Guest Post by Wendy Crites
This should be a joke but it’s not. We have great salaries. We had stable jobs – before. A beautiful home without being too flamboyant in a nice middle-class neighborhood. Our kids went to public schools because they were decent, and we couldn’t afford the private sector. We drive middle of the road vehicles – Toyota and Honda. Nothing is high-end. We’re comfortably middle-grounded.
Yet still, we’re living paycheck to paycheck. Our older home is slowly deteriorating because we cannot afford to make repairs to the stucco, replace the 30-year old water heater, replace the multi-patched leaky roof, regrade the yard so water runs away from the foundation and not into the basement, replace original 100-year old windows for energy efficiency, add insulation to both the attic and crawl space… just to name a few things, let alone do the general cosmetics like painting and updating floors, kitchens and bathrooms!
Our joint income in 2019 made one of the high bracket tiers for taxes with help from my company bonuses. Everything was 100% paid for out of pocket with no discounts because we make “just” too much money to put us into the payor threshold instead of the needs assistance box. We didn’t receive any breaks on college tuition, books, resident housing for our daughter. We don’t qualify for government school loans or many scholarships or loans because we make just above the cut-off numbers to qualify.
My husband who got laid off by Baltimore County Government in December 2019, has been building a small business since then. Then the coronavirus happened. Any potential customers are gone in a “wait and see what happens” approach. He tried applying multiple times for a loan or grant, but the small business system frequently went down due to the volume of online traffic. Now, today on April 7th, the Maryland SBA is no longer accepting new applications.
Prior to this, he applied for Maryland’s unemployment. However, he was told that if he was starting a business, he wouldn’t qualify. He’d have to make three serious job contacts a week and report back to unemployment before receiving any benefit, which weekly worked out to be only about a half day pay in his former job. The agent stated bluntly that people with his type of income never apply for unemployment. They’re the ones who get audited first and it’s a jailable offense to be working on your own business while collecting unemployment. With this, the unemployment optional route was now out.
This left us with one income paycheck and enough savings to strictly scrape by through May 1st. Fingers crossed to get those customers coming in, with a steady trickle expected. No one could have predicted COVID-19 and an economic shut-down of our economy. There are no programs out there to help people like us who are rigidly in the middle, unable to move forward and soon to be moving backward. We are about to watch everything we’ve worked so diligently hard for over the years, fall apart.
How will we pay our mortgage? How will we pay the $2,650 in COBRA health insurance due on the first of every month? How will we pay our daughters summer and fall semester college bills? How do we assist our son now that his company cut salaries back? How do we fix our house? How do we care for our aging parents?
Over the years, it’s become more apparent that the more we make in income, the less of our hard-earned money comes home. It is seized by the government to pay for others healthcare, others medical needs, others utility bills, others schooling-primary through college, others cell phones, others others others.
What’s sad about this is that when I have more money, I actually employ people. I hire a landscaper. I hire a cleaning company. I make monetary donations to organizations and causes I believe in. We hire contractors to make repairs to our home. However, the government is now distributing our money where they see fit. How is this fair? Where is my incentive to continue working so hard to make life better for my family and myself? What incentivizes anyone who receives a free ride to do better? What’s the point?
In a conversation with my brother who lives in Arizona, he too expressed distraught feelings about his similar situation. “I made more money in my life than ever before last year. I also brought the least amount of money than ever home.” Others in this middle-class tier struggle. We have neighbors who like us in the past, went through bank threats of foreclosure. We actually took advantage of a program our mortgage lender offered us. In retrospect, although it lowered our monthly payments, we are now anchored to PHH Mortgage (a subsidiary of Ocwen) with a back-end amount due.
We will never recover the 2008 dip in the economy or original value in the home front we believed so much in. PHH Mortgage is willing to give us a 3-month respite for our payments but it’s all due at the end of the 90-days. How is that ethical and fair? It’s a game to take advantage of as many people as possible, getting them to ultimately refinance under poor terms like those we now have, with a huge payment due when we sell our home for less than we initially bought it for!
Yes, PHH Mortgage and other lenders are abiding by the government’s mandate to not foreclose. However, who can save up to three months’ rent or mortgage when the economy is shut down; thereby forcing a refinance package. To top that off, to deal with mortgage lenders, they typically use customer “help” centers located in other countries staffed by people who are not native English speakers and are not able to accurately record conversations or communicate effectively. Be very wary of what they “sell” you on as we’ve found that the terms can change based off the interpretation of a few words.
This is not being written for anyone to feel sorry for me or my family. It is written to communicate that us here in the middle class have become the working poor. We have to fight so much harder for what we believe in, what we’ve worked so hard to build. Much of our income is taken in taxes and distributed out in directions we have no control over. We make just enough to not have any tax breaks for income or for school. We make more – we pay more. That’s okay but where is our balance? When do we get a break?
That’s it – the current system is set up to break us. It would be so much easier to let that happen. Before that though, our family will move out of state to find a more fair and equitable quality of life elsewhere. Our ethics center around hard work, which gives a person their value. However, my value is also in what I can accomplish and to steal that thunder from me is like cutting me in half. Government, chop-chop.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.
– Henry David Thoreau
Wendy,
I must say this with as much sympathy and empathy I can muster:
You Are An IDIOT!
As a former Marylander, I speak from experience.
You live in a Socialist paradise, who will tax you to death and send you a bill for your suffering. You burn $ as if will always come in from the invisible $ tree. It will not. You have bills which you could have eliminated years ago, and spend $, for yard workers and housekeepers. You have been a member of the working poor all along but thought you were not and conducted your finances as such. The Bible says it best, ” My people perish for lack of knowledge “. May you learn from your mistakes and recover, and be wiser, if poorer. Always live below your means and Try not to rent, etc, there’s a lot of advisors, charles givens comes to mind. Good luck, it seems like you’re needing it.
Every ” working poor” imagines themselves to rising to the class status they inherently deserve, right up until reality takes a big bite out of there ass.
Learn to live well below your means and your peace of mind will thank you.
Flash – very astute and insightful comment.
The Bible says lots of things.
Romans 12:15-16 KJB… “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.”
do you pay property taxes? If so,Then you rent also.
Let’s see here, she pays for a useless college degree and doesn’t expect the kid to work to help pay for college. She hires people to do her lawn, clean her house and she donates to feel-good organizations while wondering where the money goes. She is living in a tax til you die state, and she’s taking out home equity loans that tie her even more deeply into debt.
Wonder if she could go Galt?
