How Many People with Homes in Foreclosure Bought Plasma/Flat Screen TVs This Year?
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This is a very interesting question. Amber hit the nail on the head with living below your means. This was a lesson I was able to learn early in my life. I was exposed to two completely different type of people at my second job.
I worked at a caterer where the owner worked closely with us. He was building up his business and also was very good at living extravagantly and spreading his money around. As i was a young kid at the time I was tapped to do other types of work when business was slow. This included basic cleaning, maintenance and yard work for him which then expanded to his father's house.
His father was a business owner as well. They were complete opposites. The house was nice, not extravagant by far. His father was very down to earth and also worked closely with his employees at a uniform store every day until his retirement. He was the first millionaire that I met. You would never tell it by looking at him.
He lived much lower than his means, but comfortably. Even though he had 3 children, he had a home with 3 bedrooms. 2 of the kids roomed together while they were young.
It's learning to live below your means that helps you along. I own 3 properties, 2 of which are rentals. I have a TV that is a 32 inch regular tube TV. It works well and is about 10 years old. I bought it used about 8 years ago. Paid well below market value and it was a great TV at the time. My 2 tenants? Both have plasma TV's that would put mine to shame. 1 of my properties will be paid off completely by the end of this year (it was a 10 year loan). I think I made a good trade off.
And you know this how?
How do you know any of them did?
Probably a lot. "People want what they want" and think little about the repercussions. That's the American Way! I am obsessed with saving my money and I am only 30. People ask me what I'm going to do with it since I can't take it with me when I die. They think somehow I'm weird. Because of my cheapness I can buy a house, not worry about unemployment or illness, and already know how I'm going to retire. I do this by being just opposite of most americans. CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. My boyfriend and I make a combined gross income 180K and both our cars are worth a combined 7K. We rent way below our means. I love shopping at thrift stores. We have saved 500K in 5 years and are still going strong. We make 2k a month in interest. I could go on and on. What bothers me is how no one in this government encouages anyone to save. After 9-11 what did our president say, go out and shop!! Geeze, thanks. No one even thinks about retirement anymore. Everyone just expects the government to fully support you when you are old and broke. way so the econmomy stays strong. People start saving and that means less people will buy stuff. Goverment likes it that way. By the time the problems start the current government will be out of office and someone else can worry about it.
Several weeks ago I heard a financial consultant interivewed on National Public Radio. He had a pithy remark regarding the turn in the real estate market. I'll have to paraphrase, but the gist of it was: if you want to find where the foreclosures are then just follow the Hummers.
Of course not all foreclosures are the result of extravagant spending. Let's not get too cynical. Medical expenses remain the most often cited reason for personal bankruptcy, and probably figure heavily in many of the foreclosures as well. There is also a segment of foreclosed homeowners who have been victims of predatory lending and mortgage fraud.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get the numbers, but probably a lot of them.
As far as Aber goes, don't put down the rest of us who are making enough to get by. If earned that much money in a year, heck ya I'd have a fat savings account too. I'm happy that you are doing well for yourself, but have you considered this. your boyfriend is just your boyfriend. If something happens and the two of you are no longer together, what exactly are you left with? I'd assume that at least half is his, which means that if you two ever did split, you could only brag half as much.
I know two couples that bought those things earlier this year with their income tax money. One couple (boyfriend/girlfriend) receive state assistance and have already received eviction notices from their landlord and the other couple just found out that they had excellent credit (HAD being the operative). Just two weeks ago their utlities were shut off for a week and were late paying the mortgage twice this year! Both still have that TV. A third person I know brings in $600 a month on SSI, also gets energy assistance and medical assistance. She stated that she is getting one!! Earlier this year she even managed to refinance her home and blew the money with nothing to show for it. Still getting the state and federal aid! Her mortgage is almost the entire SSI check and she somehow still gets the best, newest, most expensive things. I bet if I go over there in a couple months she'll have one of those TVs in her family room. My own family (most) have a comfortable income yet it wasn't until 1990 before my mom got her first VCR and microwave. My grandmother still doesn't believe in buying alot of the "modern" gadgets until they come down in price and by then they'll have something newer and better. Some people it appears who CAN afford the purchases choose not too and the others it appears who really should be using the money else where buy - buy - buy (spend it like you got it mentality). What a mixed up world.
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