Got my mortgage statement in the mail today..

[Wifezilla]

Yikes!!! Turning over cars is such a HUGE waste of money.

I read an article that doing that can cost you $100,000.00+ over your driving career.

We buy cars for cash - $5k and under - and drive them until they blow up. No loans.

 

[hillfarm]

Yikes!!! Turning over cars is such a HUGE waste of money.

I read an article that doing that can cost you $100,000.00+ over your driving career.

We buy cars for cash - $5k and under - and drive them until they blow up. No loans.

Us too. DH and I both drive ten year old cars. And we drive them into the ground, then look for a new one. I maintain them well, only put liability on them and save a ton. No monthly car payment.

You can buy a decent used car for cheap. The Joneses cam buy the new ones. In one year their car looks just like mine. And I have no car payment.

 

[hillfarm]

oh and a little inside note. The local high school auto tech class usually offers deep discounts on brakes, oil filter and changes and that sort of thing.

 

[Dunkopf]

The only thing that makes me angry, is that the mortgage is more than what the house is worth. If it appreciates at even 3% per year it will have quite a bit of equity by the time I reach 70 and retire. Of course it sounds like it will be a few years before it starts appreciating again.

It's still a lot better than renting. If some dummy ever drops the interest deduction, with some stupid fair tax scheme, I will probably walk away. As will millions of other people.

 

[TanksHill]

I watched some interview a while back on the Today show. They said that buying a house and the whole American Dream is not a good investment. Is just basically not. With upkeep, taxes and ins. your actually loosing money. Homes just don't increase in value like they used to.

 

[Dunkopf]

I think it depends on where you live. Generally the West Coast and the Northeast below Maine are way overpriced. People in the Mid East states can still get good prices and are better off financially as well as having the security of owning a home.

We pay about 2500 a month for mortgage, tax and insurance. About 1800 is interest which is fully deductible. Property tax is 1500 which is also deductible. So we have about 23k in deductions from gross income. That's about 5000 less in taxes we have to pay.

To rent this place would be about 2000 per month and we would have to worry about carpets and all the other damage that animals and kids can do. We can't tear any walls down or do anything else to a rental. After 30 years we have saved about 180k on house payments but have nothing to show for it, unless we have invested very wisely with the money we saved. Hopefully we will have a nice house that our kids can sell when they put us in the old folks home. Then we can sit around in our 200sf apt and lament about how nice our house was.

If you are a good investor and don't just spend the extra cash than you may be better off renting.

 

[Blackbird]

A-Ok OFG!

Yurt, here I come!

 

[FarmerChick]

with renting, you never own the roof over your head
with a mortgage and good luck, lol, at least in the end ya truly own it....
(as long as ya can continue to pay the property taxes..haha)

a house is a home, and to me, my home is super important and worth every penny I put into it.

 

[Wifezilla]

Merle, you could totally rock out with a yurt.

Merle, a yurt, some goats, a few chickens and some ducks, a fire in the fireplace...and OFG running around with an axe screaming wildly trying to kill varmints in trade for some goat's milk soap....

 

[Blackbird]

Buwahah! I love it! Everyone will have to visit me for a yurt-party.