Nope
As with many others here, you’ve got it wrong Mygirl. Our kid works her ass off in a real life actual job and has a partial academic scholarship towards a biology/chemistry degree. We’re hoping that degree won’t be “useless”. The other kid passed up college to work. What we pay to sometimes hire out the lawn and housecleaning is when we are working 7 days a week and I make more money working at my business than doing chores. And we don’t donate to anyone. Ever. The reasons we are stuck in a communist taxtillyoudie state are numerous and complicated – as with many many other right-leaning folks who are bullied into keeping our heads down here inside the wire. And I doubt you or many others laughing at my situation can competently speak to anything about Rand’s Objectivism. You’re all so smart though.
30k a year for cobra. Save thst money, pay as you go gor what you NEED, and save 90+% of that. Its rare you actually need vs want healthcare.
When i was making $250k i was like her u til 2008 came and got down to less than 6 weeks of saving to feed my family. I learned a hard lesson. We paid everything off since then, I became gainfully employed in 2014 and last year made nearly $1m. We are still in our home, fixed it up, have no debt and $400k in cash and $250k in retirement. The only thing we changed was our lifestyle and future expectations went doWn significantly to never be placed in that position again. We see so many people making $150k in houses twice ours and fancy cars and laugh while we utter they have not learned yet….many learned too late…we didnt. We are still well away from retiring and that lesson taught us a lot. We are not penny pinchers but we do not splurge and buy things that could compromise our futures…
Thank you for sharing your experience. I am happy for your success and I hope to recover to the level you are now at. Please know that we never tried to live it up and there is nothing fancy about our life. The point of the article. It can still happen.
It is a shame that people like the author have lied, and continue to live in a state that has such ridiculously high taxes and cost of living. None of those elements are new or developed lately. It seemed that the higher incomes associated with the region mad up for the higher cost of living there, but it does not. All the income does is qualify you for a higher debt service limit, which you go to every month, it seems.
Don’t worry. In anther few months, almost everyone is going to be completely broke, and somehow it will all work out. You might want to get moving out of that area as son as possible, though. You should have done so a long time ago.
Thanks Brian. We agree. And we’ve been trying to get out. Maybe now having nothing to lose will be the help we needed.
If everyone is broke then the armed and strong will prevail and take what ever is left.
What pisses me off is that solution is not properly enshrined in the Constitution, of the population (which is all I need to know). The 2nd Amendment should be vulgar and blunt. Even if it were, it would have been ignored. Daddy government can do no wrong. What? Wait? Hey! Hey! That’s my__! This can’t be happening!
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5717/text
This guy is a full on communist…he needs to read the second amendment….he should be hung for subversion of the Constitution…
“Just walk away and I’ll spare your lives”. Trust me, those who prevail will not be broke. “Everyone” being broke is well nigh impossible. The armed and strong are not likely to prevail over the shrewd and intelligent, at least not for long, and that’s in the unlikely event of a total Road Warrior style collapse. Think about how things turned out for Lord Humungous as opposed to the Gyro-Captain.
Monte – the strong very quickly line up behind the smart. Strong will sometimes win a battle, but wars go to the smart.
That last sentence should be hung on every prepper’s wall. And part of “smart” is to avoid hubris.
I’m a compensation management professional and early in my career I did my own research and found that if you live in a high cost of living market, you do make more, but not enough to make up the difference in living costs. If you live in a low cost of living market, you generally make less, but the reduction is not as much as the lower cost to live there.
The trick is finding a job out in the boonies.
After bleeding money for a decade living in my wife’s hometown in Bergen County, NJ, I was finally able to find a job that let me work remotely from my home office 20 miles from the nearest grocery store.
My wife is only now, after COVID-19, accepting that I did the right thing forcing her to move away from mommy (FINALLY) and out into “hicksville”.
Thanks for posting Admin.
Best laugh I’ve had in a month.
Poor downvoters.
Go start a GoFundMe for them.
Only the bill is for White people, the benefits are for everyone else.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chicago-mayor-signs-executive-order-allowing-illegal-immigrants-access-virus-relief-funds
I don’t care what brand of cars they drive. It’s whether they have car payments. Our family has five vehicles, the newest of which is nine years old. Hiring landscapers and housecleaners isn’t cheap. I’m guessing they took costly vacations every year, too. Don’t get me wrong – most of us spend more than we need to. I don’t expect people to have anticipated a novel coronavirus pandemic, but her husband’s income could have stopped for a variety of reasons. That’s why people should have savings. Life ain’t fair.
Iska, you are one cold hearted bastard. She clearly says she had to lay off both the indoor and outdoor servants, she can’t remodel the kitchen or even the bathroom, and her husband has been laid off for 3 months. I find it heartbreaking. She says they work hard, I do find that a little dubious considering that they were County employees with a house full of servants. I’ve known a few people like this. They were the ones who gutted their home equity and went on spending sprees. Our country is full of people like this who have never felt a single ripple, as a matter of fact, working for the county their deal has only got better and better. Llpoh has talked about people like this for years. Welcome to reality, sister.
I told her she would find a warm hearted crowd on TBP. You guys didn’t disappoint.
I commented first, then read the other comments. As she pissed me off re the county employee and car bullshit, I did not see the servant bullshit. I would not have been so nice if I saw that shit.
Dimwits get what they get. This person is too stupid to realize the mistakes they made.
It is always someone else’s fault.
Husband of the author here and regular TBP reader. Llpoh the “county employee” thing was not a career move. It was a way of getting health insurance while spending only 8 hrs/day on a job while I planned and launched my business for about 10 of the remaining 16 hours. What I didn’t count on was that the bar was so low to get promoted at the local govt job that I just kept getting promoted. Brass handcuffs followed and yes, a bit of naive perceived safety. I was caught w/o a chair when the music stopped and then a newly elected administration got even more left wing. And we don’t have what you call servants either you smarmy fuck. Fuck you on the cars too. My last one was 15 years old and I ran it till it stopped. I’m writing this because my wife won’t. We do realize the mistakes we made. We’re not blaming anyone, just amazed at how quickly it can get this bad. I guess you and most others don’t need to be reminded that life ain’t fair, so my bad in thinking an illustration of our mistakes would be taken for what it was — a story about how it is even less fair to certain of us who don’t fit an aggrieved category according to TPTB.
“We’re not blaming anyone”
Why? Is that a virtue?
Don’t pick a fight asshole.
You’re in a fight. See that big elephant between us? You don’t. That is why I think you suck. If your wife’s point was a warning about playing by the rules, the system around us should have been featured. But why now? I mean duh. Do you have any idea how duh that post is? Any frigging idea?
You are going after the easy targets. Typical herd mentality. I love the abuse, so I ask again, “Why are you not blaming anyone? Is that a virtue?”
I guess I forgot the level of sadistic pleasure some here on TBP take in piling on anyone who stupidly or naively exposes weakness or past mistakes. I OWN my mistakes. I acknowledge them. I forgot the lesson of wrestling with a pig, made some nasty comments you to and others here and became a pig today myself. I forgot that you guys love to curb stomp your victim. I’m just tired now. So nah. How could I ever have thought I could take you on in battle? You’re so much smarter than me. So congratulations. You win. I quit.
