A few years ago, when the U.S. economy was still pretty terrible, a nice and well-intentioned submitter (and parent) submitted this screenshot, writing, “This is a mommyjacking of the laid-off kind. I know the employment world is cruddy, but this one took the cake for me.” When I went back and looked in my email, I’d replied, “She really didn’t need to say that much.” For a while I wanted to post it, because it seemed topical and qualified as a mommyjacking, but I kept asking myself if Crystal really was sharing too much information. Is it worth shaming someone when she’s just being honest about her situation? And instead of slightly cringing inside, might it even be worth messaging to ask how to help in some way? I wound up not posting the submission because it started to seem wrong and cruel. Crystal even added a smiley to the end of her paragraph-long comment! I couldn’t bring myself to cast judgment.
I’ve never really been shy about the fact that I started this blog after losing my job in the fall of 2008, and I’m certainly no stranger to debt and financial strain, so I wanted to briefly share a video that a friend of mine has been working on for a really long time, and hopefully add to the conversation that the movie is prompting. It’s called "Spent: Looking For Change," and it’s about Americans who don’t have a bank account or access to traditional financial services. People can wind up in that situation for a variety of reasons, including student loan debt, health complications, defaulting on bills due to being out of work, or even just a lack of financial education that results in a few years of bad credit choices. (I say this having experienced a few of these personally.)
The “underbanked,” which are people who “rely on cash and checks and tend to turn to alternative financial services, like check cashers, pawn shops, money order services and payday lenders,” are usually our friends, relatives, and coworkers, and yet most of us don’t really talk about our financial problems, either online or in real life. According to the "Spent" website, “this issue affects nearly 70 million Americans,” and, ”the FDIC estimates that more than 40% of Americans have used an alternative financial service at some point in their life.”
It’s a national crisis that’s deeply unsettling, and since so many people who read this site can probably identify — or know someone who can — I thought I’d take a one-post pause from our regularly (or not-so-regularly) scheduled programming to highlight this 40 minute documentary. If you have a heart, it may shatter to pieces when you’re watching like mine did, and if you’re an American worker (which I realize not all of you are), it will likely inspire you to consider the current legislative climate (and possibly help raise discussion by sharing the movie on Facebook). At the very least, I hope you’ll watch it. Feel free to write about your own experiences in the comments, too, if you’d like. I know this issue is pretty off-topic for the blog, so if this post is of absolutely no interest to you, don’t worry — I’ll be back with a new post later today. In the meantime, here’s one of my new favorite Mom’s Gold Star submissions:
We should all aspire to Danny levels of leisure.
(submitted by Anonymous)
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To watch “Spent,” click below or go to spentmovie.com and learn more about why 70MM+ financially underserved Americans will spend almost $40k on unnecessary fees in their lifetime. (And if you watch the movie, you can contribute to entrepreneur-designer Debbie of DEBIL’s newly-launched Kickstarter right here. Go Debbie!)
*This post is sponsored by American Express, which also sponsored the film. The movie is not about American Express products or a promotion for the institution itself, and I am not personally affiliated with the company. I’m just a supporter of financial change, and I was genuinely moved by the film.