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The likes of Warren Buffet, Michael Dell, and all those other millionaires and billionaires are wealthy.
No, it's wealthy.
If you're making more than 97% of the country you are firmly in "rich" territory. Median household income is about 50K a year. $250K is five times this amount.
Just because there is someone, somewhere that is hoarding even more ludicrous amounts of money due to extraordinary circumstances doesn't change the math.
all spot on . we have to include the fact that in some aras even having a paid off home may add little to the affordibility of it .
take long island where when my friends and i entered the home buying era of our lives back in the 1970's a home was 30-40k in suffolk county .
so after 30 years you paid off a mortgage that represents 1/2 a utility bill today and taxes are 12 to 15k.
you still may not be able to afford to live there even with that paid off mortgage. folks forget as time goes on that mortgage can represent less and less of your monthly nut .
In other areas, a home on 100 acres of land may have taxes of $500/year.
A mortgage payment that equals 1/2 of your utility bill? I have never seen that. Even the lowest mortgage payment I have had was still many times over the utility bill.
well the mortgage on that 30-40k house was in the 300 buck range if i remember . today on long island your gas or oil ,electric and cable bills can be double that .
well the mortgage on that 30-40k house was in the 300 buck range if i remember . today on long island your gas or oil ,electric and cable bills can be double that .
My brother bought a house in LI about 35 years ago.
Says though that when he retires they are going to sell the house and move.
His taxes are near $20K a year.
I see a vast lifestyle difference between SSDI (oe retirement SS) homeowners and renters. As a poor person limited to renting cheap rooms on Craigslist, I've known a number of SSDI recipients limping from month to month with no money and no life, which is no way to live. So I figure every homeowner on SSDI should be grateful they own their home, because it can be worse to always worry where you're going to be sleeping in two months.
I agree.
While you are working there is importance in paying down your mortgage. Whether it be so that when you retire you no longer have a mortgage to pay on. Or if you should become disabled along the way, ...
Every property we have owned that had a mortgage, we made monthly principal-only payments, to hasten the process and to speed up gaining equity.
Hey..I'm just the messenger. The government says $250K a year is wealthy.
I would agree with that a lot more than upper middle class. One of the realities that is becoming clearer to me is that especially in our working years we tend to live and often work with those similar to us. This can cause us to project a often unrealistic sense of other people. What one person considers normal may be a lot to someone else. What seems excessive to one person is normal and financially for another. This is especially true in retirement and discussions like in this forum. What some would feel very comfortable with others would shudder at. We have both had to bite our tongues at time as we............
While you are working there is importance in paying down your mortgage. Whether it be so that when you retire you no longer have a mortgage to pay on. Or if you should become disabled along the way, ...
Every property we have owned that had a mortgage, we made monthly principal-only payments, to hasten the process and to speed up gaining equity.
I did that as well with my first home that had a mortgage. Every month had extra money applied to principal.
If you're making more than 97% of the country you are firmly in "rich" territory. Median household income is about 50K a year. $250K is five times this amount.
Just because there is someone, somewhere that is hoarding even more ludicrous amounts of money due to extraordinary circumstances doesn't change the math.
Don't you mean saving and not hoarding? Investing no hoarding? Preparing future choices and options not hoarding?
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