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Look at me, I'm Gabby...I'm 24, and I'm smarter and prettier and better than all of you. I like to spend my time trying to impress people I'll never meet face to face on an internet message board, but I fail miserably at that and come off sounding like a spoiled little kid.
Not Gabby - GABBI!! With a little "heart" over the lower case "i"! OMG, don't you know ANYTHING?!
Oh, wait, they probably don't do that at Ivy League schools. Bummer.
Such a waste of education, I'm quite sure.
This is the kind of HIGH END new construction she's looking at:
[quote=gabrielle86;15580858]And you for me. I don't know if you're hardworking or not (I suspect you're not), but you are hardly "savvy." {/quote]
I would like to clarify. I am very hard working. I work full time at a college and part-time teaching computers in community centers. In addition I am working on my graduate degree in education and technology. I also volunteer in my community. As I said again, I am always hopeful to find those like me on this DB to share and learn from information I can use. I find the information you post meaningless from my perspective... no need to call me lazy or dim-witted unless it is something you like to do for fun.. I can ignore that! Just post something I can use!
Don't mention it...sorry it's at your expense though. But hey, it's not too late to turn your life around. Go get your GED...things may turn around for you yet.
I like living in a small house. Under 1000 square feet. It's cheap to heat/cool and maintain. I have 1/4 acre and that's plenty big for me. Remember when oil spiked to $5.00 a gallon 2 years ago? That can and will easily happen again. I wouldn't want to heat a huge house with those prices.
I'm actually a big fan of the Levitt House. I would love to see more of those being built instead of these huge homes.
Just some clarifications to various other posters: (1) although it may not feel like it, we are by definition not in a recession (i.e. two consecutive quarters of decline in GDP); (2) the direct cause of the current economic quagmire, and the interwined collapse of the housing market, was the drive, primarily by Democrats, to force banks to fund mortgages to people who were not credit worthy and could not pay back the loans. This was accomplished primarily through amending the CRA and the perversion of GSEs as indiscriminate purchasing vehicles. The CRA was 1970s legislation amended during the Clinton years to address the fabricated redlining "crisis". Note I said 'direct cause'...so we'll leave out the future securitization of those loans; ...
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I wouldn't argue with very much of your posts (right on in many ways), but I find it funny you blame all this on the Democrats likes it's that simple... You're conveniently leaving out way too much with regard to the current economic mess. If the Republicans weren't such blundering idiots and could run someone up to the podium to sound HALF intelligent, they would have been doing the same exact things (some may argue even more detrimental). This has long stopped being a partisan issue - either party would have wrecked the economy to get the country "technically" out of the recession... Either one would have waved Blinder and Zand's paper like W stood on an aircraft carrier with a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner.
The reality is we borrowed our way "out of the recession" and the inmates are running the asylum. Call it a double dip when it comes, but you're lying to yourself.
If you're as smart as you consider yourself and your husband is as successful as you say, you have to have put more thought into this whole thing. The US govt has been all about putting people into homes for a long time... "Free market" and those prop desks and derivatives. yippee - just follow the Fed.
I'll contemplate that from my tiny 1400 Sq Foot olde timey beach cottage... staring at my State School Diplomas and wondering if a certain "hugely successful" genius fiance out there is smart enough to get a pre-nup.
Some successful people don't feel the need to buy more house than they need... or more car, etc. Guess it depends on what you need to be happy, and what kind of itch you need to scratch.
Sure... a 24 year old lady is free to ASSUME that anybody who buys a smaller house... especially a "tiny, old" house would only do so because they are too poor and unfortunate to do any better... it's an unfair assumption, but easy enough to make if you're very, very shallow.
Just as somebody older/wiser (maybe with a similar, shallow point of view) might assume that a young woman who brags about having "carte blanche" from her "hugely" successful husband might have to get used to her allowance keeping her warm at night while her husband "works late" to pay for her custom bathroom fixtures and reclaimed barnwood fireplace mantel. It would be an assumption... not a particularly fair one... but easy enough to make.
Ahh... big houses... rich Ivy league hubby... big family...
guaranteed "traditional" happiness - ask any Kennedy wife, right?
." I'm also an Ivy League graduate and could work virtually anywhere in my field if I chose to do so. I prefer to be a full-time wife and mother." gabrielle86
whether or not you are an ivy league graduate is really anyone's guess. i too have many years of education; college, graduate and beyond. Higher education can not buy a person class or common sense.
Also you are neither a wife or a mother. time will tell if that will be your future. i make up if given the opportunity to reread your posts on this forum 10 years from now you will cringe at how silly and judgemental you have sounded.
A big no-no= "Never buy the best house on a block"...
The mortgage is half the battle. What really costs $ is heating/cooling/maintenance/ of the house. 2500 sq foot vs 1200 sq foot is a HUGE difference in these aspects, not to mention a bigger tax bill in most cases.
I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that a 2500 sq ft+ house will cost $7000-$10,000 more per year to manage than a smaller house. Remember, bigger houses require more equipment, piping, duct work, multiple zone heating/cooling, etc...and these things are very expensive to replace when they break. Always ask for the most recent utility bills. I know people in mini-McMansions that get monthly $900 Lipa bills in the summer and $700 Keyspan or oil bills in the winter. vs $200 / $300 for a smaller sized house. If you are ok with spending an EXTRA $10k a year vs smaller house, plus what will be a bigger mortgage payment.. go with the giant house. Don't get in over your head, a good rule of thumb is take the mortgage payment + escrow payment + ($0.50*sq feet) , and that will roughly be your gross monthly payment. Don't forget groceries and ordinary bills (cable/phones/auto/etc..). The $.50 per sq foot is assuming energy prices stay at this price forever (very unlikely).
/\ When I think of Gabrielle86's posts in this thread I think of this.
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