I won’t tell you where I took my car but in their commercials they speak of a certain touch.  I remember reading about the touch when I was a kid.  Apparently there was a king by the same name that everything he touched turned to gold.  I took my car there because my dad told me I should; afterall it was right across the street from his store.

Anyway, I took it in and they told me that my entire braking system was shot.  Typical retail mechanic jargon that actually means, “Hey stupid, get out your wallet to pay for these lies.”  I bought in.  Since it was my Dad that said I should take it there I decided he must know what he’s talking about so I figured…”heck, they’re the ones with the touch, who am to argue?”

Don’t laugh at me and call me stupid…well…ok, you can do either of those if it makes you feel better.  But they wanted me to pay $1,700 to fix everything.  OH MY GOODNESSS!  Though at the time I asked them if they were joking and I didn’t leave out the juicy expletives.  They also told me that the car is unsafe that I have to do it or they’re not pulling the car off the rack.  Hey, I was barely 18 and didn’t know poop from shoe-shine.  If anybody ever tried to take advantage of my kids like that I would rip them a new one but…I think my dad was teaching me a lesson he thought I should have learned earlier.  Anyway, moving right along.

I didn’t have that kind of money.  Heck, I barely had enough money to take my girlfriend, (Ex wife #1), to a decent meal let alone pay $1,700 to fix something that, up until the day before, seemed to work.  Hell, I didn’t even pay $1,700 for the car.

The touch people had a solution.  “We have a credit card.”

“Oh, great.”, said I.  “How do I apply?”

We all know the story from here on out…maybe.  But this was my first venture into credit and it haunted me for a long time.

That lousy 17 hundred bucks didn’t get paid off for 5 years and had seen more transfers than  a GrayHound bus.

I was seriously unprepared for credit and debt management.  If you feel that way too then you’ve come to the right place.  Sit down, have a cup of cocoa and tell us your story.

Thanks,

David

So, of course the blog will be opinionated, right?

Well, let’s break this down a little bit.  First, the story mentions that residents will, (combined), have to pay up to 2 million dollars, “Yes – you read that right. TWO million dollars!”  Then the blogger posts that as many as 5,000 residents may be affected.  Then she says homeowners could be asked to pay up to 1.75 million.  Hmmm…which is it, tard girl?  2 million or 1.75?  See, because after receiving the calculation back from NASA I discovered that there’s a 250,000 dollar difference. Yes – you read that right. TWO hundred and fifty thousand dollars!  Or, one eighth less than you mentioned twice.  TWICE!

Besides, if you split that 5,000 ways, (as you suggest), it’s only $350 each homeowner, (I’m guessing you were rounding up a couple thousand homeowners, eh?).

Here’s the deal…life is not like Monopoly.  If there’s a bank error in your favor you don’t get to keep the moeny…except in this case probably because it would be “insensitive” for us to ask for the money back that was overpaid.  Gas is $4 a gallon but no…you go ahead and buy a new plasma theater system for your living room because you were smart enough to buy a  house below sea level right next to the ocean.

At least some of the homeowners used the extra money to get out of debt.

I want to hear from some real life New Orleans home-owners affected by this; what is your opinion?