Never give up. Never surrender. Never, never, never.
Marcus, plenty of folks on here have been run through life’s wringer. It is what it is. I didn’t expect to be a sole breadwinner for 12 years and counting, but that’s what happens when your wife and kids have health issues. You get busy living or you get busy dying, as Red would say. I almost got busy dying.
It’s not about a curb stomping for most. The average reader here woke up over a decade ago, some of them two decades ago. Early adopters on the S curve and all that. So 10-20 years later and long after the nation can be saved, there’s a metric fuck ton of resentment and seething anger, not neener neener.
Maryland (especially Baltimore, with which I am quite familiar) will be a death trap in the Brave New World. It’s already perhaps 1/4 of the way there. GTFO by whatever means necessary, even if it means renting a shack in Appalachia.
Wishing you and yours the best.
Marcus – He’s a prick and should be ignored. You’re only enabling him.
Marcus – she said you got laid off. Did you or didn’t you?
You have no idea about bad. Try growing up the son of an illiterate DustBowl Indian.
Also, go look up the definition of servant. You had them. You had people serving you, but did not have the money to take care of your home.
I do not give a shit how long you drive your Japanese cars for. The fact is you bought Japanese cars. And so you hit yourself in the nuts with a hammer and are too dumb to know it.
And you decide to live in or around fucking Baltimore. Whose fault is that?
You have made a series of mistakes, and despite your bleating otherwise, you are looking for others to blame.
Llpoh
Llpoh – I did. I pulled off the amazingly difficult trick of getting laid off by a local govt. And I am sorry and I am not being flip that you had to grow up with significantly more hardship than I. Sounds like it made you strong. Stronger than me. And it also made you a dick.
LOL…Those jap cars are impossible to beat.
I am a jackass, more accurately. It is my nature.
Lolololol
That old fuck is a boomer, so keep that in mind…..
I like smarmy fuck better, it’s a better fit for him. Hang in there Marcus.
You should rent that house to a bunch of niggers or spics and have a clause in there that says they can have as many as they want with a 10k deposit ( they’ll pay it) and just leave that place like I did in 73.
Good luck Marcus and Family.
I have a shitload of respect for Llpoh. He has a lot in common with my mother’s upbringing…just replace Midwest with rural Pennsylvania, and I mean RURAL.
I bet only Jim has heard of the town she’s from.
Cut n’ dried.
Marcus, I can relate to much of your dilemma. That said, check out Christian Health Ministries for health coverage – its not insurance – but you’ll be around 500-700/month and they have an excellent record of paying. Ignore most of these goat fuckers – they’re not learning as much as preaching, going to bed each night with nothing to show for the day – you’ll get there.
Thank you Tommy. Trying to tear myself away from the rage (think Michael Douglas in Falling Down). I very much appreciate your advice.
Many of have been there. Falling Down was about to become my life once and i never want to fo back to that place. Marcus, all you can do now is learn from this and persevere. It will not be easy and yes very painful and it will stress your marriage to the brink and bring life learning to your kids. They need to be a part of this pain so they learn from it so they do not get whacked like you did…I have been in a very dark place before now i do everything i can to never put myself back there. If i ever go back there it will be familiar and not my fault and all i can say is the world will see my wrath if i am ever placed there against my will. I will john galt it forever like i did the catholic church 20 years ago. That was the first taste of freedom….Wish you well and good luck in your journey….you will have to make hard, very hard decisions…
Marcus, it is amazing to me that you would not know TBP is full of roughnecks.
Personally, I wish you luck. As a government employee you really did not deserve to feel any more secure than an employee in the private sector. I don’t claim to speak for others but, I would bet 99.9999% of everyone here hopes 99.9999% of fatfuck government employees take an economic dirt nap.
I hope your entrepreneurial endeavor is a success.
To Iska and Starfckr. I am the husband of the author. My answering you is not in defense of her – she can handle herself. Just a couple of points to clarify the situation for which you’ve made some incorrect assumptions. I’m tempted to call you (Iska) an asshole for your idiotic “Life ain’t fair” comment, but I figure there’s no way you can really know the background and you of course assumed I was a dumbass. Many situational details remain unstated. The point of the piece was not just that life ain’t fair, but that it’s even less fair to some of us. Try reading for comprehension next time.
You are wrong about the cars (we drove our last two for 12 and 15 years, hers and mine respectively). Hiring outside help happens once in a blue moon because we both work pretty much every waking hour. And the extravagant vacations we take consist of a day or two at crappy local beaches. How a hard-core conservative like me ended up in The Peoples Republic of Maryland, getting, then getting laid off from a job in a left wing local govt administration is another story altogether. I HAD significant savings from a very lucrative past career, but I wanted to get out of the rat race and get out to where the cost of living is far less. You can’t put “escape-level” savings together with a job. I took a bad bet on an economy heading in “the right direction” for a new business. I don’t want or need your sympathy or approval. I just want this to be a little lesson to those who played by all the rules and lost. Stop playing by the rules. It’s a rigged game. Oh and also, burn in hell you bitter bastards.
We aren’t bitter bastards. We are skeptical realists. We will kick your ass but defend you from further ass-kicking by outsiders. Who else is going to tell you the truth?
Great post, EC.
Understood EC. I learned that lesson as an snot-nosed Army 2LT 32 years ago in Geissen Germany. Got eviscerated by a grisly E7 for not knowing how to clean a weapon properly. Said E7 got promoted and then knocked back down twice. I thought he was being a bitter bastard. Turns out he was keep me (and a bunch of 19 – 22 yo’s I was in charge of) alive. And maybe I needed the ass kicking. I have not stopped kicking my own ass in a while. Seems I needed reminding.
Best wishes to you and family.
Thank you TIBS. You and yours as well.
Clever that. Who, pray tell?
Marcus,
Looks like you already knew the reality of the situation,
what made you think the world had changed?
“Stop playing by the rules”. I had that same thought many years ago and it worked out rather well. Rules are not synonymous with laws and if one withdraws from a rigged game it’s not equivalent to cheating. No game is ever the only game in town. Thus spake Montefrío.
You can’t play by the rules around here. You will get your ass kicked. Everybody and his brother thinks his name is Francis.
Marcus, no one says you have to stay in the situation you find yourself in. There are lots of otptions out there if you think outside the box.
Yep. I know. Thank you for the reminder.
Open your house to refugees and walk away and let the bank take the political heat for kicking out the protected class refugees with a signed lease for $1 a year. Fuck the bank. Move to a better state with a booming economy like nashville tn. No state income tax either!
Funny as hell.
Thats the spirit!!
That’s a tough story.
I suppose we all have them.
