QH's Paw wrote:Woody wrote:AKPirate wrote:Woody wrote:So don't give me that shit about I can't believe you still believe it, there is no other choice. If I rent an apartment the best I could get is 1000 per month. It would take me 15 years to put away enough to buy a $150,000 house in cash, pay rent (etc) and still invest enough to retire at 45.
So at 40 I would buy a house... In the mean time I would have thrown away more than 12,000 a year or $180,000 in rent.
More than the cost of the house 15 years ago but the house would cost $250,000 by that point!
Yeah that makes perfect sense, don't take on debt responsibly just buy in cash.
I don't think QHPaw would say that a mortgage is bad debt. Think he was talking about frivolous debt.
He was talking about credit cards and how to build credit... I extrapolated to where not having a credit card or no credit at all leads.
Congratulation, you've bought the package. You can now have things when you want, whether you can afford it or not.
I am 52 years old. I have never purchased a car on payments. I have never owned a new car, although, I did by a brand new boat once in my life($20K). I have had what I thought was everything and I have been with nothing at all. When you build on credit for the future you are building a house of cards, plain and simple. Just one bad string of luck and you will see your house of cards fall.
Every credit counseling there is says the first step is to cut up the cards, wonder why?
I don't worry about credit anymore. I don't even have one single credit card other than my annual flex card for paying medical cost before taxes.
Renting your house, having phone bills, having utility bills and, paying all those bills, those are all things that used to count when you went to buy a house or, rather, to get a loan for a house. Then the banks sold a package. You have to have credit to get credit. It's a great plan, if you're a banker living off the interest of the credit. I hope it works out for Woody, really I do but, for most, it really doesn't. Some just don't realize what they are giving for the credit and instant gratification.
Don't get me wrong. I completely understand what you are saying, but in today's world you cant do what you are talking about without being a millionaire. It is just not possible. You say fight the system, don't get a credit card, let other things build credit, well the system is rigged and that is not an option. Generations before mine spent beyond their means and now we are paying for the sins of our forefathers. There are two ways you can choose to "pay" for it, live in poverty or buy things with a promise to pay them in the future. Everything is so inflated that living debt free, here and now is, for all intents and purposes, not an option. Guys from past generations preach this line a lot, but they seem to forget who caused the problem... it wasn't my generation, but we are left to pick up the pieces. We will not receive Social Security, but we have to pay in to it. We are dealing with inflation rates that are unbelievable (no matter what Obama tells you). You would be lucky to be making 7 or 8% in the market. All things my generation has inherited. What all that means is, I have to put away extreme amounts of money if I hope to retire before I am too old to enjoy it... assuming the whole thing doesn't collapse all together, which is something we have to prepare for as well.
For example...
My dad went to the same college/university I did, but 30 years before me.
His semester tuition: ~$2,600
My semester tuition: ~$20,000
gas was 25 cents a gal, now it is 3.5 dollars.
24 years ago my dad bought about 100 acres: ~$35,000
Today if I wanted to buy 100 acres in the same area: $700,000 - $1,000,000
I graduated and my first job payed a little less than twice what his first job payed (both in nearly the same field and we had similar grades, but I had more extracurriculars). I should also add, that I landed the third highest paying job out of my class.
Cost of school is 7.7 times what it was, cost of land is 25 - 30 times what it was, and gas is 15 times the price. While income is around twice as much. And for the record my father never spent outside his means to buy those things, there were others committing those acts.
So, tell me how do I live debt free in a world where expenses grow at rates far exceeding income growth?
I can live with in my means and don't take on debt all I want, but if others don't do the same and the government keeps enforcing things like affordable housing for underprivileged families, it matters little what I do. And because of those things, to be able to live semi-comfortable, even for those who planed accordingly and worked/work hard, their hands forced.
Oh and I am one of the lucky ones, I don't know how others are going to survive.
Have you ever wondered why your dick still looks brand new, but your face is starting to look like an aging pirate?
