Paid In Full

[two_bit_score]

I haven't read the entire thread yet so excuse me if this has already been pointed out. But, this often gets overlooked in all the bad news lately. A lot of people are in good shape just like this guy. They didn't overextend. They deferred buying things until they could pay for it. They didn't max out every credit card that came in the mail. They left something for their kids and grandkids. They saved instead of spent. It's not that hard to pay off a house if you make it your priority to do so.

 

[two_bit_score]

Congratulations on being debt free!

Dargo, I agree with you completely.

One of my best friends and I have remarkably had almost identical incomes for the last 30 years. We had a financial discussion that started when I asked them to go on a cruise with us and they said they couldn't afford it. We compared our total assets and found that mine were about $300,000 higher than his. How was this possible when we made the same amount and actually spent about the same amount on houses, cars, etc?

We quickly realized that the disparity started 30 years ago when I scrimped and saved for a few years to pay cash for my first new vehicle while he bought his on credit as soon as he was able to get financing. The extra amount he had to pay in interest kept him from saving enough to buy his home without the very minimum down payment and small payments over an extended period of time. I bought mine with a large down payment and paid it off in 5 years.

After doing a little math, we discovered that he spent $300,000 more in interest than I did in the last 30 years to get the exact same things. He just got his new car a couple of years earlier than I did and that made the $300,000 difference!

One lesson I learned a long time ago: " Son, there's one thing guaranteed to keep a working man poor. A new car."

Of course what he really ment was a 'financed' new car.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

It's like the stock market, we have seen several crashes in our lifetime. People would talk about all the money they made but if you didn't sell you didn't realize that money it was lost to you.

Don't make the mistake of thinking companies are like they used to be. There were blue chips that folks could buy and depend on earnings for their lifetime and future lifetimes. But now its a game, the CEO runs the prices up by making more and more profit each quarter be d*****d who suffers for it. Companies now are not run for the long term but that profit you can squeeze this quarter, basically so the big guy can get his millions. He has golden parachutes, you name it, he will come out with big bucks even if he bankrupts it, example, AIG. Also another big issue is there is so much computerized trading on Wallstreet you don't really know what is going on, but you won't beat them very often.

We got out of equities in 1999, they had done well but I'm a big WSJ reader and when something looks to good to be true it generally is. We got out and stayed out, went to safe investments. Friends of hubbies laughed at him, they would point out how much they were earning and we were just sitting there putting along. Making our little 5% earnings wasn't much but we still have it and its in the safest of the safe investments. They all told me on other boards how I should leverage and invest in real estate, that I was losing out. I told them I would wait till it crashed, I sold 2 townhomes close to the top when others were buying, we saved to buy when it went down again. I just bought a fixer upper rental, probalby didn't wait for it to go down enough.

Also when people like Warren Buffet go to large percentages of cash in their portfolios that's not a trend I'm going to buck.

The signs were all there, folks just needed to not see everything through rose colored glasses and realize what was coming sooner or later. We did lose $3000 in a fund, but friends of hubbies had lots of money and some lost half, we are talking hundreds of thousands. He hasn't worked overseas long, but some of those guys had for a lifetime and they took a beating.

So anyway, back out to mow and weedeat. Hubby is coming in today and I want it to look nice. Had it that way but the rain made is grow like crazy.

 

[riptides]

Either I don't understand what you mean or I disagree with you. Interest rates are so low now that those of us who have scraped and saved our entire lives and wish to retire with our savings nest egg can only get about 2% interest on our savings. This is the lowest rate on cds in my lifetime and does not even keep up with inflation.

When I purchased my first home in 1973 interest rates were 7.5% and my first shop was 8% and my second shop was 8.5%. This seemed like a good deal to me and I paid off these loans way ahead of time. You can get mortgages on a home now for only 4.5%. This is a historic low level and your notes aren't much higher than they would be if you had a no-interest loan. How low can you go?

I've lost 2/3 of my retirement savings income in the last few years as interest rates have dropped from 6% to 2% since dropping interest rates has been our leaders answers for everything that happens in the economy and now that we have historically low interest rates, it has been proven that the lower rates haven't helped at all.

And I am saying that having played by the rules, keep interest rates low, or lower so I can get expanded and grow business. Or buy stuff to help me attain a better position.

I think rates have nothing to do with the current economic collapse. I think accountability and laws were skirted.

I think the frugal people are a whole pool of untapped investors and leaders that could use even lower interest rates to their advantage.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Citi finally sent the paperwork... My Mortgage is history! Nice refund of escrow funds too... 20 years early on a 30 year loan (house is 10 years old). Cars, trucks and tractors are all paid off... Still have money in the markets, another house paid off with a new standing seam roof, new septic system and oil heating system. I am going to plant a bigger garder this year than ever before... raised 10 X 12 is not going to cut it this year! Don't use the political words or this will be deleted... Just saying be prepared to feed and care for your family!

mark

Way to go! Wish I could say the same, but can't. H'burg area if I remember correct. my wife is from there and would like to move back.