Why did I buy a house in 2006? Am I a complete and total idiot?

Ren Hoek wrote:

Well it's good to see you are grounded now. Just think of the money you would have now if you did not do all that moving around and did not spend the money on undergrad and graduate degrees that are not even utilized. I guess the Lovely Flagpolette went to college to get her MRS. degree?

But living and learning is a never ending process. A fine wife, family close by, children, robust ales, and SRV make life better.

Happy and Blessed Holidays to you.

Ren

Life isn't all about money brother. We had a blast living in the Bay Area, the bulk of which we lived in Stanford's graduate student housing which was CHEAP. Enabled us to save a ton of money and spend a ton too -- and we did. Trips to San Francisco, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, the wine country, etc. It was great fun, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Regarding my wife's two graduate degrees, they have not been underutilized. First of all, at Stanford (4 years) she went there for free and got a decent stipend, so she was in effect PAID to be a graduate student there. Then for her second MA at University of Michigan, the second year she was a TA which made that year free. Following all that, she worked for 2+ years in Washington D.C. earning very good money (more than I was making). The staying home after that was just a choice. She's going to be heading back to full-time work soon (within 2 years), and she'll earn big coin when she does. She's still got 20 years or even more if she wants to work. Definitely not wasted degrees. If anything, moneywise we should really be set as we've learned how to live well on one salary. When our income is doubled, we should be able to really sock it away and pay the house off in about 3 years (or less). Looking forward to that.

So how far back did you search to find that thread so you could again pontificate?

Nice use of your time at work.....

Don't know if it's been suggested in this very long topic, but would you think of selling her house and live in yours instead?

Flagpole ratchets up his effort at the end of 2008 to once again earn the title of most annoying bloviating blowhard on the letsrun message boards, he the tireless champion of the American dream: work 9-5 your entire life in some dull job and live in backwater USA and you, too, can one day retire with a million bucks! Oh, the possibility!

He started off a little slowly on this thread, but by the time he hit page 5, he was in fine form, regurgitating the tired financial advice he has typed on these boards thousands of times before.

A toast to Flagpole, aka Steve Payne, for his mind-numbing ability to answer any challenge and to do it with endless posts that say the same things he's been saying for years. What a treat this guy must be at a cocktail party! Do they have those in Bumblef***, Ohio, anyway?

Why did you misquote me, STEVE?

Ren Hoek wrote:[/b

Why did you misquote me, STEVE?

Because Flagpole always, always, ALWAYS is right. The 'ol slip of the tongue, mistaken reference? Not him. He's ALWAYS right. And he'll tell you why he's right, even with a mountain of evidence piled in front of him.

Some people, they're generous: They say things like, Not that you asked, but here are some sound financial principles to remember. 'Ol Flagpole? He likes to rely on the sound principle of force-feeding. YOU'RE WRONG. I'M RIGHT. BROTHER.

Which makes him the bloviating blowhard of the year.

And you even wished the guy a Merry Christmas. God knows how he treats the people he hates.

Houses should be free. Why anyone pays for anything is a mystery to me. Homeless people are breaking into all the foreclosed home around me. It's quite amusing, they usually take better care of them than the banks that own them.

We have tons of resources we need to get more to a Star Trek economy than the nightmare we have now.

fgrsgdfgdf wrote:

Because Flagpole always, always, ALWAYS is right. The 'ol slip of the tongue, mistaken reference? Not him. He's ALWAYS right. And he'll tell you why he's right, even with a mountain of evidence piled in front of him.

Some people, they're generous: They say things like, Not that you asked, but here are some sound financial principles to remember. 'Ol Flagpole? He likes to rely on the sound principle of force-feeding. YOU'RE WRONG. I'M RIGHT. BROTHER.

Which makes him the bloviating blowhard of the year.

And you even wished the guy a Merry Christmas. God knows how he treats the people he hates.

Ah dude, relax.

Doktor Pheel wrote:

So how far back did you search to find that thread so you could again pontificate?

Nice use of your time at work.....

My consulting clients are on the whole not really requiring much of my time this close to Christmas as many of them are off anyway. I do have more active clients in India, but for them, I get up early in the morning so that they are still at work when I need to get or give information. As half my clients are "across the pond", my days are spread out. Sometimes I do work at 10 p.m.; sometimes at 5 a.m. Just all depends. December is a slow month. Perhaps I will go back to working 9-5 someday...who knows. But regarding searching for a thread so that I could pontificate, I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. Could just be that I'm not all that bright.

Get back to us in 2016 or even 2011.

Thanks for continuing to prove my point.

The thread was 3 days cold until you resurrected it. How much could you have made for yourself or your clients instead of pontificating on letsrun? Claim what you want, but you are arguably one of the most prolific posters on this message board. Despite the fact that you claim you type very fast and multi-task while programs are running and other post under multiple names blah blah blah. You spend a lot of time on this board.

