The cost of living

[missmuffet]

31 minutes ago, The_Patriot21 said:

You said 21

Their ramspringa can last as long as they want it to last or some don't go through it at all. 

[The_Patriot21]

2 hours ago, missmuffet said:

Their ramspringa can last as long as they want it to last or some don't go through it at all. 

I was just quoting what you said with a minor clarification. Those were your words not mine. If you misspoke thats fine, life goes on. Theres no need to get bent out of shape over it, Im certainly not going to. Definitely nothing worth fighting over. Have a nice night.

[missmuffet]

16 minutes ago, The_Patriot21 said:

I was just quoting what you said with a minor clarification. Those were your words not mine. If you misspoke thats fine, life goes on. Theres no need to get bent out of shape over it, Im certainly not going to. Definitely nothing worth fighting over. Have a nice night.

Who's fighting? 

[Solly]

On 5/2/2022 at 7:38 PM, missmuffet said:

What do you consider extras? A smart phone? an automobile? 

I don't know how someone makes it who has to work a minimum wage job

Extras? I do not own one of those highly intrusive smart phones and as for a minimum wage job, I'm a pensioner together with my wife of 55yrs. We survive on our joint pensions and income from past investments while we were working.
We have each other under G-d's ever watchful eye and do not go to bed hungry, so what more could we want in the way of extras?

[Starise]

Many people will work very hard to accumulate the most they can, buy the largest house, buy a second property if possible. Then they need help to take care of all of it, age starts to kick in and many of them realize they are now in too large of a house.

Larger homes have higher taxes and cost more to heat and cool. Many homes are not well designed for people who are getting older, so it's ironic they end up selling that big home only to move into something smaller, a 55+ community or similar. Some place where lawn upkeep is left to others.

Real estate everywhere is going up and unless wages can keep up with it successive generations will have a tough time finding any home period. This is one reason why when those who say nothing is changing or has really changed I have to disagree. Just look at real estate as one example of many. Lenders use amortization, which depending on the deal, means you will pay probably three or four times the amount of the loan principle if you pay the full term. A 300,000 dollar home actually costs you 900,000 dollars plus taxes in 30 years. With interest rates going up it's going to be tougher to refinance a home loan.

The best thing to do is refinance NOW if you are in a position to do so and can drop your interest rate even a few points. Most lenders and the real estate agents that push them ( they are in cahoots most of the time) will try to get you on a 30 year loan. Some of them will even make it seem you can't d0 the deal UNLESS you go 30 years. This isn't true. You can secure your own lending at 15 or 20 years and pay extra on the principle over time.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Starise

[missmuffet]

8 minutes ago, Starise said:

Many people will work very hard to accumulate the most they can, buy the largest house, buy a second property if possible. Then they need help to take care of all of it, age starts to kick in and many of them realize they are now in too large of a house.

Larger homes have higher taxes and cost more to heat and cool. Many homes are not well designed for people who are getting older, so it's ironic they end up selling that big home only to move into something smaller, a 55+ community or similar. Some place where lawn upkeep is left to others.

Real estate everywhere is going up and unless wages can keep up with it successive generations will have a tough time finding any home period. This is one reason why when those who say nothing is changing or has really changed I have to disagree. Just look at real estate as one example of many. Lenders use amortization, which depending on the deal, means you will pay probably three or four times the amount of the loan principle if you pay the full term. A 300,000 dollar home actually costs you 900,000 dollars plus taxes in 30 years. With interest rates going up it's going to be tougher to refinance a home loan.

The best thing to do is refinance NOW if you are in a position to do so and can drop your interest rate even a few points. Most lenders and the real estate agents that push them ( they are in cahoots most of the time) will try to get you on a 30 year loan. Some of them will even make it seem you can't d0 the deal UNLESS you go 30 years. This isn't true. You can secure your own lending at 15 or 20 years and pay extra on the principle over time.

Good advise. Yes, real estate has gone up a lot. A small one bedroom apartment now that is just average is going to cost you $1,700.00 to 1,800.00 dollars rent a month. If you go into " affordable" housing you might not like the neighbors that you have because it is one step up from being homeless. 

[Starise]

20 minutes ago, missmuffet said:

Good advise. Yes, real estate has gone up a lot. A small one bedroom apartment now that is just average is going to cost you $1,700.00 to 1,800.00 dollars rent a month. If you go into " affordable" housing you might not like the neighbors that you have because it is one step up from being homeless. 

