It is hard to make ends meet as a mural artist. It’s especially difficult if you also have dissociative identity disorder like Tara Gregson in Showtime’s “United States of Tara“. Tara has three alternate personalities named T, Alice and Buck. T is a rebellious teenage girl who loves to wear short skirts and go on shopping sprees at the mall. Alice is an old fashioned homemaker who loves to bake. Buck is a male personality who smokes and drinks. The question quickly becomes How do you support all of these personalities on an artist’s salary?
According to Payscale, Tara’s annual income as a mural artist can average around $43,000. Her husband runs a small landscaping business and probably earns $30,000 a year. They have two teenagers and live in the suburbs of Overland, Kansas. House prices in their neighborhood start at $215,900, and the average monthly mortgage payment is $1,658, according to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau. The census also states that the median household income for a family in Overland is $91,806. The Gregson family is estimated to make almost $20,000 less than the average, and most likely has plenty of medical bills and credit card debt.
Adding it up
If the Gregsons rely on credit cards to pay for the basic living essentials for a family of four (seven including T, Alice and Buck), there is no “best credit card” to use. Should Tara’s condition stabilize, depending on the size of the family’s debt, transferring high interest rate balances onto balance transfer credit cards would be the best step to take. But as soon as the debt is consolidated, the newly-empty accounts should be closed to prevent further spending.
Tara’s alternate personalities are not cheap either. T frequently steal’s Tara’s credit card and goes on shopping sprees with her daughter, Kate. Buck goes out to buy beer and a pack of cigarettes whenever he can, and his costly habit is coming out of Tara’s pocket. The family would have to rely on credit cards to keep up with Tara’s lifestyle and live as comfortably as they do.
Throughout the series Tara visits a therapist once a week, which can cost up to $200 an hour. The series does not address where the family is getting the money to pay for Tara’s medical treatment, but Tara did comment that she hoped to get better before their car insurance quotes ran out. When she admitted herself into an inpatient treatment center to figure out what triggers her alternate personalities, her husband mentioned that it was costing them $6,000 a week. She and her husband are self-employed and would have to pay out of pocket, use credit cards or purchase an insurance plan to cover her medical expenses.
Paying for medical bills with a high interest credit card can result in serious debt for the Gregson family. Tara only has one freelance job as far as we know: to paint a mural for an acquaintance. Tara was then fired because one of her alternate personalities ruined the mural. Her family cannot afford to lose any income when they have a mortgage and car payment to pay.
