ‘Somewhat Guilty’
- 33 (38%) people said they feel ‘Not Guilty at All’
This poll indicates that among my readers, there is a tremendous amount of guilt about debt. I know this feeling and frankly the only way to get rid of it, in my opinion, is to ELIMINATE THE DEBT!
Poll # 2 — Are you currently hiding debt from your spouse or significant other?
A total of 86 people voted in this poll and the results, in my opinion were stunning:
- 23 (27%) people said ‘Yes, and the guilt is killing me’
- 63 (73%) people said ‘No, my spouse or significant other knows our financial picture’
To me, the fact that there are 27 people out there, a small microcosm of the population, that are hiding debt from their spouse indicates to me that this problem is HUGE. For those readers who find yourselves in this situation I urge you to come clean, even if that means involving a marriage counselor. I’m not a trained professional, but in my experience, hiding debt will eventually destroy your marriage, particularly if there are other stressors present.
May
15
Given that the story that got my blog a great deal of attention was about hiding debts from your spouse or significant other, I figured this would be a great “Poll of the Week”. I encourage all my readers to participate as I think this problem is very pervasive in our society today. As I said in my CNN interview, the further you get into debt the stronger the denial becomes. The denial turns into more and more lies and eventually this will seriously damage your relationship.
On another note, I have been undergoing a transformation in another facet of my life. What you ask? Weight loss! I have been participating in a structured exercise and diet program paid for by my employer. Since starting the program 9 weeks ago, I have lost 31 pounds but I have about another 45 to go in order to get to my goal weight. Since I have been pretty successful at it, I have decided to share my chronicle of weight loss and healthy eating on another blog. I’ve registered the domain and look for content by the end of the week.
Why blog about the weight loss and the debt? Well, I HONESTLY think the two were interrelated. The debt and the hiding of the debt caused me a great deal of stress and oftentimes dealing with the stress meant “stress eating” or sometimes even “binge”eating. I look forward to sharing my experience with all my readers of this site as well as those looking for some support on their weight loss journey. One of my inspirations, Tricia at Blogging Away Debt, also has a weight loss blog, Blogging Away Fat. You should check it out if you enjoy her blogging.
