From $70K to food bank, one family's struggle....

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It's a shame some people can learn only from their experiences. As the saying goes, "A smart person learns from their mistakes... A really smart person learns from others' mistakes!"

I too run into people who tell me to spend my money and enjoy it while I can... who knows what tomorrow may bring. I've been through enough bouts of unemployment in my automotive engineering career that I know I have to protect myself, and not look to others for a safety net.

If I read the story correctly, she didn't have even one month's worth of savings! At every stage in my life I've always had a comfortable amount in my savings.

Excerpt from the opinion section after the story:
"This is a story of a lot of bad decisions-- Bought a property above her means, got a terrible loan type, and didn't save any money because she thought that the housing market can only go up-- She could refinance in a few years!

The woman in the story was a loan processor-- She should have known better. Instead she believed the mortgage loan hype she was using to sell bad loans to people who couldn't afford them, and got her own bad loan! After all, the housing market CAN NEVER FAIL! ...Or at least that's what she believed. Her I/O Loan means she thought that housing prices would always go up and she could re-finance in a few years while sitting on a pile of equity. Instead, she's upside-down on her loan (Why else has she not liquidated the place and moved on), and she's writing sob stories for donations.

This woman should take her kids and move to another part of the US where houses are affordable. I feel nothing from this story; only bitterness at people that make bad decisions."
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas

The woman in the story was a loan processor-- She should have known better. Instead she believed the mortgage loan hype she was using to sell bad loans to people who couldn't afford them, and got her own bad loan!
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Well, at least she can't be accused of fraud for all the bad loans that she probably wrote. She believed in the product she was selling.

As for enjoying life now rather than later, I'm not against that concept. Problem is that when "enjoyment" is tied to consumption and keeping up with the Jones and running with the herd, that is a pretty limited form of valuing the present. Because when the future comes, then that "present" will be a sad and depressing one.
 
If she was a loan processor, given the current market, one would think she could see that jobs like hers were in trouble and taken steps.

It's not like "the crisis" began yesterday or anything. It's been talk up for a year or two until the talk finally brought it about.
 
Quoted: "This woman should take her kids and move to another part of the US where houses are affordable."

Ha. Where's that? Please tell me so I can go.

Oh, yeah. If houses are even close to affordable in an area (and I don't call $200K affordable), there aren't any jobs to be had there.
 
When my 1600sq ft brick ranch with about 1/3 of an acre yard sold, it was about 130K. Three bedrooms, only one bath and only one car attached garage.

But it had a full basement.

Not a bad house, and mortgage with all escrows was under $1K/month.
 
I don't think affordable housing is that out of reach. The problem is that over the last 10 years, what most Americans consider to be enough are MacMansions, where each family member gets their own personal 1000 sqft. So many Americans use that as the benchmark for what is enough. Of course, in even most developed countries, including European countries, mass tracks of McMansions are almost unheard of and many families live in fairly crowded apartments and townhouse type dwellings. It's really interesting listening to all the sob stories about Americans having to downsize these days. They've taken a blip in human history (the last 10 years) and made that their benchmark and interpret any deviation from that as some sort of tragedy.

Expectations have really gotten out of hand. The coming "depression" in the U.S. will probably mean that we will be downsizing to the way things were about 2 or 3 decades ago. It also probably means we can't afford two 40K SUVs per household, cable TV, 4 TVs per house, and various other entertainment items. But somehow, the average American considers that Armageddon.
 
Yeah, we cut back to 3 TV's and only one of them has a DVR. Oh, and the biggest of our TV's is a 32" CRT. We are soooooo poor <-sarcasm.
 
