Fourteen years ago Paul and I applied for a loan to build and pay for our current house. After submitting all our financial information, which was not so impressive, the mortgage lender came back with an astronomical figure for how much money they were willing to lend us.
Paul was astounded. He looked the banker in the eye and said with complete sincerity, "You would be totally irresponsible to lend me that much money."
Fortunately, we knew what was good for us and borrowed what we could afford, not what they were willing to lend us.
Don't people know that borrowed money isn't free, and that you have to pay it back? And now we're supposed to pay $700 billion for the people who borrowed more than they could afford?
I know that's an oversimplification, but it's a symptom of a society where politicians seek and retain power by giving away what isn't theirs -- and leaving the rest of us to pay for it.
More later.
I know people who are living in these mansions, and I know what they do for a living, and I know they aren't from "old money" and haven't won the lottery, so I wonder how they afford it?
Answer: they probably can't. They probably got one of those ARM loans where the bank loaned them an outrageous sum of money for a $500/month payment. Come on, anyone with a lick of sense knows that math doesn't work out!
I'll stick to a smaller home that's within my budget, thanks. Living within my means helps me sleep at night.
Sure am glad they're giving us that mental health parity thingie along with the bailout/rescue/bill where they're sticking it to us. I'm going to need lots of mental health care if this trend in the economy continues ...
Good post. ;-) Pax, Kimberly
Posted by: I Gallop On | October 02, 2008 at 05:08 PM