By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 26th 2010 8:08AM
Filed under: Celebrity News, Personal Finance, News
Singer Mariah Carey is reportedly being sued for $30,000 in vet bills. The singer, like quite a few celebrities, tends to spend heavy on her pets, which led to a massive $38,000 bill, with Carey paying only $8,000. I can’t imagine Carey not having the money to pay a bill of this size, but anything’s possible.
Apparently, Carey has a dog named “Dolemite,” who was pregnant. Dolemite gave birth unexpectedly while Carey was off in Los Angeles shooting her film, “Precious,” leading to some of the exorbitant costs. I am not completely sure of this, but I thought that the real Dolemite was a dude? Anyway, I digress, at least for now.
I’m not one to criticize Mariah Carey’s decisions when it comes to how she chooses to spend on her pets. Obviously, if she can’t afford the bill, then that’s an entirely different issue. But what Carey does reflect is the general tendency among both celebrities and regular citizens to believe that any little bill here and there isn’t going to make much of a difference in their overall budget. Millions of us add a new cell phone bill here, an extra car note there, comparing the amount of the bill to our entire income.
For example, if you earn a princely sum of, say, $6,000 a month, it’s easy to think that another $200 payment isn’t going to matter one way or the other. The problem is that one small commitment here and another there can often lead to unforeseen financial leverage that puts us in a tough spot once we hit financial hardship. If you make three arbitrary financial commitments of $200 each, you are giving away $600 per month, or $7,200 per year. Over a 5 year period, that’s $35,000 that could have been in your savings account, not including interest. Do you have $35,000 in your savings account right now to help you through a rainy day? I thought so.
