Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I doubt you've been alive long enough to understand.
Did people waste $180 to $250/month on cable/satellite TV?
No.
Did people waste $100+/month on telephone?
Nope.
Did people waste $600 every year or every other year buying a new phone?
Nope.
Did people waste money on X-Box?
Nope.
Add that up, and it comes to a lot of wasted money, money that could be spent doing other things, like, um, building Wealth.
There's Wealth Inequality? Well, duh, people are voluntarily choosing not to create Wealth.
Did families in the past buy cars on a 72-month loan? A 60-month loan? A 48-month loan?
Nope. You put 10% down and financed it for 12-24 months, then drove it for 7-10 years.
Now, families get a 60- or 72-month loan, then find themselves upside down on the loan after 2 or 3 years, so the trade in the car for a new one on a 60- to 72-month loan, only to find themselves upside down on the loan after 2-3 years, so they buy a new car....Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
That's a lot of wasted money, money that could be used to build Wealth, but they choose not to do that.
Then there's the matter of all the money wasted on full-coverage insurance, instead of paying off the car, dropping to liability coverage only and saving money.
Perpetual car payments and perpetual full-coverage insurance payments are not conducive to building Wealth.
Which builds Wealth: Putting 0% down on a $250,000 McMansion and paying $250,000 for a McMansion, plus paying $318,000 in interest....
...or...
....Saving money to put 20% down on the $250,000 McMansion and paying only $79,956 in interest....
...and then use $238,044 saved to invest or save or both to build Wealth?
It only requires half-a-brain to figure it out.
Which builds Wealth: Paying $3,489 for Plasma TV -- $1,700 for the TV plus $1,789 in credit card interest payments....
....or.....
....buying a smaller TV for $400 and then taking the $3,000+ you saved and buying Certificates of Deposits, continuously rolling them over, while using the interest to buy stocks/bonds?
See?
It's not String Theory, it's just plain Common Sense.
See, families in the past always put 15% to 20% down on a home, and they bought big ticket items like TVs, washers and dryers, buy saving money to pay cash or putting them in lay-away and paying no-interest monthly payments until they owned it, or they bought it from a local store where they could get 6-months same as cash.
Families today are much more interested in satisfying every infantile urge, rather than building Wealth.
Families of yesterday were much, much smarter with their money, and a helluva lot more financially literate, not to mention they understood the value of money.
There's One thing that every post in this thread contains...personal choice.
Let's rejoice in the fact that we all have personal choice to work, or not work (homeless people survive somehow), to study hard or not, to go to College or not, to buy an iphone or flip phone, to ride a bike, a bus, to work, or a car, and so on and so on.
For the vast majority of Americans, its personal choice that decides what you can afford..or not.
I cherish that choice. I'm a rags to riches story like Dr. Ben Carson, so don't tell me it can't be done. The odds were stacked so high against me, I should be dead, or in prison, right now. Instead, I'm affluent and semi retired at a very young age.
There's One thing that every post in this thread contains...personal choice.
Let's rejoice in the fact that we all have personal choice to work, or not work (homeless people survive somehow), to study hard or not, to go to College or not, to buy an iphone or flip phone, to ride a bike, a bus, to work, or a car, and so on and so on.
For the vast majority of Americans, its personal choice that decides what you can afford..or not.
I cherish that choice. I'm a rags to riches story like Dr. Ben Carson, so don't tell me it can't be done. The odds were stacked so high against me, I should be dead, or in prison, right now. Instead, I'm affluent and semi retired at a very young age.
If I did it, anyone can.
That's true to a certain extent. But not everyone has the same aptitude. There's smart people, there's really stupid people and those in between. Some people can study, study, study but never understand what they're studying no matter how hard they study? There are a lot of people that work and are willing to work their ass off yet never get anywhere. Not everyone is going to be a nuclear physicist no matter how hard they try. Or have the smarts to be able to start and manage a successful business. Most people don't get rich working for someone else. But someone will always have to work for someone else or someone else will never get rich either. However one things for sure if you never even try you're guaranteed not to get anywhere.
That being said, I have heard that it used to be more common for kids to share bedrooms. It also seems that single family houses nowadays are being built larger despite the average family size decreasing.
That being said, I have heard that it used to be more common for kids to share bedrooms. It also seems that single family houses nowadays are being built larger despite the average family size decreasing.
I think this is more the case in lower COL areas. People pay a premium for 600 sq in Boston. Heck, a parking spot can cost more than a single family home in the mid-west. I know plenty of families holding up in 12-1500 sq foot, 3 bd, 1 ba homes in the metro area. So, I don't think it's necessarily house size.
It's those who don't work drawing unearned income driving up inflation. It's a cultural shift away from producing to leaching and it's not sustainable.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
