some news

More people aged below 30 finding themselves in huge debt
By Teo Cheng Wee

THEY are under 30, employed and deep in debt.
This is the fastest-growing age group of debtors, say credit counsellors.

On average, they owe $55,000 to about seven creditors, according to new data from Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS), a non-profit group which advises debtors.

Under-30s made up 9 per cent of all cases handled by them in 2006 and 13 per cent last year.

In the first three months of this year, it was up to 15 per cent.

CCS told The Sunday Times that most of these young adults are done in by materialism and a desire for the high life. They splash out on cars, branded goods, overseas holidays, clubbing and gadgets.

Several also gamble away their money.

Young adults are not just facing credit woes - they are also forming a bigger percentage of those who become bankrupt, according to the latest figures from credit analysis firm Amequity.

Last year, people aged 30 and below made up 7 per cent of all bankrupts. In the first four months of this year, that has increased to 12 per cent.

Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_250352.html?vgnmr=1

Another reason why I am trying not to get myself a card. More perks, more temptations to spend.

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Another shockin piece of news.

US schoolgirls make pact to have babies: report

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2008 - A GROUP of US schoolgirls in the Massachusetts fishing town of Gloucester made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together, a report said on Thursday.
Time magazine reported that 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies 'more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year.' 'Nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together,' Mr Joseph Sullivan, principal of the high school in the fishing and beach town told Time.

The father of one of the babies was a 24-year-old homeless man, Mr Sullivan told the weekly news magazine.

According to the Boston Globe newspaper, other men 'involved in the pregnancies are in their mid-20s, a fact that prompted Mayor Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester to ask about statutory rape charges at last month's School Committee meeting.' None of the girls who made the alleged pregnancy pact or their parents agreed to speak with Time, which wrote that Gloucester High 'has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers,' providing them with on-site childcare and healthcare facilities. -- AFP

Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/World/STIStory_249788.html

Case of being naive, ignorant, misinformed or just a "lifestyle choice"?
I just feel sorry for the babies who are being conceived due to a "pact" made.