Is it dumb, lazy, complacent, naive, uncaring or what? I don’t know and I really don’t care because it’s not my money.

Twice last week, I witnessed two people drop a staggering amount of money for no reason other than…read the first line…

When I was going into a store, there was a guy out front trying to boost his car from another one. He had the booster cables hooked up and didn’t look happy. Fast forward less than five minutes as I came out of the store. Now I saw the open hood and the fact that he had the booster cables connected backwards! I stopped and said: Excuse me, but heads up that you’ve connected them backwards. He looked at me like I had two heads and said: I got this. The tone translated that to “f off and mind your own business.” Before I even got to my car I heard a big boom behind me…as his battery exploded. Guess he “didn’t got this.” Best guess is that it also did a bunch of damage to his electrical system and computer. Most likely it’ll end up costing him a thousand bucks or more for the “f off.”

Also last week, I met a couple who purchased about $12,000 in furniture, TV, etc. from a national retailer on a one-year no payment no interest plan about 11 months ago or so. I had gifted them a copy of my Money Tools book and they DID ask what the CCP (credit management degree) behind my name stood for. I asked them if they had the paperwork for the financing. No – they didn’t think so. Hmmm… twelve grand financed and you can’t hang onto the three pieces of paper that came with it?

But I venture on: You do know that you HAVE to pay this off in full 364 days from the date of purchase (not delivery or pickup) right? Why they ask? Because if you don’t, the (around 26% or more) interest gets added to your financing RETROACTIVELY for the full “free” year if it’s not paid in full. So, on day 365 you ow the $12,000 and an instant extra $3100! Plus it’s now $260 of interest a month. Their response: No. That doesn’t sound right. That’s not what the salesman told us.

All I could do was respond with: Oh – OK and leave. Someone with a credit management degree gives you a heads up that you’re about to flush $3100 down the toilet and your response is that that doesn’t “sound right?” Re-read the first line again… Although I would love to see the look on their faces when the next statement arrives in a few weeks…