A thought on the regional cost of living. My son is in the US Air Force. Does cyber security. He was offered a position in VA but turned it down because even with the off base allowance, he would have been able to afford only half the sq/ft living space he currently enjoys in the mid-west.
Kudos to starting a small business.
I am partners in a family one with my brother and one my wife and I started. I worked both jobs for 4 years without taking a penny from the startup.
When the weekly hours started avg 50-60, I took a 40% pay cut and went to one full time job at the new one and toughed it out. After 10 years, I am just know back to where I was.
My choice and so much less stress.
I too drive moderate vehicles. My truck for 26 years and what became the work car car 16.
So, again, we all have a story to tell.
Have faith and learn to do EVERYTHING for your self, property wise.
I love HSF’s writing and the messages contained therein.
I don’t grow anything but weeds but can fix anything around the house/yard.
My advice to the author and her family would be watch more HGTV, ask friends for direction and help with fixes and tell your daughter to take a year off college. It will (maybe) still be there on the other side of this.
And maybe consider a move to nearby Wild and Wonderful.
“My advice to the author and her family would be watch more HGTV.” Uh, no. you can be fairly certain that this is where she got this laundry list of ideas. “Our older home is slowly deteriorating because we cannot afford to make repairs to the stucco, replace the 30-year old water heater, replace the multi-patched leaky roof, regrade the yard so water runs away from the foundation and not into the basement, replace original 100-year old windows for energy efficiency, add insulation to both the attic and crawl space… just to name a few things, let alone do the general cosmetics like painting and updating floors, kitchens and bathrooms!” remember, these were people in a high income tax bracket who can’t even afford paint but when it’s Annie Sloan chalk paint or nothing, even the simplest task becomes monumental in cost.
See my reply to Iska above. It’s addressed to you too. Don’t make assumptions.
Hatred of Home & Garden TV is one of my peeves, Marcus. Nothing personal intended on that one. And best of luck on the success of your business.
Understood. And thanks, I will need some luck.
Marcus maybe some here could use your business help? Or buy something you sell?
Hey Marcus, you’re right that I made assumptions. I don’t have time to be fair to people. And I’ve made enough mistakes – financially, personally, as a parent – where I wouldn’t out myself as fully as your wife did, because I’d get a well-deserved ass-kicking around here.
Thanks for the admission. But man, you guys are rough. I’ll be nursing this ego for a while.
You ain’t seen nothing.
You can let this define you or you can rewrite your life story.
Reading the things you wrote about your life before The Collapse didn’t sound all that appealing. You said you took the county job for insurance but you also said you were paying close to 3K a month for more insurance on top of that? For what, are you in an iron lung? And what man, deep down, wants to pay another man to mow his lawn or fix his toilet? Your place is in need of repair, both of you were working jobs apart from each other, when things went south they tossed you to the curb, all the taxes you dutifully paid and you get jack shit-
You said you’ve been reading TBP for a while. Did you think the message of T4T was a joke? Did you think the carousel would spin forever?
There’s the real world and there’s the one people make up in their head. One revolves around real things; family, food, friendship, health, nature, and the truth. The other one is filled with made up notions that only last as long as everyone believes in them but have no intrinsic value; status, money, consumer goods, pastimes, politics, Hollywood.
You have just been handed the golden ticket but you don’t even realize it yet.
I’m rooting for you.
I am rooting for him too – if he learns by this. That is what is important. It is what defines us as human – the ability to improve. And learning from our mistakes allows us the opportunity to exercise and develop integrity. It is easy to have integrity when things are good. But the real test comes when things are bad.
my point below. I think that this exercise will give them the strength that they unknowingly seek..(fingers crossed)
Hi JT. I’m the husband mentioned in the article. Thank you for the comforting words. We just wanted to warn with a real-life story of what happens when you play by the rules. How naive we’ve been. Best wishes to you and your family through these trying times.
Likewise sir.
I left out some of the personal shitty details that added to the challenge.
Taking the plunge in business is admirable. Hopefully it is in a growing market.
We (my wife) thought a crematory was a good idea in 2006. Turns out it was.
Pretty sad state of affairs. My sister is in a similar situation, living paycheck to paycheck. She has an open invitation to come live with us whenever she wants.
The gov’t robs people and calls it taxes. The US has way too much gov’t. The Fed Gov in particular needs to disappear so state gov’ts start to compete with each other for residents and businesses once they become countries. The Fed Gov stifles competition because it lays a heavy blanket across all the states by enforcing rules they all must heed.
If people had just their federal taxes back, think of how much better off they’d be. Think of how much lower all taxes and fees would be if there was competition between state/country gov’ts.
This latest p(l)andemic is going to cause even more people to fall back and lose what little they’ve managed to acquire. If enough people get fed up, then revolutions happen and nobody really wins once violence starts.
People need to stop cooperating with all forms of gov’t. Think of all gov’ts as mafia organizations that hold you up every chance they get and maybe that attitude adjustment might cause fewer and fewer people to go through the ritual idiocy of voting for their masters.
It’s also a shame that most people won’t even consider leaving the country to find a place that steals less from them and doesn’t have the huge dirtbag population of freeloaders on welfare. Folks should consider ALL their options and investigate where life might be better for them.
“It’s also a shame that most people won’t even consider leaving the country to find a place that steals less from them .” You first. we live in the greatest country on the planet.
Exactly. Any other country doesn’t have a 2nd Amendment. Without a 2nd Amendment, when the government says to get on the bus, you get on the bus.
Swimmer,
Get on the bus.
My Guns are bigger and more numerous than yours.
Sincerely,
The Federal Government.
How did those bigger guns work out for you in afghanistan with goatfickers using rusted 20 year old russian ak47’s? Been 20 yrs now
Jesus F. Christ, Mssr. Galt. You know better than that. Both the American Revolutionaries and the Taliban lived off the land and were incentivized to deal life and death in their own best interests. The British lost in Afghanistan. Everybody does. The only possible way to win there is genocide, and no political will for that. Today’s Americans are incentivized to go along to get along and can’t live without electricity for a few days. There is no comparison. A man in Afghanistan would cut a bitch open for the lesser shit liberated women do here. No comparison at all. The history you are searching for involves two triumvirates and the taming of the Roman Senate. I know you know better.
Is that the same letter they sent the Taliban?
Up yours us armed forces, love viet cong and afghanis
Swimmer.
Have you ever seen napalm up close? How about just a tank mounted flame thrower? Sarin Gas?
And nobody with the balls to use them. Wait till it gets real bad though and that might change. Like Gerald Celente says “When people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose they lose it” Coming soon to a state near you!
But do you stay at home for their kung flu?
we live in the greatest country on the planet. – starfuck
That’s what they keep telling us. And yet we wax nostalgic for the 50’s – a time that held so much promise.
I would argue that toss.
