My favorite radio show in the world is To The Best of Our Knowledge. Every week they interview people about a theme. These people can be authors, musicians, artists, or just people with an interesting story to tell. This morning, I was listening to an older program that dealt with shopping. Of course, no discussion about shopping is complete without throwing debt into the equation.
They interviewed someone who was in a similar situation to myself. She was young (in her 20's) and had found herself in over $20,000 in credit card debt after she moved to New York and succumbed to the extravagant lifestyle. After she lost her job and could pay her bills anymore she became determined to pay off her debt and started a website called Save Karyn. She basically asked everyone to donate money to her cause and amazingly enough, people actually gave her money. She is now debt free thanks to her savings effort and through the generous donations of others. She wrote a book 
It's stories like these that give you that "why didn't I think of that feeling". Actually, I did think of it, but my pride wouldn't let me turn this blog into a donation center. It's funny to think that this approach actually worked for someone and now they are debt free and selling books! Maybe I should have been asking for donations all along...
Monday, January 09, 2006
Save Karyn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I wonder if her book is any better than The Broke Diaries. It was horribly disappointing.
I think your way is much better. You are learning a valuable lesson about paying it back and that will go a long way. I think asking other people to pay off your debt isn't the right road. My husband and I are currently trying to work our way out of debt (again - time #3) and I really hope we can do better this time. But asking other people to do it for me never crossed my mind.
It's not worth it...pick it up at the library if you you're going to read it so you don't waste your money...don't pay for it. She was just at the right place at the right time - Internet one hit wonder, but nothing she says is of use.
I think it is sad that Karyn had to be bailed out of her own irresponsibility like that. Now she has a book deal and is probably in good shape financially, but what happens if those royalty checks stop coming in? I've looked at her site before and it's not clear to me that she has any other "real job."
Is she going to need another bailout one of these days when her royalty checks stop coming? She does make an effort to refer people to good info on debt reduction, etc. on her website but she is not what I would call a poster girl for financial responsibilty.
I'm shaking my head in disbelief. Karyn won the lottery with this idea, but the approach you're taking, lpkitten, is a lot longer-lasting.
I followed here through a long and lengthy chain of financial bloggers. I read this book and while I thought Karyn was a twit, I do think she learned her lesson by the end of the book. I'm a bit more forgiving of her now, because it takes a lot of humility to put yourself and your debt out there. She does take all the blame for her own doing and I do think she changed most of her ways. A lot of people wrote her some really mean and angry emails and she had to eat it all to put herself out there. If anything it's a cautionary tale.
FWIW, yes, it's not worth buying. She is annoying and you'll have a lot of smack the forehead moments when you ask yourself, 'What was she thinking?!?!' The couch incident especially, for the reasons I put in my book review.
And if you had a button on your website for PayPal and I visited here enough, I'd probably give you a dollar or two. Why not? Harness the power of the internet.
I am reading this book. It's funny and while i'm reading, i feel like i don't need to pay attention on my money because if i were in financial trouble caused by huge shopping, someone could help me.
Post a Comment