Originally Posted By: VeeDubb
I don't think affordable housing is that out of reach. The problem is that over the last 10 years, what most Americans consider to be enough are MacMansions, where each family member gets their own personal 1000 sqft. So many Americans use that as the benchmark for what is enough. Of course, in even most developed countries, including European countries, mass tracks of McMansions are almost unheard of and many families live in fairly crowded apartments and townhouse type dwellings. It's really interesting listening to all the sob stories about Americans having to downsize these days. They've taken a blip in human history (the last 10 years) and made that their benchmark and interpret any deviation from that as some sort of tragedy.

Expectations have really gotten out of hand. The coming "depression" in the U.S. will probably mean that we will be downsizing to the way things were about 2 or 3 decades ago. It also probably means we can't afford two 40K SUVs per household, cable TV, 4 TVs per house, and various other entertainment items. But somehow, the average American considers that Armageddon.


To a point I agree with that, but part of the blame also goes to taxing bodies and builders. Smaller houses cost less, so areas where property taxes are collected mandate larger houses, and thus larger revenue streams. Also, builders build bigger houses to make more money.

Case in point, when I built my house in 2001, I bought the second smallest house in the smallest series, and it was still 1650 sq. ft. Phase 1 ended, and my series of houses was no longer built, the "big" houses from Phase 1 were now the "small" houses in phase 2 (the smallest being 2500 sq. ft.) and the "big" series were now called Estate homes, ranging from 3500-4000 sq. ft., with a price to match. The irony being that my cheap little shack sits on more land than most of the "estate" homes.....
LOL.gif
 
27" here. It's here until it's obsolete. I just bought underwear and socks. Last time was well over a year ago. Sneakers are on a 5 year rotation ..and the retired pair (for picking up dog "stuff" and such) are still in use until an new pair are bought in a new "5 year plan". Regular casual shoes are Rockports. I've had to adjust the camber wear on them by grinding the heal on a bias. I think that they're over 10 years old.

Mortgage has about 28 months left on it. I think the borough and school district will take up the slack that's left over after the oil man gets done with me by that time.

Everyone is doing their part here.
 
Originally Posted By: Steve S
Originally Posted By: alreadygone
Guess she could allways take up the "worlds oldest profession".

Bob
an option


It's always been a business arrangement. It's merely a difference between own, rent to own, lease, or daily rental. There's even the hourly or half day options. Many opt for extended services ..at additional costs.
 
As far a house, there's just me, my car, and a couple of cats. A two-bedroom cottage with garage or even carport on a shady street would do fine. You're right, all you hear about nowadays is the McMansions.
 
idiot made the wrong decisions.

Given the circumstances, no fault but their own... Its not the autoworker who was living in a $200k home, making $70k a year, and who got laid off and now cant make the payments on their 30 year loan... this person is a tool who deserves nothing other than what happened.

There is no reason that I should be made to pay or suffer for others' bad decisions. Particularly when Im putting away a good deal of money for retirement and live in a modest home, with no debt but mortgage.

Its one thing to pay my taxes for the betterment of the country, its another thing to bail out idiots who made bad decisions and probably looked down on me because I was shopping at k-mart to keep the cc balances at zero, while they were at coach and prada, building up their cc balances in the interest of showing off.

BAH!

JMH
 
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When we are on the market for a house, we had a price limit that we were not willing to exceed. But the realtor/lender team came up with a number that we could "easily" afford that exceed our upper limit by 50%!! It was remarkable how they magically could eliminate the shopper's budget constraint. In any case, we didn't take the bait.

The other thing that was mind blowing is how many different ARMS financing options they gave you and really talked up how much you can save on monthly payments by going ARM instead of fixed. They didn't tell you how the difference wouldn't be as large as advertised once you factor in the tax breaks for interest payments. The scary thing is we were working with two of the most reputable realtors and lenders in the metro area. I'd hate to see what the sleazy ones were like.
 
I honestly hope that all of the bad things in life happen to this individual (Ms. Guerrero) and to others in her situation. Cheers.
 
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Originally Posted By: MarkC
I wouldn't pay that woman.


No. But if you were married to her ..it would cost you.
 
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