You can’t fix stupid.
I feel your pain, Wendy. Lost my house in foreclosure back in ’10 and had to rent. Be very careful when dealing with the mortgage banks…they show no mercy and will change the terms mid-deal. That’s what happened to me. Fixed rate loan yet the impound was “too low” and my payment shot up $1,000 a month for a year, thereafter (for 30 years) an extra $300 a month.
I don’t know your politics but keep in mind the dems are straining at the bit to give relief money to illegals running businesses. Meantime…no soup for U.
I am the author’s husband. We are right of Attila the Hun. Good luck to you out there on the left coast. I think I know what it’s like to be in a deep deep blue area.
Westy, the same thing happened to our teacher’s family, Mrs Rollins, back in the 30’s. She said they couldn’t pay the taxes and lost the house. A fixed rate does not mean a fixed payment, the taxes keep rising and so does your payment.
Mom over borrowed on her home, 175k on a 155k property, then 09 hit like a truck. The brothers and I stepped in to try and help her with the Mortgage redo program.
The lender had no interest.
Foreclosure and auction.
Motherfuckers sold it for 48k.
Took me a while to comprehend what that really meant.
Throughout my life, I found out it was OK to live way below my means. I went though the crash of the oil patch in 1982 and learned that houses do no always appreciate in value, but you still owed $82,000 for the house with a current market value of $60,000. From that point on, I always bought a house with a reasonable mortgage payment and made every effort to pay extra.
Keeping up with the Jones’s is expensive and will put you in the poorhouse if the economy hiccups.
Hi TN Patriot. I’m the author’s husband. We were never trying to keep up with the Jones’. Just trying to get out once we opened out eyes to the rigged game many years ago. Glad you are ok. We hope to be soon again too.
I learned my lesson about 40 years earlier than you. I sympathize with your plight and assure you, there can be a better life, but it will suck getting there. I ended up walking away from my house, uprooting and moving to TN. House was foreclosed, but they never filed a judgement against me, I guess they had too many foreclosures to handle at the same time.
Good luck to you and hang in there.
Queue LLPOH to rip you a new one for not saving enough, eating out too often, and not riding a bicycle in 3, 2, 1…
Rise up – indeed. Honda’s, Toyotas, servants, govt employees. What is wrong with this picture?
Government is make work for midwits. Aim higher.
Government is winning. There is no higher. That’s the problem!
Read my reply to you above. You’re reading the situation wrong.
During the Depression and WW2 extended families often had to move in together. One residence was let go, and they would move based on various priorities like job potential, elder care, farming, ranching, home size, ability to move, or who was the best off to help support the rest.
It truly sucks, but as the saying goes, “needs must when the devil drives”.
The fools in DC and the State governments are hoping we will all just continue to bend over and enjoy the ride. Their continuing power grab, including fear mongering, gun grabbing, surveillance, lock downs and targeted “relief measures” are meant to ensure compliance. As long as we take the King’s coin, we become the King’s man.
“When do we get a break?”
when you break from the dollar ystem. scale back your costs, find economic activity outside the dollar system. you’re going to be doing this soon anyway, we all are, so you might as well get a head start on it.
Trying gman. Trying…
Boo fucking hoo. I did not read that entire pile of poor me. In the first couple of paragraphs this asshat talks about having a Honda and a Toyota. Well. There you go. She does not see the disjoint there I guess.
Then her poor husband gets laid off by the city of Baltimore. No more govt teat to suckle at. Boo hoo. Again, she does not see the disjoint.
A great many people have contributed to their own demise, and have zero understanding of it.
The reckoning has arrived. They may eventually wake up, but I doubt it.
Big Injun Chief strikes again with deadly perception.
ha ha ha …like I’ve said many times, it’s a bitch’s world… ceptin’ TBP where pity and virtue gets run down by cold hard logic and fact, then gets backed over just to make sure it don’t get back up.
7 million died….shhh ..just play retarded.
Are you capable of imagining even ONE reason someone may have worked for the govt other than suckling off the govt teat? Think of what you would do having woken up several years ago to the trap you made for yourself (yes, I acknowledge that). How about maybe putting together a starter pile of “escape money” from a lucrative but challenging, lightening paced and all-encompassing private industry job. Then you might go join the local govt where you could do the same work at a snails’ pace, with almost no competition from colleagues, make comparable money for about half the time and effort input. Are you capable of imagining that someone more clever than you may do that to both keep a growing family with a roof over our heads and health insurance while plotting an escape from deep blue state hell? Are you capable of imagining such a person took a big risk and timed it wrong. We’re not crying “boo hoo” you fuck.
“Are you capable of even ONE reason someone may have worked for the govt other than suckling off the govt teat?”
he may not be. quite a few of those on the “right’ say they hate government/police et al but that’s just a cover – what they really hate is other people. they’ll say they are in favor of rights/responsibilities et al but that’s just a cover – what they really favor is themselves by themselves with no-one else involved. so no, to them there never is a positive reason to any government tasking, because 1) that involves those other people, and 2) it doesn’t benefit them directly and is therefore invalid.
Moron buys an 100 year old ‘ historical ‘ house then freak out over cost of maintenance … Yep, they don’t build them like they used too and it’s a good thing too.
If you’re not rich as 6 foot up a bulls ass , you cannot afford an old house. End of discussion. I know from whence I speak.
Read my replies to Llpoh above. I should have predicted the knee jerk response from dimwits like you, making idiotic assumptions w/o a shred of ability to imagine circumstances are different than how they play out in your little mind. I think Admin knew this would get nasty (well played Admin, well played). I must confess, as a long time TBP reader and first time commenter, it’s cathartic to enagage tell off asshats like you who can’t think their way out of a wet paper bag.
Glad I could help with that constipation problem, but your still a moron for buy a money pit. It sucks I know. Just man up and own it.
Marcus – I did not make any assumptions.
1) You got laid off from a county job – (btw takes a special kinda talent to do that. And in Baltimore no less. )
2) you employed servants – that is the damn definition of landscapers and housecleaners.
3) you drive Japanese cars, and I do not give a shit how old or how long you drive them.
4) you bought an old house on credit and did not allow for the cash to maintain it.
And you cannot see that this was I’ll-conceived? That is some serious self-delusion going on there.
And the crap about 2008 – that was 12 years ago. If you have not figured a way out of whatever issues that caused you, then that is on you.
Re your kids’ college education – it is great to help them with that if you can. But it is their responsibility in the end to figure it out.
You bought shit on credit that in the end you cannot afford. You bought cars that were made by overseas companies, and thus worked indirectly against your interests. You hired servants to do work that you, your wife, or your kids could have done. And you lost your job – that happens, but you needed to have allowed for that possibility. And did not. And you did not allow for your new business venture to fail, which ALWAYS has a high probability of happening.
Wake the fuck up.
