The 9th grade education probably doesn't help. High School dropouts affect America severely... for the rest of their lives.
IMO, this is an issue of a failed education system, failing to equip this woman with the skills she needs to do any financial planning.
I'm personally of the opinion that we need to have public education for 30+ year olds who are in this state. No amount of assistance is going to help them until we give them financial training to make better decisions.
Give high school dropouts in their 30s and 40s an opportunity to grow in society. Maybe she'll actually be able to get that job at Walmart if we train her.
No amount of financial planning is going to assuage the feeling of being a poorer person because one cannot afford what ones friends, family, or neighbours, all have or aspire to have, or appear to have. A better general education might have some effect. One doesn't merely need the financial planning skill, one needs an incentive to apply it and to suffer the consequences. Yes, I do mean suffer; for many people the facade they present to the world really matters. Standing out from the crowd is a luxury that a lot of people cannot afford. I can afford it because I am lucky enough to have skills that others will pay well for me to exercise. Someone who's only skill is efficient stacking of shelves in the local supermarket has less freedom of action. They cannot claim that the reason they don't have a sofa because they prefer sitting on the floor because that would mark them as being odd. Fitting in is a powerful desire in most people and more powerful when you need the support network. The US, and increasingly the UK, is a great place to be wealthy but it looks from here (Norway) to be rather uncomfortable if you are even a bit less well off than than average.
If she's paying $4500 for rent-to-own couches when everyone else is buying them for $1500, then yes, this is a financial planning problem.
She gets the couch either way, but in one instance, she gets the couch and keeps $3000 for herself, instead of paying exorbitant fees due to poor credit. (probably because she kept defaulting on loans and no bank trusts her for a standard credit card like everyone else). Bad Credit doesn't just pop up overnight.
I do think that in America, you can screw yourself harder than in other countries. There are numerous lifelines, and plenty of credit opportunities... but those close off if you make bad decisions and lose trust. You will never be starving or missing out on critical health care however, due to the food stamps and medicaid programs (which I do support funding)... but building someone up who has reached rock bottom seems to be a difficult problem to solve.
There are other problems, like she doesn't have the skills to even pass as a Walmart shelf-stocker. I really don't know what we're supposed to do about that, outside of maybe expand our public education system to include adults.
IMO, this is an issue of a failed education system, failing to equip this woman with the skills she needs to do any financial planning.
I'm personally of the opinion that we need to have public education for 30+ year olds who are in this state. No amount of assistance is going to help them until we give them financial training to make better decisions.
Give high school dropouts in their 30s and 40s an opportunity to grow in society. Maybe she'll actually be able to get that job at Walmart if we train her.