I'm going to deviate a little bit from the main subject of this blog, tonight because this must be said. Something happened tonight that made me realize that I am now poor, one of the countless millions teetering on the edge of total economic collapse.
This realization is hard to take for someone who used to live a fairly decent life before the economic meltdown. I used to be able to pay all of my bills and I had decent credit. I never worried about how I was going to pay my bills. Then, after my husband lost his job and my small business took a big hit in the economic meltdown of 2008, we found we had to prioritize our bills. The endless juggling match of delaying payment on one bill so you can pay another more important bill begins and as a result my decent credit history turned into an abysmal one.
As a result of attempting to pay my most important bill, my mortgage payment, I had to stop paying on my credit card bills, and I could not afford to pay for the registration on my car. Soon after that, the car insurance had to go, because we could not afford to keep up the payments. It was either the car insurance or the mortgage payment, utilities, and food.
In California, it is mandatory for every vehicle owner to maintain liability insurance. In order to better enforce this law, when your insurance lapses, those kind folks at the insurance company notify the Department of Motor Vehicles and your registration is suspended until you can provide proof of insurance.
If you drive your car with suspended registration and no insurance, you risk getting your car impounded if you get pulled over. To avoid this possibility, my husband and I drive as little as we can. Our luck ended tonight after we were returning from an unavoidable trip to the vet. One of my dogs had an abscessed tooth and her face had swollen up. As we were returning from the vet's office, with our dog in the car, we got pulled over. Luckily, the deputy was a nice guy and, let us go with the advice that we should try to drive as little as possible until we could get the car insured and registered. We missed getting our car impounded only by the kindness of one deputy. I doubt that our luck will hold a second time.
We are now facing the almost insurmountable task of finding at least $500 to cover the registration and insurance on our car, while still coming up with the mortgage payment that we can't afford. There is nothing left to cut as our budget is as tight as it can get. We barely make it through each month, always having to juggle the bills to get them paid, and we just don't have $500 extra dollars.
This would not be an issue if we weren't poor. When you're poor, you don't have the luxury of having a peace of mind that all of your needs and your bills are taken care of. There's always some bill that you have to set aside in order to cover your other expenses. But now, we're backed into a corner and there's no way out. The registration must be paid and we must get insurance. How we're going to manage it, I don't know.
This is the problem that millions of other Americans are facing tonight. And if you think you are immune and that poverty only happens to those who make poor decisions, then think again. Your job could be on the line next, and where will you be when you have to decide what bill to pay?
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I am in that same sinking boat with you. A friend of mine told me to go on the California Department of Insurance site and there is info about reduced laibility insurance for as low as $400 per YEAR. your car has to be worth less than, I think, $20k. It's just liabiltiy coverage NOT collision so if your car is damaged and it's worth something, you won't have coverage but you will be in compliance with the law so no suspension of your D/L.
ReplyDeleteBeing poor does suck. I have been poor before but when you are a student and 19 yrs old, it's no big deal. When you are pushing 55, been living the middle class life of nice vacations, dinners, able to shop without too much concern for how much cash you have on hand---it REALLY sucks.
I spend my days juggling which bill needs priority because if unpaid, services will be cut. The other day I had to run to get a money order (was afraid my online payment would bounce once again), then run to the Water dept to pay before our water was shut off (doesn't help to know scretaries at the Dept of Water & Power are paid $100k per year, without even having a college degree!). I don't even want to talk about Verizon Wireless, they shut off your cell without any notice.
The embarassment of having your credit card rejected (don't have any cards anymore) the embarassment of your debit card being declined. The embarassment of having to put back certain food items because you only have X amount of cash. There are LOTS of us out there, yet the disconnect between bill collector's preceptions and the truth is so OFF.