In all due respect llpoh, (as much as can be due a complete stranger on a website) The correct prognosticators are feeling pretty self assured now that the collapse(?) has arrived(?). But each and everyone one of us has lost a shitload being wrong before.(regardless of the bet) And hope doth spring eternal till that brick wall.
Give em a break. There’s lots more stories like this out there. Seems largely pig headed to “I Told You So” to death. You were ready, he and lots more good people weren’t. Big deal.
The issue is that they clearly are not owning up to their mistakes, instead look to blame someone else. I am not saying I told you so, even though I did, of course. I am instead saying take responsibility for it and move on.
Bernie Sanders. Another fake candidate who never was a candidate.
Bernie and his wife, who manages their campaign funds, got rich off him running for office. She is allowed to take 15% of campaign donations as the director of said campaigns. When confronted about this by a reporter on a phone call, she hung up.
Aholes, both of them.
Trotskyites, rather.
And when he retires all the money in the campaign war chest is kept tax free.
Winnie, how is the current situation making America great again? I hear we may hear this campaign slogan soon: MAQA.
uh-oh. I always wanted to learn a 2nd language, but just not like this.
I have a suggestion for you. Stop paying everything. Tell “them” they have caused your problems and can go and do the anatomicaly impossible.
That nails it perfectly Old Whitey.
They’re begging us to!!!
Ah, yes. The difference between a recession and a depression. Look whose ox is being gored. I, the inept man, unsuitable for marriage. Zero cultural awareness. The lesson of Martin Neomoller fell on deaf ears. Too late, sister.
Marcus..
I’m trying to muster some empathy but you make it difficult. I read this 3 hours ago and decided to pass because I drew the same conclusions most of the others did. Now I saw all the harsh critiques and thought well maybe I read too much into it. Sorry again.
“Nobody could have seen the economic shutdown”. “You never recovered the value it lost during the 2008 meltdown”. If you truly are to the right of Attila how did you not know this would happen. Why did you delay those repairs so long if you owned it prior to 2008. If you say it’s because you couldn’t afford it then maybe you were living beyond your means. I know how much a good water heater costs and it’s not that much. Any drunken handyman can replace them cheap. If you could afford it, or the roof repairs but didn’t do it then it looks bad if you want us to take you seriously.
If you got your news from the mainstream it’s your fault. After watching the Dot.com collapse and the housing scam collapse how could anyone to the right of the Hun not plan better. My late sister was a shyster Real estate broker who used to tell clients to buy the most house possible on their income. Sounds like you met one of her proteges and bought too much house.
Oh so you predicted the entire fucking world economy would shut down? Don’t want your ’empathy’. Didn’t listen to MSM. Beat the dot com bust (while owning a dot com). Lost bad in 2008. MFers who didn’t gamble and lose in ’08 (and other times) can’t know how hard it is/was to recover from. Fuck all of you who assume we’re stupid or selfish or lazy or bought too much house. You are an arrogant, condescending fuck. I guess you didn’t need our story of woe. Know that if it can happen to me, asshole, it can happen to you. I guess you’re wiser and smarter than I am though and you needn’t worry.
“I guess you’re wiser and smarter than I am”
well, the main function of the blog – and a lot of blogs – is to allow the superior in all things to parade their superiority in all things. the ones who post take up all the attention, but they’re not the only ones who read here, so you probably shared the lesson with someone.
Thanks gman. I hope you are right.
gman
You mean like your superiority complex. I don’t comment on many articles unlike you who shit stupid comments all over the site every day every article.
+1000
Marcus.
Yes I predicted it and took the heat for it from the eternal half full crowd. If you had been reading any contrarian info anywhere you would have had an idea this shit show was at it’s end. I was pretty nice compared to some here. I can’t count the number of articles on TBP warning of this very thing happening, if you were a long time reader you would have been warned and you would have know that you wouldn’t get any sympathy. You just come out of nowhere and write a whimper snivel article for a site like this and whine when we don’t all say OOOHHH you poor dear. I wallowed in self pity long enough to know what it looks and smells like and you look like it and reek of it. The shit’s oozing out of you. And no that can’t happen to me asshat. Just the fact that you think you can move someplace where life is just or fair qualifies you as a pathetic pussy. You want fairness? There’s people in this world who will spend their whole life never knowing what it feels like to be full or safe. I know a guy who has lived over 50 fukkin years on a skate board who hasn’t lived indoors since he was 8 just because he was born in the wrong location. Those people I have empathy and sympathy for. You can piss off pussy.
Flea – I know we have had some small tiffs, but generally we see eye to eye. Thanks for being part of TBP.
You deserve each other.
Marcus – Flea and I are friends. You on the other hand are an ignoramus too incompetent to keep a local government job.
I mean, that requires a sustained dedication to incompetence. If there were a Hall of Fame for incompetence, you would be certain to be unanimously elected.
Man, you really should have kept that little detail to yourself.
Down boy, down. Help him get over his rage and think clearly. Ya know, like you would with an employee?
Wip – he is escalating things with me. I have been extraordinarily restrained until now. Relative to how I normally am, in any event.
I’m a softy, as you know.
When have you ever been able to muster up some empathy for anybody, Fleabo? You make LLPOH look like Gandhi.
First time I have ever been compared to Gandhi.
Aren’t you both Indian?
and hopefully the last time —
C-pussy.
Fukk you you whiny prick. I have empathy for the helpless and hopeless, not snivelers who bought too much house and I damn sure have more than you ever had.
Dude, even Marcus lumped you and LLPOH together. I just wanted to compare LLPOH to Gandhi. Excuse me if you got offended.
EC
That isn’t what you said. You said “When were you ever able to muster up some empathy for anybody”. Why did you trash me like that? Now you want to pretend innocence. We are killing(Murdering) 50,000 Yemeni children a year. They have my empathy as does their family. A whiny white boy who worked for the county who still has his pricey home, wife and kids? No way. Do you ever think about the dumb stuff you say before you hit the send button?
It’s a tough crowd here, Wendy… but whenever I’ve been kicked during tough times I focused on the truth behind what stung. Your article made me sad. To be honest, it sort of broke my heart. But, then, into the cracks flowed anger, like lava. Blue-collar folks trying to stay upright in a crooked world is noble. And debt is a bitch because that’s exactly what it makes people (in relation to lenders).
I would just say it’s not too late to do the next right thing. At any given time we only have one of two choices to make, so…. just gather the information first and choose the best alternative every time. Then each choice will lead to the next choice which, after a while, the decisions will become more clear.
One day at time and one decision at a time. Don’t be ashamed. The odds always favored the “house”. Be a realist. No regret. Sh*t happens and it just is what is. What you do next is all that matters.
