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My first card was something I was proud of... 18 and had just gone off to college... Sears had an offer and I signed up.
Showed it to my Grandparents and my grandmother got quite upset... said a lot of people have been ruined by credit cards... so I promised to never carry a debt.
I have had plenty of mortgages...
841 FICO last I checked.
I remember my first credit card and purchase. It was a mall anchor store called Sterns in the northeast and I was 18. I remember buying an item of clothing and leaving the store and thinking wow this is cool, it felt weird that I hadn't paid for it.
I would still have my Sears Card... went to the outlet Store a few years ago and picked out appliances for a rental... had my card in hand for a $900 purchase and learned my card was not good.
Had recently received a new one in the mail and called to activate and all was good... later that week is when I went to use it...
Wrote Customer Service and never received a reply...
This was at the time when Sears was about to go under and later read in the Wall Street journal they had cancelled millions of cards.
The poor clerk said she could run my credit and get me approved on the spot... my reply was why would I do that since I already had my new Sears Card?
Bought a lot of tools, tires and appliances at Sears over the years... I didn't leave Sears... they left me...
Now with American Express and Costco parting ways I may just let that one go... use it all the time and was told I would need to apply for a new Amex card as all the old ones would be cancelled next year...
Costco wants me to apply for their new card...
If these companies don't know me as a customer by now... heck with them.
Looks like they are going to loose at least one long term cardmember.
That's the way to do it, it's like paying rent, but less and your rent won't go up. I know I paid over $60k in rent in 7 years, instead I could have bought a modest house for that amount.
Have ever owned a home before? You seem to be giving out all this advice about home ownership, but exhibit no knowledge of ever owning a home. According to your numbers about $13K of that rent is going to be gone anyway in taxes and insurance. It's going to cost you a minimum of $13K to live in a house over a period of 7 years. Factor in about $10K in maintenance over that period as well. (Roof and AC unit replaced) Now you are down to $37K. If you would have acquired a loan back 7 years ago your balance you be right at 52K and your interest rate would be right around 6%. You would have paid over $27K in interest! You then would have paid the principle down only $8K. Let's do the math. $4K(Closing Cost) + $13K + $10K + $27K + $8K. You would have spent right at $62K for a home of which you only really own by about $8K of and still have 23 years to pay on. In the home price range you are talking about you will probably spend about the same amount of money or more over that time span. If you go to sell this house you are really not going to gain anything unless you have spent money to actually improve the home or the property values just soar through the roof or goes commercial. Let's say you sell the thing for 64K. Commission is going to be about $4K. Now we are down to $60K. Remember you have spent right at 62K total for this home you don't even own outright yet. If the sellers want a concession that will put you in the negative. Over the 7 year span you would have been better off renting even if you rent did go up some. Your net worth was higher while renting! If you pay cash for the home that's a different story! If you could have saved just $800 per month while renting for 7 years you could have paid cash for a $60K house and probably been several thousand dollars richer on top of that. Your net worth in that 7 year span in theory would be around $65K vs. $-50K.
I got to an 800 plus score with no balance left on my card at the end of the month, I used my cards but paid them off every month. I actually was able to pay me rent for a while on my credit card because the office did not accept cash for safety reasons, so I always paid it off right away and got a nice cash back bonus.
It doesn't matter if you pay it off every month. You were still carrying a balance month to month. More than likely they are basing that score off of you beginning and ending balance which reflected some sort of number greater than zero. The way the FICO score works you have to carry a positive balance for the number to go up.
Have ever owned a home before? You seem to be giving out all this advice about home ownership, but exhibit no knowledge of ever owning a home. According to your numbers about $13K of that rent is going to be gone anyway in taxes and insurance. It's going to cost you a minimum of $13K to live in a house over a period of 7 years. Factor in about $10K in maintenance over that period as well. (Roof and AC unit replaced) Now you are down to $37K. If you would have acquired a loan back 7 years ago your balance you be right at 52K and your interest rate would be right around 6%. You would have paid over $27K in interest! You then would have paid the principle down only $8K. Let's do the math. $4K(Closing Cost) + $13K + $10K + $27K + $8K. You would have spent right at $62K for a home of which you only really own by about $8K of and still have 23 years to pay on. In the home price range you are talking about you will probably spend about the same amount of money or more over that time span. If you go to sell this house you are really not going to gain anything unless you have spent money to actually improve the home or the property values just soar through the roof or goes commercial. Let's say you sell the thing for 64K. Commission is going to be about $4K. Now we are down to $60K. Remember you have spent right at 62K total for this home you don't even own outright yet. If the sellers want a concession that will put you in the negative. Over the 7 year span you would have been better off renting even if you rent did go up some. Your net worth was higher while renting! If you pay cash for the home that's a different story! If you could have saved just $800 per month while renting for 7 years you could have paid cash for a $60K house and probably been several thousand dollars richer on top of that. Your net worth in that 7 year span in theory would be around $65K vs. $-50K.
And I have a spare bedroom that I can rent for $500 a month so my mortgage payment would be zero.
And I have a spare bedroom that I can rent for $500 a month so my mortgage payment would be zero.
Can you get $500/mo. for a spare room? I'd rather spend just a little more for a studio apartment (you said a 1br is around $750/mo. in your area, so a studio apt. would be less) than spend so much just for a room in someone else's house.
For better or worse there are people of modest means that manage to become homeowners...
For some it could simply be a matter of timing... right place and right time... as happened to one couple I know.. that had rented a home for years and when the owner died the family agreed to sell them home for about the same they were paying in rent... this way they no longer had any maintenance responsibilities and the widow potentially had a 30 year income stream.
For others... it is buying something with problems... wrong neighborhood, dilapidated, old... next to train tracks like another friend did... and making the sacrifices to make it happen.
I really believe there are some that should never own... they know nothing about how to care for a home and pay outrageous prices when they need things done...
The biggest downside is Real Estate is often a great hedge against inflation and renting leaves you on the sidelines...
Said it before and will say it again... I am very happy about a third of the population rents...
And who better to get advice from on being low income than someone who is getting by and is trying to better themselves instead of a person telling them something silly like they should get a better job or should have stayed in school or should ask daddy to open up the trust fund.
My wife and I are low income. Last year we made $120,000 between the two of us. We are working toward getting into the middle class. In this area that means hitting $200,000.
My wife and I are low income. Last year we made $120,000 between the two of us. We are working toward getting into the middle class. In this area that means hitting $200,000.
You are nowhere near low income on federal standards, but it does depend on where you live and what you consider yourself.
Robert Reich, a professor of Public Policy at the University of California-Berkeley and former Secretary of Labor, has suggested the middle class be defined as households making 50 percent higher and lower than the median, which would mean the average middle class annual income is $25,500 to $76,500
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