Down the Perdeim Rabbit HOLE ️

Per diem affects your Annual Adjusted Gross Income which is what lenders go off of when you apply for a mortgage or a car loan.

I hate per diem. I always declined it.

 

I liked it when I got it. Running regional I'd take around 130-150/week untaxed. Added up to a few thousand every year.

And let's face it, if you are a truck driver getting per diem you probably aren't making enough to buy a house, you probably won't live to see SS age anyways, you shouldn't have a car loan, and you likely aren't spending that much daily on expenses as a company driver. Or you shouldn't be at least.

My last year running with per diem I made 80k. Plus another 6ish in per diem. 80k vs 86k isn't qualifying me for a 500k dollar starter home. That little bit of difference in SS won't be realized when I'm able to retire at 67, assuming SS is still a thing by then. OTR or regional guys shouldn't be stacking many miles on their car anyways, buy some old honda or toyota sedan with 150k miles on it for a few thousand cash and call it good. Financing as a trucker is a massive pain in the ### anyways.

If you mention truck driver to a loan officer they'll act like you have leprosy. Ask me how I know.

 

I'll add that my per diem went solely into maxing out my Roth IRA.

 

No it didn’t.

 

With an 813 credit score I have never had problems. And I’m a self employed truck driver

 

Must have a few years of solid tax returns. I'm always in the company driver realm. Here's my experience:

OTR paid mileage. 3 months out, 3 days off.
45k/yr. Literally laughed at.

Regional, hourly with OT+Per Diem
Hourly rate got up to 30/hr. Loan officer/underwriter said they could only count on 40 hours. Company allowed unlimited OT but wouldn't write a letter guaranteeing it. 30 on 40 meant about 60k/yr. ~10% down payment. (Not financially viable.)

LTL. 37.50/hr. .88cpm doubles, .91cpm triples.
Back to the banks/credit union again, needed 2 years W2 strictly on mileage pay. Was waiting for a line spot, never got it, lay offs were around the corner and jumped ship unfortunately. Even so, if I got sent to line in the spring, same answer for each lender, the rest of that year wouldn't count. 2 full years of W2 with ONLY mileage. No period in that year on hourly.

Fuel hauling.
Load pay scam, company steals wages, went to my credit union and just shot the #### with the loan officer since I've seen him a half dozen times now. Since my paychecks are paid for work sometimes and sometimes not, it would fail to get through underwriting. He did recommend me a labor lawyer though lol.

I've said #### it at this point. A ####ing 1968 single wide about to cave in on itself is half a million if it isn't on a trailer park lot with lot fees in a lot of places here. I'm running 60 hour weeks in fuel making 65k/yr. Have a massive downpayment saved up but can't get a mortgage approved for even 200k.

It's unreal. The rich were half right, you'll own nothing. But be miserable. Exist to work, make peanuts, and pay bills. I hate how far this country has fallen.

 

The key to being able to buy anything you want is to not want to buy anything. The banks always want to loan to people who don’t need it

 

Are you talking to lenders who are just shopping the note to mortgage companies? If you talk to a lender who does manual underwriting they actually look at your down payment and what you make a month. Sounds like you may be dealing with companies who enter info in the computer and the computer decides if you get the money or not.

 

You need to do manual underwriting. Going to a mortgage broker is going to yield better results than a bank.

Make sure your unsecured debt is miniscule and provide statements from your retirement accounts.

 

And yet it hasn't been around.