I had someone waiting on me earlier as I scanned this article and made my above comment. In my haste, I realize I may have been in error when I assumed Wendy and Marcus had high wage/skilled blue collar jobs. So, instead, I should have wrote “middle-class”.
Other than that, I’ll just say this place is a long shallow trench filled with shit-throwing monkeys, wolves, sharks, snakes, stingrays, murderers, thieves, and coyotes. But there’s also a downside to it, too.
In any case, if the comments by Marcus on this thread are any indication, I’d say they’re gonna land on their feet and then some. Because what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger
Thanks Doug. I stumbled across TheTollOnline a few years back. You run a great blog. You were one of those who opened my eyes. And yes, I am very angry – mostly at myself these days because I did know something incredibly bad would happen. I gambled on timing an escape run and lost by a mile. I don’t/can’t blame anyone but myself. I knew the game and I knew the players. It’s hard to listen to the commenters telling me what I dumbass I am. They’re right about that, but they’re wrong about why. So I still have to swing back (whether I land the punches or not) at shiteaters like Llpoo, fleadick, and flasher.
Thanks man. I’m gratified to hear that. People wake up… when they wake up; and there are so many variables to the timelines. Some may tell you its too late, but I’ll just say nothing is worse than dying blind and ignorant. In other words… it’s never too late – until its over.
Take inventory of your assets (including the fire in your belly), seek good counsel, make good decisions and may you and your wife have the courage to let go of any (and all) things that are no longer serving you. My home is wherever my wife and kids are at any given time. Everything else is just another bonus or… if you prefer… blessing.
And one more thing… if you’re not having fun you should be learning something. Stick around and you’ll laugh about these comments someday. Trust me. I know. ?
Thank you Uncola. I will stick around. If only just to bitch slap llpoo and fleadick once in a while. I guess they won today’s round in that they got me engaged. I can’t believe they are actually as dense as their comments suggest. Or they are really just great at being annoying fucktards. I can see them now at their keyboards giggling with delight at their wit like little juvenile delinquents who made up a new fart joke.
Marcus..
It’s been said that every body has their own sack of rocks to tote….I figure the liberty lover from down under and the Flea have both handled some pretty deep bruises totin theirs…..
I would tend to disagree with llpoh’s defense of banks/mortg. holders: “They have done nothing unfair or unethical”……
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”
Gal 6:
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<—–==
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them
Ecc. 9: 10,11,12
err
Marcus
I couldn’t log back on yesterday due to a glitch with Admins new ad company so I’ll beat the dead horse this morning.
I was not mean to you at all, I was pretty darn gentle in what I said and gave my reasons which were basically what Llpoh said. Lack of planning. Your retort was way out of proportion so I told you what I really thought. Your article belong in Womans Day not TBP. Neither Me nor Llpoh is giggling in glee over your situation. The fact that you imagine it with all the other comments you’ve made don’t indicate maturity. What were you thinking when you wrote it and had it posted.
My wife and I bought a fixer upper near her daughter to spend our remaining days in in late 2006. We put 20 grand and countless hours of work into it never expecting to sell it. She died suddenly of brain cancer in Nov. 2009. I didn’t want to stay in the house much less the dusty Texas panhandle. I made that choice so my wife could be near her daughter. You couldn’t give away a house in 2009 so rather than pout I just sucked it up, put on my bast pair of man pants and got out from under it. Broke even on the mortgage
and ate the 20 grand and our labor and left.
Did you know that suicides in Ten. outnumbered covid deaths. You are not in that kind of despair. My heart goes out to those people. If I don’t have any compassion left for you I’m sure you will understand.
Crazy Uncle Frankie who lives in the attic.
Nice post, Flea.
I really want Marcus and Wendy to do well. To do well, they have to see that they took risks, they borrowed money of their own volition, they spent money on things that were not necessary, and blaming banks, govt, etc. for that is absurd. Everyone knows banks are evil but they chose to do business with them anyway.
So, first thing is to say, “man I fucked up. I will not do that again”, then put in place a plan to overcome the current mess for ever.
I have a lot of experience with this shit, via what I have seen in my family. More than most people can ever imagine. I have made it my life’s mission to go forward without regret, and to own up to bad decisions so that I might learn and grow. And one part of that is to try not to blame others for my failings. Because in that direction lies regret. I can not control what others do. I can control what I do. If I blame others, it essentially says that I have no control over my own destiny, and that is clearly untrue.
Marcus can clearly grow and prosper. But to do so means taking charge of what he can control, and stop blaming others for being what he surely knows them to be.
Llpoh
Exactly.
Owning my deeds and actions was 10X easier than owning my motives. You can’t rape the willing.
Although I may have been a victim at one time. If I wanted to remain a victim I had to be willing to take all the misery and depression that comes with it, and boy did I ever. I made bad choices based on self. What Frankie wanted or what was easiest or most expedient instead of what was best. Because of what I learned I refuse to participate in helping anyone complain, but old school love went out with participation trophy’s.
The latter.
Marcus – you have zero ability for self-reflection. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And boy have you failed to learn.
So unlike Uncola, I believe you have zero chance of bouncing back to your feet until you and the missus understand that you are the problem.
Here is a perfect example from the article. The author says “ PHH Mortgage is willing to give us a 3-month respite for our payments but it’s all due at the end of the 90-days. How is that ethical and fair?”
Ethical and fair is that you pay them what you owe them. They are offering something, which is way beyond what you agreed to. They have done nothing unfair or unethical. Pay them what you owe them, now that is fair and ethical. But crying about the fact that they will not give you whatever it is you want is what is unfair and unethical. Pay them, or toss them the keys. That is what you agreed to do.
The decisions you made contributed heavily as to why you are in this mess. What if you had no mortgage? No mess, right? What if you had saved every penny instead of paying for servants – much smaller mess, right? Or required your kids to pay their own college? No mess then, right? Or made better career decisions?
You took known risks, of free volition, and things went to shit. That happens, and can happen to anyone. It is the fact that you blame others for outcomes of decisions you made that is the problem.
The mess you are in has zero to do with your mortgage company. And everything to do with decisions you made.
Get over it. Own it. And move forward.
Marcus and Wendy,
There’s a lot of very valuable advice in this thread and entire books could be written about the following statements…
From Hardscrabble earlier/above:
From Llpoh:
And
We really do reap what we sow and letting ourselves off the hook by blaming other people and/or circumstances is dishonest.
It’s OK to make mistakes if we learn from them. I’d like to think you’re in the process of that now and Wendy writing the above article was a good start.
I have friends who are recovering addicts and alcoholics. They f*cked up time and time again via bad decisions and blaming other people and circumstances. But, today, in recovery, many of them view God as Good Orderly Direction. And I will tell you, even by that definition, you can’t come to God without honesty.
Lying to ourselves is like giving ourselves bad directions and then wondering how we got lost.
