[quote=paramount][quote=sdcellar][quote=paramount][quote=greekfire]We are a family of 4, are renters, and have no outstanding debt of any kind; be it student loans, auto loans, credit cards, or otherwise…and we are making a concerted effort to tighten our belts. [/quote]
You probably don’t have much either (material wise)…[/quote]
Wow, I’d love to see the data you have to support that correlation. greekfire could just as easily have plenty of material “wealth” (not that I’m generally advocating materialism/consumerism).[/quote]
Your right – almost anything is possible in piggy land.[/quote]
We are very fair-to-midland as it pertains to material items. My wife is a full-time mom, so that makes it a bit more difficult, but we talked about this b/f we had children and thought it would be a better investment in the long term. I run a small business out of my home and am able to benefit from a lot of the tax breaks associated with it.
We had much more wealth a few years ago (like everyone else). Similarly, finances have tightened up for us as they have done for nearly everybody else. The more things tighten up, the more we tighten our belts and the more I need to do to improve revenue generation. It’s pretty simple.
I applaud those who have been able to profit by maximizing leverage through various debt vehicles. However, I feel very little sympathy for those who fail after having gambled and lost. It’s the family like ours that ends up paying in some form or another.
I don’t know nearly as much as many of the posters here, but I think we are in a really interesting period right now. Interest rates are very attractive and we hopefully plan to purchase in the late fall/winter if everything falls into place. As with all of our other purchases, I intend for our home purchase to be within our means. If things don’t work out, then so be it. We will keep plugging away – or move away. 😉
