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BikeRider
ParticipantThe Blame game. The majority of Americans appear to immediately blame someone else for their own mistakes. I find it very disgusting. People think the Government should be doing everything for them. Our Government is a screwed up mess. YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. I also suggest people read John G. Miller’s book ‘QBQ’.
ParticipantEveryone blames Bush for everything that goes wrong. Bush didn’t put a gun to anyone’s head and MAKE THEM take out loans, buy big expensive houses, buy Hummers, buy BMWs, get pedicures, yada, yada. GREED. All of these people that have been kidding themsleves that they could afford the big house, buy the investment property or buy all the other CRAP that they think will make them happy and look like they are somebody, and really couldn’t afford it, AND didn’t have an exit strategy, are now going to suffer (How’s that for a run on sentence?). They will get a reality check. Actaully, I HOPE they get a reality check. When things go wrong, most people now days want to blame somebody else for their stupidity. Sub prime lenders are BAD, everyone knows that. But they don’t force people to take out loans. The people made their own choice. I don’t feel sorry for them one little bit. Same for people with large credit card debt. Those people decided all on their own that they would give themselves a loan (using credit cards) to buy crap. Now they have large amounts owed on cards and I bet they can’t even figure out where the money went. Probably going out to dinner. LostCat, of course a business is going to look out for itself. The days are gone where someone could retire from a place. You are just a number in most companies and they could give a hoot about you. They want production, period. I don’t know where it is all headed really. Production…..we should all slow down and enjoy life a little more.
ParticipantThese people are a paycheck away from disaster. I’ll tell you what I did two years ago and it has been the best thing for me. I cut up my credit cards and just use my debit card. I do not have a big payment starring me in the face at the end of each month (I used to pay off the cards each month). Credit cards are a trap. As one poster (at least) said, if they miss a payment on ANYTHING (phone bill, house payment, electric bill, credit card), the card issuer uses that as an excuse to bump the interest rate up to the upper limit, which is typically 30%. I listen to a money show where people call in with their troubles. Almost all of them have very high credit card debt, extremely high interest rates (due to missing some other payment) and it is killing them.
I wouldn’t recommend them taking out a loan to pay off their credit card LOANS (people forget they laoned themselves money!). They won’t be changing their habits. Too many people get a HELOC, pay off the cards, then run them back up. Then they have credit card debt AND the HELOC, with no access to more money (unless the house still has room for more HELOC….can you say crazy?). They need to buckle down, cut up the cards, then start paying off the debt. Do as Dave Ramsey says, start with the smallest amount, then work up. As they pay off the smaller loans, then they have more to apply to the bigger ones. Just pay minimums on all the rest as you attack the smaller amounts, working up.
My wife and I have no credit card debt at all and it is WONDERFUL, believe me.
ParticipantEvery auto has good and bad points. Toyota vehicles seem to have thin metal. Sound like tin to me when I tap the sides. They have nice shapes, but rust out severely. I own a 2001 Ford F250 4×4 with the 7.3L diesel. Extended cab, full bed. This truck is a real work horse. The diesel has lots of towing power. If I want a work truck, I always look at Fords.
January 25, 2007 at 5:37 AM in reply to: “If I hadn’t survived, everything would have been fine.” #44147ParticipantFROM THE ARTICLE-
“Three times a week, they call and say, ‘Where’s my money?’ ” he said. “If I hadn’t survived, everything would have been fine.”What the heck is he talking about? Fine for whom? I mean, his plan was to leave his wife with a mortgage that was going to sky rocket? So she had $100K, what good is that if the mortgage is going up to $4500, whether he is dead or alive, because he hadn’t read the fine print? Good going there fella. What was his initial mortgage on his home? The article states he was paying $2900, then it went to $4500. Now, if he was only paying on $100K, that isn’t $2900 a month. Here they are, retired, with a mortgage. NO THANK YOU! Our country seems headed towards a bad event.
ParticipantI was disappointed in the program. They spent too much time on how people are using the internet to beg and show casing the porno guy. They could have explained better to people steps to take to get themselves out of debt. I listen to Dave Ramsey on XM and though the guy is a bit kooky, he has some good ideas. 20/20 didn’t give him but a couple minutes, yet they spent a lot more time on the frugal family. The first couple they show cased in money trouble, $60K in credit card debt, $100K time share, car loans, $4K a month house payment. Ouch. I taped the show and paused it on the parts where the money counselor had his charts up. He had outlined that they needed to sell their house, their rental, get a refund for some realistate course the wife was taking ($21K), fund $25K to an emergency fund. Anyway, from the profits from the home sale and the course refund they would pay off the $60K credit cards, cars, mortgages, fund the emergency fund, rent a home (not buy) and when all was said and done they would have $3k left over. But at least they would have $25K emergency fund when it was done. Their counselor said they were about five months from bankruptcy. But it all hinged on them selling their California home, in todays market. Quick shots of the home showed broken windows, worn out furniture and torn window screens. The couple didn’t appear to me that they knew what kind of trouble they were really in. The wife was looking like she wasn’t on board with the drastic changes they were being told to make. I’d like to know what they ended up doing. The show was interesting, but could have been much more informative.
