Money Talk, Bad credit & being on the road

Totally missed the point.
Out of the whole thing you picked that.
And you can get a room at most mom and pops with cash and drivers license, might not be a Holiday Inn
But I do have debit and credit cards aand pay them in full weekly.

 

Hertz

 

Don't forget the 6 months it took to evict deadbeats that you had to take to court and they trashed the place when they left.

 

I used a credit card to buy a Mountain Dew and a jumbo hot dog at a Flying J yesterday. I hope that doesn't ruin my credit.

 

Even so, there is profit to be had from using leverage.

Debt is not evil. Poorly structured debt, or debt created for purely pleasure reasons is. But leveraging your position can be beneficial.

 

Leveraging your position? That sounds really sophisticated.

Leverage is not magic. It simply means you use risk to increase your returns. If everything goes right, it works. If something goes wrong, leverage makes it go wrong worse. Leverage is nothing but an amplifier, both to the upside AND to the down side.

How often do things work out the way you planned? Do your plans include a divorce and a vindictive ex-spouse? I've heard that happens sometimes.

Does your plan include a local manufacturer shutting down the plant and moving it to China, and cutting local property values in half? I've heard of that happening.

Do your plans include running into medical problems, and losing your CDL? I know a guy that happened to.

Have you planned for a major recession that cuts your income by as much as half? I remember one of those.

Do your plans include your kid or parent getting sick, and you need to come off the road to take care of them? Won't be the first time that happens.

No, I'm not being Chicken Little, Two of the above actually happened to me, and with proper reserves and minimal debt, we sailed right past the hiccups. Sounds like @adayrider has gone through some of the same hiccups, and came through because he was in the same, low or no leverage position. As the saying goes, S#** actually does happen.

Someone with debt obligations piled on would simply not have made it through financially. Then the amplification of the risk of leverage creates problems; big, hairy, expensive problems like repossessions, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and divorce. On top of whatever life struggle it was to begin with.

 

I can't believe some of you pay for financial advice from a guy who claimed bankruptcy once.

I wanna know where houses are for 140k.

Around here. The average price is up to 400k. And I have noooooo idea where the jobs are to afford that kinda house.

 

There is always risk.

There is a risk that I burn down my house when I try to fry my Thanksgiving turkey. Yet if done correctly there is little real risk.

Owning a firearm has risks. Responsible gun owners manage those risks.

Most risks can be identified and their impact mitigated. Saying that ALL risk is bad would mean never having any experiences at all.

Using credit is not an inherently bad thing.

Say I pay $750 a month for a two bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. I save my nickels and dimes and come up with a downpayment for aa house, get a 5% mortgage and have a $600 monthly payment on a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house. Take into account property taxes, insurance, upkeep etc and in 10 years I am about the same place in regards to cash on hand. But if I buy the house then I have 50% equity. Could housing prices tumble? Yep. But it's still a good risk.

On the other hand the mortgage could cost me more than renting. Or I could be planning on moving . Or, or, or, or....

You have to look at the whole picture and make an informed decision.

 

He came up with his programs based on the mistakes he made leading to his bankruptcy.

If the average is 400k, then there are numerous houses under 400k. Part of the problem is that too many people think they need/ deserve their dream house. By working your way up in houses, $400k can be affordable.

 

A month or two ago a retired boilermaker had an auction and sold his tools and home,
a nice big house with a basement, a horse barn with a big shop and living quarters in it and 28 acres with 2 lakes and woods and cropland for 345,000.