I once qualified for "affordable housing". I was working at a low enough wage to qualify. My wife didn't work at the time. I was living with my in laws and was willing to do almost anything to get out of their house This was about 30 years ago. My rent would be maybe 100.00 less than the market rent but I was still paying a goodly amount. Meanwhile in that same place, there were those with no intention to ever work paying 15.00 a month for rent out of their welfare money. Granted some of them were single mothers who needed it. Others were doing drugs. I was glad to get out of there, even if it meant I had to pay a higher rent. So yes, you can have some seedy neighbors in those places. I built up a track record and moved out ASAP.

There are also probably plenty of seedy people living in 2 million dollar houses.

Rents here in my immediate area are lower than closer to the large cities where it's nothing to pay 2000.00-2500.00 dollars a month for rent. If a person shops around they could probably find a 1000.00- 1500.00 deal. To me that seems crazy high.

One of my nieces did a smart thing. She bought a very low end property because that was all she could get into. Not everyone can do that and I understand that for many buying a property is not an option.

[missmuffet]

20 minutes ago, Starise said:

I once qualified for "affordable housing". I was working at a low enough wage to qualify. My wife didn't work at the time. I was living with my in laws and was willing to do almost anything to get out of their house This was about 30 years ago. My rent would be maybe 100.00 less than the market rent but I was still paying a goodly amount. Meanwhile in that same place, there were those with no intention to ever work paying 15.00 a month for rent out of their welfare money. Granted some of them were single mothers who needed it. Others were doing drugs. I was glad to get out of there, even if it meant I had to pay a higher rent. So yes, you can have some seedy neighbors in those places. I built up a track record and moved out ASAP.

There are also probably plenty of seedy people living in 2 million dollar houses.

Rents here in my immediate area are lower than closer to the large cities where it's nothing to pay 2000.00-2500.00 dollars a month for rent. If a person shops around they could probably find a 1000.00- 1500.00 deal. To me that seems crazy high.

One of my nieces did a smart thing. She bought a very low end property because that was all she could get into. Not everyone can do that and I understand that for many buying a property is not an option.

Well, years ago you could rent a decent apartment for $500.00/mo. Not anymore. I don't know how people are doing it making minimum wage. But they may be able to get assistance. I can't buy I have to rent. Several years ago my son was very sick and I had to go on a family leave. I could only work one or two days a week. I spent all my savings, 401K maxed out my credit cards and then I had to take out a loan just to live. I was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every night for dinner. But now things are much better and totally out of debt but no money to buy a house. With the cost of houses now....FORGET IT!!!

[Starise]

I'm glad to hear things are better for you now @missmuffet. That had to be tough.

I'm no economist, but as I see it the government creates a lot of these problems. Then people need assistance to live, so they are forced to use any kind of help they can find. This is great for a totalitarian government who wants to have all the control they can get. Rental assistance is one more hook they can put into us, probably to be used for future control.

The US didn't have to have this fuel price hike. There were ways around it. The government wanted to promote electric cars. This is apparent in looking at the subsidies they are handing out to electric car buyers.  The long term harm making batteries does more harm to our environment than gasoline cars. Electric cars are on average 25% more expensive. They use more fossil fuel in their production than gasoline cars and for many long distance travelers they are not a practical working solution.

This is what happens when bureaucrats with no engineering experience make these kinds of decisions. Big players with lots of money think they have this all figured out, and if it doesn't work? No worries, they are so rich it won't affect them.

I heard a comment that really struck a nerve with me recently. The devil knocks on the door politely to come into our lives. One he gains access he tries to rule us and then ruin us.

This seems to be the same thing the government is up to right now.

[missmuffet]

1 hour ago, Starise said:

I'm glad to hear things are better for you now @missmuffet. That had to be tough.

I'm no economist, but as I see it the government creates a lot of these problems. Then people need assistance to live, so they are forced to use any kind of help they can find. This is great for a totalitarian government who wants to have all the control they can get. Rental assistance is one more hook they can put into us, probably to be used for future control.

The US didn't have to have this fuel price hike. There were ways around it. The government wanted to promote electric cars. This is apparent in looking at the subsidies they are handing out to electric car buyers.  The long term harm making batteries does more harm to our environment than gasoline cars. Electric cars are on average 25% more expensive. They use more fossil fuel in their production than gasoline cars and for many long distance travelers they are not a practical working solution.

This is what happens when bureaucrats with no engineering experience make these kinds of decisions. Big players with lots of money think they have this all figured out, and if it doesn't work? No worries, they are so rich it won't affect them.

I heard a comment that really struck a nerve with me recently. The devil knocks on the door politely to come into our lives. One he gains access he tries to rule us and then ruin us.

This seems to be the same thing the government is up to right now.

Yes, I agree.