Steve Rhode
Steve Rhode is the founder of Myvesta US in the United States and the Chairman of Myvesta UK in the United Kingdom.
More Awareness Needed
One of the blogs that I enjoy reading recently posted a very interesting article that wanted me to share it with you.
In an effort to help you understand why it is wrong for HSBC, HFC, Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One and all the others to vilify debtors when they can’t pay the bills, it is important to understand that money problems are not about the money, they are about the underlying issues.
As long as the collection companies of professional creditors continue to label problem account owners as liars, cheats, thieve and idiots, we just aren’t going to make a lot of forward progress to creating a kind and compassionate framework to allowing debtors to resolve their debt problems and creditors to get paid.
Many times in my life of helping people I have had clients that have found themselves in financial trouble, for a variety of reasons, and in some cases it has been because of excessive collecting or collecting beyond one’s ability to afford the collecting. That does not make the person an idiot or financially stupid as many debt collectors would say.
In fact, many volunteer advisers or credit counselors simply tell people to stop collecting or stop doing this or that. The point is that more understanding of these underlying issues is necessary to make real changes.
Unfortunately today, what culture labels as acceptable credit counseling, or debt counseling is much like a patient going to a doctor with a medical problem and only the most obvious symptom is treated. Imagine a broken bone protruding from an arm only to be shoved back under the skin and considering that to be fixed. When financial live are wrecked everyone needs to do more than just build that person a budget or give clever advice like “stop collecting tools” or whatever it is.
So with all of that in context, let me turn you over to one of my Twitter friends, purplecar for her wonderful post on the issues of collecting. Be sure to read her blog also.
Popular psychology’s "they" say that 'everyone collects something.'
It took me a while to think about what I collect. I have a pretty big fabric and art supply stash (there probably aren’t very many crafts left in the world that I haven’t tried). I have a pretty filled-up font book on my Mac. But I don’t house my collections in some cabinet like rare coins. I don’t collect anything of any value. They are supplies that can be replaced easily, a means to an end, like keeping a well-stocked food pantry. I’m not too exciting that way.
Characters with a collecting habit can be pretty interesting. The plotline can go so many different ways. Is your character poor but saves and saves for a haute couture dress she is never going to wear? Is your character wealthy beyond imagination but loves vintage broken checker sets? Why do they collect? Is it a secret? Do they have friends/competitors that collect the same objects?
The psychology behind collecting isn’t well defined, but this website had a good summary:
For some people collecting is simply the quest, in some cases a life-long pursuit that is never complete. Additional collector motivations include psychological security, filling a void in a sense of self. Or it could be to claim a means to distinction, much as uniforms make the “man.” Collections could be a means to immortality or fame …
For some, the satisfaction comes from experimenting with arranging, re-arranging, and classifying parts of a-big-world-out-there, which can serve as a means of control to elicit a comfort zone in one’s life, e.g., calming fears, erasing insecurity. The motives are not mutually exclusive, as certainly many motives can combine to create a collector – one does not eat just because of hunger.
We are writers; This picture of a harmless collector trying to make sense of the world is lacking drama. Throw some obsession into it (a la Indiana Jones) and you’ll run into some inner and outer conflict when a character has to choose between the collection and something or someone equally as important.
If the collecting obsession truly turns sour, it is known as “hoarding.” Hoarding is the extreme case of collecting. Whereas collecting is a pursuit or a quest as an end in itself, hoarding behavior forsakes all other people and things. Often, a hoarder will harm others in their attempts to gather as much of the object as possible. Hoarders are those types that save every newspaper ever delivered to them or have 200 cats living in their house. It’s a psychological pathology that needs treatment. A hoarding character has the potential of taking over your book. For example, serial killers are thought to be hoarders of people. Entire books are written around this pathology, so make good choices on how obsessive you would like your character to seem.
One of my characters likes antiques. Mostly a very frugal person, she is a big fan of antiques from the Mayflower and Puritan England, and sneaks away to look for expensive pieces to buy any chance she gets. Her family is aware of it; her furniture collecting is pretty harmless, and this character has a mansion to fill anyway. But the want of this particular kind of antique says something about her wants and desires, especially when compared to her 1st generation off-the-boat Italian catholic upbringing. Choose your character’s collection so it shows a deeper, unexpected side of him or her. When do they find time to go searching? How many hours do they spend? Do they keep the treasures or give them away? Is it about the pursuit or the obtaining or both? What sense are they trying to make of the world? There are so many opportunities to show and not tell with a character’s collecting.
Think first of what you might collect now or started to collect as a child. Baseball cards? Matchbooks? Obsolete technology? See what your imagination can do when you collect your thoughts around collecting, and write on. Come back to PC and let me know what you came up with!
So do you get the point? In this case the debt is just the symptom of the underlying issue of the emotional need to collect. As long as debt collectors only demand payment or credit counselors want to make a better budget, the real issues leading to the debt are never ever addressed.