If you are as fast as you claim you could easily get another computer and do more work for your clients.

But if your wife and kids are OK with that, good for you. Heck, you still managed to retire that saturn and traded up for a honda - bravo.

burn it down... just make sure no one is home at your neighbors

Yes all the rest of the americans in the states.

Doktor Pheel wrote:

The thread was 3 days cold until you resurrected it. How much could you have made for yourself or your clients instead of pontificating on letsrun? Claim what you want, but you are arguably one of the most prolific posters on this message board. Despite the fact that you claim you type very fast and multi-task while programs are running and other post under multiple names blah blah blah. You spend a lot of time on this board.

If you are as fast as you claim you could easily get another computer and do more work for your clients.

But if your wife and kids are OK with that, good for you. Heck, you still managed to retire that saturn and traded up for a honda - bravo.

1) That the thread was three days cold before I answered another poster should show that I'm not the prolific poster you say I am. I had actually been away from Letsrun during that time. As I am posting this message two days beyond my last activity, that also further strengthens my stance. If you read enough to form the impression that I'm a prolific poster and seem to recall things I've posted, then I would argue that you're a prolific reader here at Letsrun.

2) When you are running processes that have to be monitored that take 45-minutes at a time to run, often times requiring prompts to be responded to, you have time to do other things.

3) Could I make more money? Sure. My clients pay me by the project though, not by the hour, and if they are happy with a project then they hire me for another one; that is the only thing that is important -- decent projects delivered on time. I could line up a ton of clients and work 16 hours a day every day if I wanted to, but hey brother, I don't want to do that. It's not all about money for me. I'm just passionate about keeping as much as I do make and investing for retirement. Doesn't mean I want to spend every waking moment making money. I went to see the movie Wall-e during the day with my family yesterday, and worked early in the morning and in the evening in order to do that and still get the work I wanted to get done done that day. I could have taken on another client and just worked all day. Not worth it brother.

Peace,

Flagpole

Flagpole,

I personaly respect your opinions. I have 5000.00 burning a hole in my pocket. Credit card Debt is low and am wondering what to do with this money. Roth IRA, save it for a rainy day, please help. A little information on me. I have very little saev for my retirement. I have a matching plan with the company that I work for. 6% equally matched. I will not have enough saved at etirement at the rate that I am moving at. Is the market to risky to invest the money right now?

$5000.00 wrote:

Flagpole,

I personaly respect your opinions. I have 5000.00 burning a hole in my pocket. Credit card Debt is low and am wondering what to do with this money. Roth IRA, save it for a rainy day, please help. A little information on me. I have very little saev for my retirement. I have a matching plan with the company that I work for. 6% equally matched. I will not have enough saved at etirement at the rate that I am moving at. Is the market to risky to invest the money right now?

Before investing you need to have NO debt other than for a house, so since you have credit card debt, you need to get rid of that. Once you do that, save 3-6 months of expenses in a liquid account (savings or Money Market Account) and THEN invest.

Is now the time to invest? I NEVER look for the perfect time to get in or out. Get in when you are set up to. Jim Cramer, who is one of the most speculative guys out there says he thinks the market has bottomed. That would have been when the DOW was below 8,000. Get in now and you've missed the very bottom if he is right. Wait too long though and you'll further miss the boat. Again though, get in when you have those other things in place -- NO DEBT except for a house payment that you can afford.

Continue to give money to your 401k up to the match though -- that's a great match you have there. Take that $5,000 and get rid of your credit card debt. With the extra that you will NOT have to be paying toward your credit card interest, (IF you are debt free otherwise but for a house payment) open a Roth IRA and put money there.

You do in effect have 12% (if I'm understanding correctly) going toward your retirement, and depending on your age and income that's pretty good, but 15% should be the goal, and if you can, 15% should be coming from YOU so that any match is just gravy.

401k up to the match first

THEN Roth IRA

THEN back to the 401k to finish up the 15%

At that point if you have MORE to invest, put it either in the Roth IRA or open a non-retirement mutual fund or some other such manageable risk investment vehicle that you can get at penalty free before you are 59 1/2 if you like.

Good luck brother.

What happens to the negative equity if the house "accidentally" burns down?

Who is stuck with the difference? The borrower, the insurer or the lender?

X Runner wrote:

What happens to the negative equity if the house "accidentally" burns down?

Who is stuck with the difference? The borrower, the insurer or the lender?

Banks don't give mortgages unless you agree to some kind of insurance to protect against such catastrophes. So, if the house burned down, the insurance would pay out. I don't know how much it would pay out. Probably the amount it would cost to rebuilt it? If so, that amount may be less than the mortgage, in which case, the owner is still holding the hot potato. He has a new house, paid for by insurance, but it's still worth less than the mortgage. He can sell it, or keep making mortgage payments.