Brutal honesty is how you find your way again. Even in tough times. Especially in tough times. And today is a good start. Some here have provided good direction. And others have offered you encouragement along the way. You got this.
That is precisely how you write a joke.
You string together an interesting collection of words that create an image, then you completely flip the end, and it’s true.
As comics in the back of the room say, that’s funny.
Interesting. I heard a joke was just an unexpected ending. A non-sequitur, if you will.
I ain’t afraid of no jokes.
(Jokers either)
I think I said that.
flip the end
Or cripples you.
I’ve been working at about the only job I can find in this town- an appraiser’s assistant. The hourly pay is decent but there are so few hours I end up making the yearly equivalent of a full time minimum wage job. To top it off, the asshat has been committing contractor fraud for years by not taking the taxes out of our checks (he thinks it’s a game to cheat the system) so I get hosed paying for independent contractor status when I’m not. Last year I paid about $2300 in federal, this year I made $800 less and the federal tax was $4000. On $23,000, not even a livable wage. And if I report him I’m sure to get fired. No one wants you when you get older.
I have always admired your perseverance KaD.
KaD… just a quick brainstorm in case you haven’t thought of any of these before:
– reaching out to other appraisers in the region (doesn’t sound like he could keep you to a non-compete clause)
– partnering with a local realtor to do BPO’s &/or reconciliation products (i.e. contract work for Clear Capitol, etc)
– real estate photography (like TBP’s Donkey/WIP)
– performing the inspection for the 1004P (bifurcated appraisal product)
– networking with someone like TBP’s Tim (Tommy?) on private land acquistions/ sales for local research/ tips/ site visits on a contract basis
KaD
If you’re anywhere close to the DC metropolitan area, email me please.
[email protected]
This is too funny:
Author: “Hey Admin, I wrote this, could you post it for me?”
Admin: “If you post that, the monkeys will shred you like a pound of pizza cheese. You sure you want that posted?”
Author: “They would never do that. I will surely get loads of sympathy. I mean, everyone is in the same boat, and they will appreciate this story!”
Admin: “Alrighty then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I mean, it is just so in character with their general decision making – make an ill-conceived decision, and stand back in bewilderment as to how it all went wrong, looking to blame someone else. They were told this would happen, it happened, and now they are doing their level best to defend decisions that were clearly less than stellar.
?????
My actual email back to Wendy:
“The commenters can be mean sometimes, but don’t take it personal.”
I like my version of events better.
That’s why I keep my myriad fuckups to myself.
Marcus, you might be the perfect candidate for asshole consulting, a.k.a. Captain Capitalism, a.k.a. Aaron Clarey. You should check out his website me thinks.
Good grief, Wendy and Marcus! Spending $2600 a month on health insurance! Christian groups do it for a third of that or less. The girl in college? Are you nuts? Tell her to study online, stay at home, or get a job. The son who has his hours cut? Tell him he is a grown man and to deal with it because you have your own problems. Expensive house? Well, there is a huge mistake in and of itself. It is a depreciating asset much of the time, so one needs a place to live but not one where it can break you because it’s old and decrepit! Not a good choice! Working for the enemy? Bad on you and I’m afraid some karma got laid on you for your hypocrisy if we are to believe you are a right-winger. Why not libertarian, by the way? Or better, anarchist? Anyway, shed the house, shed the college, instruct the kids, and find some cheaper health insurance. Or not, but please look in the mirror for solutions and primary source of problems. Yes, the world is a hard place because we voters vote for saviors and idiots, but knowing that you can prepare. And save when you can, which is exactly what you did not do.
Wishing you well and I have confidence in your ability to face what is and work it out so that you can look back and see not a boob bobbing in the flood but a real man in charge of keeping it all afloat and prosperous.
I’m perhaps showing my vicarious sympathy and weakness, but what if it’s too late? I mean, solutions are obvious, and it’s not working hard anymore, is it?
Marcus, let me get serious for a second. You’ve been planning your own business for years, and due to circumstance, you just went live. And your wife has a to-do list that includes updating kitchens and bathrooms. These are not compatible goals, and probably won’t be for years. If that business is going to become what sustains you, you need to get the wife on board, and quick. Dave Ramsey makes tons of 10 minute videos on financial prioritization. Might not be a bad idea to watch some of these together. The shit just got real for you. And her. But it sounds like she just wants things to be the way that they were. Good luck with that. She got beat down pretty hard on this post Let it be an eye-opener. Making mistakes is paying the tuition for gaining wisdom.
Ramsey, a great idea! One should do what one can. An income of 50k+ is practically necessary I think, but still the Baby Steps are a must know. I’m surprised Dave Ramsey was not mentioned sooner. As far as having a wife goes, that’s why I’m glad I don’t have one. I fear women like I fear the police.
I never heard of a 30 year old water heater.
I had one. 35 years actually.
You never heard of one so they must not exist right?
knocking on wood as i say this–
i bought the house i grew up in from my folks–
any of you old enough to remember wt grant stores or jm fields will appreciate this one,they both went under in the early 70 s–
my hwh came from one of them,my dad couldn’t remember which one though–he installed it here right after we had the house moved here,which was in 66–
i’ve patched it a few x & it isn’t all that efficient but it works ok–
They do not want you satisfied. They want you poor and starving so they can play god and dish out crumbs so you vote them back in office. If you do not need them they hate you. They want 99% broke and dependent on them, this is their power, and they are in the remaining 1%. They hate the middle class. Democrats definition of rich os a family of four with two income being $75,000 total household income. That is why all benefits total up to $57k if you live completely off the govt. they make you believe the rich are millionaires but they make laws defining the rich as 75k a year…..
The last Consensus sure did lean that way. I was taken aback at how much financial info they wanted and it all seemed to lean towards how much more money the locals should get from .Gov. Very depressing.
Marcus, whatever your lot, let it be well with your soul. Keep faith in a faithful Creator. Don’t quit…ever..don’t take your eye off the end zone..Everyone makes mistakes, some big and some smaller, but no one is without their faults… Hang in there, buddy.
nkit – He thinks he made no mistakes – it was just bad luck I guess. And that is why he is getting skewered.
He did what he did. I have zero problem seeing your points and the points of others who agree with you. I have no sympathy….only empathy for Marcus and Wendy,and would hope that they will find a way to move on with their newly-gained knowledge and lives, and turn a negative into a positive. They know from whence their situation arose.
They must keep their faith. What do they have without it? I once pitched a game where I was shelled early on. My manager never lost faith in me. He left me in, and I battled back and didn’t give up another hit. We won. So can they.
Very nice, nkit. It is best for Marcus if Wendy and Marcus can receive the shellacking with an open mind/ear for those who give encouragement.
I wish to believe that he will..
Why didn’t you maintain your house when you did have money? Stop blaming the government for your own bad decisions.