Sometimes it falls right into your lap. Part 1

I'm not perfect not even close.  I would sometimes even consider myself a hypocrite because even though I try to live by my rules on this blog I still have alot of debt that is blocking my opportunities to make my life better but I still do live by my basic rules which have helped me stay in my house and keep up with my bills.  Some of my basic rules to live by are.

No car payments.
  I've heard and seen all the excuses. It's not safe. I'm afraid of my car breaking down.  It's not me. I need to build my credit.  Or my favorite that my BIL said to me "I wanted it"  to which I reply what do you want more? No debt and a financially secure house (maybe own a home instead of renting) or that car? Most people if given the choice with a snap of a finger would chose no debt but because justify their want for a need they miss the bigger perspective and buy the car. New cars only have that new car feeling for about a year. They lose so much value within that year that most of the time your under water by the time you want to sell, or trade in. If you can train yourself to have your cars paid for you will have better opportunities for financial improvement and score better deals. Used car dealerships know this and your not exempt from getting good deals on any make or model.  You can take advantage of those who "wanted", "needed", couldn't afford, lost, and auctioned. All because you committed to no car payments.

Live within your means
Saturday night live had a skit that hit this right on the nail. "Don't buy stuff you can't afford" if your living from paycheck to paycheck and your making 80k a year there's a problem.  Some people want a new house and cars so bad they stretch their budget so much that a single unexpected bill will put strain on their finances.  We recently had a lesson in church from one of our vets in the ward who lives in the nicer (maybe even the nicest) place in town. The lesson was on helping the poor. A general conference talk. He actually commented that he wish he could do more to help  the poor. I almost wanted to shout at him that he lives in a nice house in the nicest part of town. What's his excuse? He should have tens of thousands stashed away and he could if he would of lived within his means.  Some people want the new house so bad they stretch themselves so thin that they are borderline needing help and in some cases are the first to ask for help. Its the ones in the smaller houses living within their means are the last to ask for help. I wish that while someone is signing paperwork for their car or house that there would be a separate contract stating that they cannot ask for government or church assistance for the first 5 years of owning. I wonder how many would rethink their decision.

So for once I wasn't looking for stories one came to me. I was browsing my Facebook when I came across someone asking for a realtor on a group I follow. I clicked on her profile and found this.

yeah it's someone selling their house but for some reason I had to investigate further. How the heck was this family affording this house in our community where the Average income is around 35 k a year. Either she was selling to move make a profit or she is being forced to sell. I would imagine that even to afford that house they would have to pay a mortgage payment of 2500 or more. So I clicked on the comments and found this.

If you didn't catch it. It was the fuel prices that is effecting her husband's work. Secondly she mentiones the previous recession. Did she not learn from the previous recession?!?  Obviously she put a ton of faith in our economy to buy a nearly half a million dollar house that are bought on hilltops in the best places of salt lake. 

Vehicles repossessed?  There is a way to solve that! If Utah hasn't recovered why are you buying a house that you can't afford?

It pisses me off of how the real estate market will use fear to scare people into buying or selling. Whatever happened to buying a home so you can, I don't know,  live in it and not worry about the value. I'm sick of people always talking about their home value. She is right about prices falling. They will. Too many developers and government leaders are continually building but not filling the houses or in some cases filling them too fast where the person gets in and is going to be forced to move out because lets face it nobody has any budgeting or can I afford it sense.

Really it's not the house that is the biggest problem.  I know people (my own brother) who owns a gorgeous 7 bedroom 4 bath home that is bigger (with the exception of the garage) than this house. It's also on a 5 acre property. It was a similar situation like this that allowed him to get that house for half of what it was worth. It also has a cabin and another house ( turned into a shed) on the property. I should also note my brother makes over 150 k a year and has all his vehicles paid for! He has no debt except his house. When his family grew out of the 98 Voyager and he needed more seating. He bought a used Chevrolet suburban and had the engine rebuilt before his wife had the baby. He didn't go buy new. He could of. He could of paid cash for a brand new 40k vehicle if he wanted But he didn't. He doesn't even own a flat screen tv but does have a firebrick pizza oven in his house! (This is based off the last time i was there. He might have one now)

Unfortunately this couple couldn't have a brand new house without...

a brand new 40k  car. Not even a year old. with upgrades (happy face:) like a bigger screened DVD player with wireless headphones.  Because of these purchases they are forced to sell everything

 The house is # 3 when it comes to financial mistakes followed by car payments and credit card debt. the reason why is normally if you have no debt but the house payment you can afford to stay in it and have an ability to build up an emergency fund unless you buy too much house like this. (9 bedrooms and they only have 4 kids?)

Now what? Its like I've warned. The dilusionally rich need us now to sustain them after they are allowed to live a rich lifestyle which they should of never (or gradually step by step) got into. At least have some backing besides a job when these lenders gave them a loan! Now it's on to us supporting them through church welfare, food stamps, and government programs all because people won't learn.

I have a story I would like to share. I too can claim that I have a spidy sense when it comes to something big happening. I too remember feeling something is very wrong 2 years before the market collapse of 2008. I would constantly tell my wife while we would go on drives The real estate doesn't make sense. The contractors and developers would construct massive amounts of houses and apartments buildings and fill them either extremely fast or extremely slow. I even wrote an e-mail to my brother telling him that the real estate market was about fall and to hold off on a purchase.  He didn't listen and ended up renting a house at a loss for 2 years. 

When I was in high school my girlfriends mom was offered a job at a persons enormous house. For a while there my girlfriend's mom would brag about her job and brag about the owners home or their business. I sensed something wrong from the beginning and every time we went to visit them. I wont go into details and sometimes I can't explain it all I can say is when A+B does not equal C something is wrong.  For example A. Their business which specialized in Barn building (not very popular) + B. My girlfriend's mom constantly doing barely anything besides babysitting does not equal C. A luxurious lifestyle complete with a brand new house with an unfinished basement.  They eventualy lost the buisness the house and the cars and my GF mom lost her job.(I vaguely remember the house wouldn't sell because of some water leaking problems and I believe it went into foreclosure) She eventually received her last 2 paychecks months later. The last time I saw this delusionaly rich family was in a run down minivan and they were living in a relatives rental house. That was 12 Years ago.

I have more to say on this subject so I will dub this part 1 and get it published.