This is awesome.
I think the stupid percentage that you used to be able to go up to on your mortgage was something like 30 or 33% of your monthly gross wages as a household. I think I have a pretty big house. It's not even 18 years old. I've lived in it for 4 years. When we bought the house, the mortgage payment was about 17% of our monthly gross wages. Now, four years later, it's 14.5%. Am I in any danger of losing my house? Not even close. What if one of us loses our job? Still not even close. Why? We bought comfortably within our means. We drop our daughter off to play at some houses that two of ours would fit into...and ours isn't small by any means. Had we stayed in the first house we bought, our mortgage right now would be 8% of our monthly gross. When we bought that first house in 1996, the mortgage was about 21% of our monthly gross. I refinanced the first house twice in 8 years bringing down the payment substantially. I bought less house so I could save for retirement and my daughter's college fund. If the government is spending money wisely I don't complain too much about taxes and I understand the logic that the economy could do even worse if these knuckleheads are forced out onto the streets.....but for fuck's sake.....if we are going to bail people out to the tune of what they are talking about concerning mortgages....then there should be rules attached. You smoke? Not any more, dickhead. We're not giving you a dime of government money if you continue to smoke two packs a day or $14 that could be going to your mortgage. Your car cost what? Yea, I'm sorry asshole, but you'll be trading in your Acura for a Ford Focus....tomorrow. We'll pay your mortgage, but the 52" Sony Bravia XBR4 is going right the fuck back to Best Buy where you can pick up your new 27" tube job. Eating out? Nope. Not, if we're paying your mortgage, dillweed. See, the government is going to make a new ID card you need if your rate got dropped due to your stupidity. You'll be leaving Legal Seafood and moving down to the Ground Round y'all. Ya Hear? Snowflake is in Private School? Not anymore she's not. Now she might end up behind the stairs making out with somebody of whom you don't approve. I am royally pissed off about this. I can't wait to hear the Dog's take on it. From my count, the Dog owns 5 houses...yes 5. Is he in any danger of losing any of them? Hell No, I wouldn't be surprised if 3 or 4 of them are paid off. Stupid people suck. There are people who bought under their limit and are doing all the right things and are having trouble keeping their heads above water and I respect the shit out of them. They are not the object of my scorn so don't think me heartless. My scorn is well placed and well deserved. I could rant on this all night and have before in the past. This is almost 3 years old.
3 comments:
Well, Fan is close. I own 4 houses in three different states, two of which are paid off. Used to have a fifth one.
I sold one house in 2005 at the peak of the housing bubble and I have no doubt the poor folks who overpaid me for it have found that their mortgage is for more than that place is worth now.
Timing is everything real estate or as much of everything as location is anyway. That wasn't always so. Used to be that your home or real estate investments were almost certain to go up in value over time. But what happened in the mid 2000s was that prices rose so high so fast that we're now in an economic adjustment period that will no doubt go too far in the other direction before leveling itself out at a fair value.
But if you screwed up and paid too much for a house, or if you accepted a financing deal that you can't handle now, I say too fucking bad, brother. You should have paid attention in class... or at the very least at the settlement table!
Welcome to Obama's USSA (United Socialist States of America). Give tax dollars from people who had the good sense to make correct decisions to dumb fools who will continue to piss away those dollars cause they're too stupid to do anything else. And they will remain that stupid because there is no repercussion for being that stupid.
Used to be that stupidity was the universal crime. For which punishment was swift, just, automatic and without malice. Not in Obama's USSA. You can go out and do the dumbest things with your money and your neighbor will bail you out. It's the story of the Three Little Pigs come to life ladies and gentlemen.
What the hell is the morale of the story in the Three Little Pigs anyhow? How you're supposed to plan ahead for troubling times when danger is at your door, right? That's the way I see it.
But of course there's two sides to every story and Obama and the dumbasses see it as how the pig who built his house of brick saved the other two idiot brothers and they all lived happily every after.
Do fairy tales imitate life or does life imitate fairy tales?
You know, I don't get these people, either. The folks who made $40K a year who bought a $200K home and some stupidly expensive car.
When I bought my house, I went a little over what I could afford, but nothing so crazy that I'm in danger of losing it. (I've always lived in small homes and apartments, so I wanted something big for once.) But even so, as my agent kept pressing me to buy higher, I kept doing the math and was like, "Are you high? Seriously?"
Yeah, I could afford that mortgage, if I didn't have things like food, utilities and taxes to pay. I don't know...in college, I used to make like $500/mo. as a student employee. I lived in shitty apartments and I learned how to budget.
I don't live high on the hog by any means. I don't have the most up-to-date fashions and don't drive an expensive car. But I also don't have credit cards, the only debt I carry is my car and house, and I still have my HDTV, a PS3, and can still go out drinking or have dinner regularly with friends. When I got hit with a $1K car repair bill on my old Jetta, I had it in the bank and it didn't break me to pay it.
Living within your means ain't so bad, you know?
Hey - the banking stimulus pkg called for CEOs to limit their pay, so I think people getting something from the bailout here should make some concessions, too. I'm with my bro...sell your car and buy a clunker. Sell all the electronics in your house until you have a small, 13 inch black and white TV, eat mac and cheese five nights a week. But you DON'T SKIP YOUR MORTGAGE PMT!!! The bleeding heart liberal in me has no problem helping those truly in need, but please. If you have a big screen TV and are taking fancy trips and eating out six times a week, you're aren't in need.
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