ParticipantTV guide had this-
Episode Detail: Flat Broke: Begging and Borrowing in America – 20/20
A report on personal finance using case studies to focus on debt and how to get and stay out of it (including a segment on “cyberbegging”). Also: Brian Ross on debt-collection tactics; John Stossel on positive aspects of debt.ParticipantA house built in 1945 is surely a total piece of junk. Everything not visible to the naked eye is OLD. Unless it has been gutted and all the plumbing and electrical brought up to code. How in the world can it be worth a million dollars? I don’t care HOW pretty the weather is. Crazy is all I can say. 1600 sq ft ?? The tax basis is what that house is actually worth.
ParticipantThe story of Bill Gates is rather interesting. He was just some computer geek. Would show up at computer trade shows unshaven and needing a bath. Actually stunk. It was mostly timing for him. IBM needed a PC. They were looking for an OS. They went to Bill’s place and I think they sent IBM to this other software company. The guy that owned that shop was out and his second in command would not sign a non-disclosure aggreement. So, IBM goes back to Bill’s place and Bill says, sure, I’ll sign whatever. Then Bill buys some other guys OS for like $50K, tweeks it a bit, tells IBM that EVERY PC must have it’s own box of DOS, and the rest is history. He got lots of money to work with. Then Apple and him steal Xerox’s mouse idea and on and on.
As for wealth, you can be wealthy many ways. I think this thread was started thinking of money. For me, I want a mix. Good friends and also I don’t want to worry about paying the bills. My wife and I combined make $160K. We have a paid for house that the county assess at $280K. We have around $40K in savings and other money invested, plus the old 401K. So, we are not really wealthy and by no means can retire. I hope one day we can retire and have enough money to do a little traveling. I think if I can always do that, be happy, have good friends…… I will always feel wealthy.
ParticipantPerryChase, OSB is not suited to being exposed directly to the elements. It is fine under the roofing felt and shingles, and I find it great on the exterior walls when I’m nailing on vinyl siding. But if OSB gets wet, over time it puffs up and delaminates. The roof on my shed is engineer trusses on 2′ centers, then OSB sheathing, then roofing felt, then shingles with roof vent. The walls are 2×4 studs, then OSB, then Tyvek wrap, then vinyl siding. Instead of concrete I laid down large stone, then length ways 16′ (end to end) 6″x6″ treated beams (4′ on center), then 16′ 2×4 treated for floor joists on 12″ centers, then 3/4′ treated plywood. I can jump up and down on the floor and it is rock solid. I bought all of my supplies from Lowes. I think I spent around $5000 building the super shed. $1000 of that was for two pairs of double steel doors (one double door at an end and one on one side). I then partition the building, giving the wife 1/3 and I took 2/3 (I have more junk…motorcycles, the tools to build the shed, the tools to tile our floors, etc, etc). As a comparison, I got a price quote for a pre-made shed from a local builder. The cost of a new 14 x 24 shed, delivered was around $6600. So, building it myself, mine cost less and it is 16 x 30.
ParticipantI’m an electronics engineer, and being the engineering type, I build my own structures. I had been wanting to build a shed a couple of years ago, but OSB had gotten up to $18 a sheet (stuff I use on the exterior walls under the siding and for roof sheathing). A few years before that, a 4′ x 8′ sheet of OSB was only $6 a sheet. Knowing previous pricing, I couldn’t stomach spending the additional $10 per sheet and figured that if housing crashed, prices would drop. I waited and now OSB in my area is back down to $7 – $8 a sheet. Studs have also come down. Shingles are still a bit high, but I guess they may be affected more by oil pricing. I built my shed (16′ x 30′) a month ago and saved a bundle for waiting. I think I used 42 sheets of OSB in the structure, not counting the tongue and groove plywood for the floor (which had also dropped in price). I saved over half of what it would have cost to build the shed two years ago.
P.S. My friends call it the super shed, because it is so large. But I use it as a shed, so, to me, it is a shed.
ParticipantThat’s just a starter home in your area. In other parts of the US, a starter home is a nice house, just smaller square feet. Years back, my first home was a brand new 1400 SF Cape Cod on one acre for $89K. Keep in mind that people in California are basically out of their minds (lost touch with reality). At least, that’s how it appears to the rest of us watching from afar. I just hope the people that screwed up your area never come our way.
ParticipantYES. Consumer Reports is the only place I pay to have extra website access. Anywhere else I go on the web, if there is a fee (and LOTS of ads), I just look elsewhere.
Actually, if a website had information that I really needed, and I felt the cost was reasonable, I have no problem paying to access the site. It just ends up that all my hobbies and interests have plenty of free sites with good info.
ParticipantSteve Beebo, it must be very difficult to do an appraisal in this type of falling market. How the heck can you really appraise something that is terribly overpriced in the first place? Seems to me that you’d be telling a lie, unless you priced it down to what it was really worth, which would really piss off the seller and the bank, cause it would never sell.
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