Don't work yourself into a bad standard of living

Oh I hear you Brandon... Montana is the hells bells. Father-in-law is in Dixon. Nothing there though. Its different when its just you.... when you have a family you have to buck up and buy yourself a spread. Family there helps... I've got a kiddo and I'd like some family around. If the wife were more Grizzly Adams and less Kim Kardasian then you'd have it made.... but you'd have to do something about the smell and the hair

 

I've been at home taking care of the kids for years... she pretty much can do what she wants.

I'm itching to do something I'VE wanted to do. Now its my turn.. I know, trucking?... She's still going to work... from home, remotely (Works for Microsoft).. but with two incomes, I'm looking at Winchesters now.

 

Brandon... you're in Cle Elum. Who do you drive for if you don't mind me asking... And where did you get your CDL?

I love the Teanaway Valley over there... looked at a place there last year. If I decided to stay in Washington I'd probably look there.

 

Funny how that works. I want a new horse trailer with living quarters ok I want to go to Chamonix France. That ended the discussion.

 

Ha! Sometimes that's how it works.

 

The banks make 3-4 times the cost of the original loan because they aren't getting their money back for 3 decades. You wouldn't want your 401k provider or IRA provider to invest your money for 30 years and then only give back a little more than you gave them. The banks are making a modest, yes modest, profit on the loan for a house if every payment is made. They also lose money when they don't get paid back and have to repo, refurbish, and re-sell it.

This country and others are going down the tubes because EVERYONE wants the govt to outlaw something that an idiot can use to hurt them self.The problem isn't the govt didn't out law it. The problem is that idiots need to face the consequences of their bad decisions starting much earlier. If the idiots didn't get baled out from their early stupid decisions they would learn why THEY must research and make choices that help them. Not just accept that anything a salesman wants them to buy must be good for them and then start crying when they learn what happens when you buy something without knowing what you are doing. You can learn things from bad experiences. You can learn things from other people's bad experiences. But it is impossible for the govt to outlaw every possible bad experience and not build a totalitarian prison for the rest of us. Using the govt to outlaw something that an idiot would choose to do is like giving someone a sandwich. It helps at that moment. Creating people that learn to investigate what they should do so they don't do stupid things is like teaching them to grow their own food. It's hard work and it takes time, but it is the long term solution. Look around the world isn't getting better even as we pass more laws and outlaw more and more things. Anyone making a $100-200,000 decisions without thinking through how they repay it and they can only repay if every paycheck for the next 30 years if bigger than the last, etc doesn't deserve to be protected. They deserve what they sign up for. They are adults even if they prefer to watch movies and play video games.

 

There is nothing financially reckless about buying a home when the housing market crashes, re-financing it when the interest rates fall to historical lows, and paying it off in 30 years. But when you sign up for that you are also signing up for going to work every day, even if you would rather play tennis or drink beer. You are also signing up to keep enough savings to pay for maintenance, even though you want to go on a 21 day drunken cruise instead. The buyer can and should decide what they can afford, not some govt clerk, some Senator, or a bunch of Marxist college professors, or even a truck driver. There are different ways to afford things. You decide what YOU can afford or HOW you can afford it. If someone picks the wrong option, they get to live with the consequences. They also can learn from the mistake or just demand some dishonest politician outlaw bad consequences for bad plans. Why can't I CHOOSE to pay my house off over 30 years? Because some clerk at Walmart will buy too much house, spend more money on vacations and big TVs than house payments before getting foreclosed on? For decades 30 year mortgages were the most common way houses were bought. Then a bunch of reckless apartment dwellers believed the hype from reckless politicians and bankers that if they bought more home than their pay could afford and, if they refinanced it 3 times in 5 years taking out lots of cash they could become rich. It's impossible to protect an idiot. They will ALWAYS decide to walk past the warning signs, climb over 8 feet barbed-wire fences and jump into the tiger cage to "pet the big kitty" before going on TV to complain about those zookeepers that didn't stop them from doing it.

 

If people think only a lucky few people will take the time to learn how to responsibly handle finances, but we also need to protect the other 80% of people that are too busy with work and family, there is a non-govt answer. Those people can use a shortcut, they can turn to a trusted source run by individuals or groups of individuals. Think of a Consumers Report for various finance situations. "I may not know how to pick between a 15 year mortgage and a 30 years mortgage, or how to pick between saving money in a savings account and an IRA, but I do know Dave Ramsey, or Consumer Reports, or some other source says "do this." Instead the people that make financially disastrous decisions would rather constantly monitor Kim Kardashian, or the lives of movie stars and musicians. Make choices, get results. Don't make stupid choices. "If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice."

There is ample information in the world for anyone to make better decisions. Every major newspaper has a personal finance columnist. Some people are just driven to have fun 24/7 instead of spend 30 minutes a month making sure they have money or a home later.

 

You can take out a 30 year mortgage with a low monthly payment and then repay it in 10 years, saving all of that extra interest the bank would have made if you paid as agreed. Some people CHOOSE to pay the low monthly payments for 30 years so they can buy motorcycles and boats and RVs, or redecorate every few years.

 

I would like to know what percentage of folks that do the 30 year mortgage thing ever really pays them off, it seems like a huge percentage of people never stay in the same house for even 10 years, before buying a different one for one reason or other.