We all need to do a better job with this.
In an effort to help you understand why it is wrong for HSBC, HFC, Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One and all the others to vilify debtors when they can’t pay the bills, it is important to understand that money problems are not about the money, they are about the underlying issues.
As long as the collection companies of professional creditors continue to label problem account owners as liars, cheats, thieve and idiots, we just aren’t going to make a lot of forward progress to creating a kind and compassionate framework to allowing debtors to resolve their debt problems and creditors to get paid.
Many times in my life of helping people I have had clients that have found themselves in financial trouble, for a variety of reasons, and in some cases it has been because of excessive collecting or collecting beyond one’s ability to afford the collecting. That does not make the person an idiot or financially stupid as many debt collectors would say.
In fact, many volunteer advisers or credit counselors simply tell people to stop collecting or stop doing this or that. The point is that more understanding of these underlying issues is necessary to make real changes.
Unfortunately today, what culture labels as acceptable credit counseling, or debt counseling is much like a patient going to a doctor with a medical problem and only the most obvious symptom is treated. Imagine a broken bone protruding from an arm only to be shoved back under the skin and considering that to be fixed. When financial live are wrecked everyone needs to do more than just build that person a budget or give clever advice like “stop collecting tools” or whatever it is.
So with all of that in context, let me turn you over to one of my Twitter friends, purplecar for her wonderful post on the issues of collecting. Be sure to read her blog also.
Popular psychology’s "they" say that 'everyone collects something.'
It took me a while to think about what I collect. I have a pretty big fabric and art supply stash (there probably aren’t very many crafts left in the world that I haven’t tried). I have a pretty filled-up font book on my Mac. But I don’t house my collections in some cabinet like rare coins. I don’t collect anything of any value. They are supplies that can be replaced easily, a means to an end, like keeping a well-stocked food pantry. I’m not too exciting that way.
Characters with a collecting habit can be pretty interesting. The plotline can go so many different ways. Is your character poor but saves and saves for a haute couture dress she is never going to wear? Is your character wealthy beyond imagination but loves vintage broken checker sets? Why do they collect? Is it a secret? Do they have friends/competitors that collect the same objects?
The psychology behind collecting isn’t well defined, but this website had a good summary:
For some people collecting is simply the quest, in some cases a life-long pursuit that is never complete. Additional collector motivations include psychological security, filling a void in a sense of self. Or it could be to claim a means to distinction, much as uniforms make the “man.” Collections could be a means to immortality or fame …
For some, the satisfaction comes from experimenting with arranging, re-arranging, and classifying parts of a-big-world-out-there, which can serve as a means of control to elicit a comfort zone in one’s life, e.g., calming fears, erasing insecurity. The motives are not mutually exclusive, as certainly many motives can combine to create a collector – one does not eat just because of hunger.
We are writers; This picture of a harmless collector trying to make sense of the world is lacking drama. Throw some obsession into it (a la Indiana Jones) and you’ll run into some inner and outer conflict when a character has to choose between the collection and something or someone equally as important.
If the collecting obsession truly turns sour, it is known as “hoarding.” Hoarding is the extreme case of collecting. Whereas collecting is a pursuit or a quest as an end in itself, hoarding behavior forsakes all other people and things. Often, a hoarder will harm others in their attempts to gather as much of the object as possible. Hoarders are those types that save every newspaper ever delivered to them or have 200 cats living in their house. It’s a psychological pathology that needs treatment. A hoarding character has the potential of taking over your book. For example, serial killers are thought to be hoarders of people. Entire books are written around this pathology, so make good choices on how obsessive you would like your character to seem.
One of my characters likes antiques. Mostly a very frugal person, she is a big fan of antiques from the Mayflower and Puritan England, and sneaks away to look for expensive pieces to buy any chance she gets. Her family is aware of it; her furniture collecting is pretty harmless, and this character has a mansion to fill anyway. But the want of this particular kind of antique says something about her wants and desires, especially when compared to her 1st generation off-the-boat Italian catholic upbringing. Choose your character’s collection so it shows a deeper, unexpected side of him or her. When do they find time to go searching? How many hours do they spend? Do they keep the treasures or give them away? Is it about the pursuit or the obtaining or both? What sense are they trying to make of the world? There are so many opportunities to show and not tell with a character’s collecting.
Think first of what you might collect now or started to collect as a child. Baseball cards? Matchbooks? Obsolete technology? See what your imagination can do when you collect your thoughts around collecting, and write on. Come back to PC and let me know what you came up with!
So do you get the point? In this case the debt is just the symptom of the underlying issue of the emotional need to collect. As long as debt collectors only demand payment or credit counselors want to make a better budget, the real issues leading to the debt are never ever addressed.
We all need to do a better job with this.
