Posted on 04/04/2005 10:46:18 AM PDT by ex-Texan
Of course you kept hte caveat of MOST in there, but the average Single Family house in Loudoun county Virginia is $530K+. That is a distant subburb of DC and the Dulles Tech corridor. Sure, I could find a house for $300K if I wanted to, but my neighbors would have cars up on blocks in their front yards while cramming 10+ people per house. $300K would get you three TINY bedrooms with 2 tiny bathrooms(two people couldn't turn around in the same bathroom together without hitting each other), and you'd have to park on the street. Last time I checked, the avarge salary in Loudoun county was NOT $250K. Heck, not even close to $150K.
Also, good luck finding an apartment for under $1500 a month, that's even on the intersection of Crack Blvd and Heroin Way. Not easy to save a ton of coin, especially for a young family. But I guess in your mind, no one should have kids until they are at least 35 YO.
So is Pb and Brass.
congratulations on becoming a father!
Good addition and I did. My wife and I had been fortunate to do the things we wanted (travel, etc) and buy the things we wanted (cars, guns toys, etc.)before we met. When we got married we were both unemployed so life started off frugally and we made a game of it. The life style we lead still reflects those foundational years. It is a major blessing to have a spouse on the same page financiallly as I.
Vegas,
I'm with you... 2 paid off cars, one is 13 years old with 140k on it, the other is 9 years old with 120k on it... both run great, and I got NO CAR PAYMENTS! My house is 1700ish sqare feet in a nice neighborhood, and I bought it for under 100k and frankly we paid a little too much for it when we bought it 8.5 years ago.
I am 33, working post college now for just shy of 10 years, I make good money and certainly could "afford" the 3,000 square foot house... Many of my peers live larger than I do.. and they have the payments to prove it. I know for a fact my balance sheet beats all of them... Not only from smarter decisions with the money I have, but also from getting involved in real estate investing as a side business as well. I am within 12 months of no longer having to get up to go to work for someone else ever again in my life if things continue as they have been.
Yea, I may be driving a rusty 1996 vehicle, but I'll be driving it to the Golf Course on Wednesday morning.. while all my peers are sitting on the parkway in traffic on their ways to work to make someone else wealthy.... So, I'm not really worried what my peers are doing... I got a 30 year head start on retirement.... I think I got the better deal.
One can only be free when one is free of debt. Otherwise, you are a slave.
When I say free of debt, I'm generally not talking about a mortgage on one's home unless you own more on the home than what it is worth.
But for people who are mortgaged to the hilt, have car payments AND credit card payments, as well as "equity loans" and such, well, you really need to ask yourself just who you are working for.
Please, stop this nonsense. I lived in the most expensive housing market in the country at the Time... Silicon Valley in 2000! Even in that insanely overpriced market I found properties in nice neighborhoods at well under median price, they needed work, but the amount they needed was nowhere near the equity stake! I am so sick of you don't understand what its like... I do, I've been there! I've seen it!... ain't nothing in DC area that didn't exist in Silicon Valley in 2000. Studio APARTMENTS were 2000 a pop there!
You always have the option to MOVE if you think housing is too expensive where you live! No one forces you to live ANYWHERE... you choose to live in an overpriced market, you are the one making that decision. MOVE! This is america... find a job in a market where reality still exists.
You aren't a flipping victim... just unwilling to do what it takes.
bump for later
thank you for introducing reality into this thread.
Thanks! I'm more nervous this time than the first.
And for everyone who wants to get rid of those evil "federal reserve notes", I will take them off your hands FREE of charge! I know it is aweful generous of me.
You do realize that I am accumulating all levels of taxation? What types of sheltering are you talking about? In reality, I am using the remaining portion (after tax) to either pay down debt or to invest for retirement. Not much of it is disposable income.....As a result sheltering it might be a bit difficult.
one answer www.daveramsey.com. This guy is the financial guru. I love listening to this guy on the radio. "giving the same advice your grandma would give you except we keep our teeth in..." :) Hes the best. Check him out.
too bad we all can't be "real estate investors", riding the bubble to prosperity like you are. some of us have to actually work in a productive industry and earn wages there to make ends meet.
we can't build an economy on real estate investors, bond traders, and government employees.
Yep, and the GOP gave them one hell of a present by passing the one-sided Bankruptcy "reform" disgrace in the Senate.
Amen.
My wife can squeeze a nickel until the buffalo bellows. Her frugality has made our marriage remarkably free of financial worries.
CSM,
What sort of Retirement investing are you doing? ROTH IRA, particularly self directed are wonders.. they don't shelter your tax liability on contributions, but they do let you use the monies in there to make money tax free, and trust me a self directed IRA in the right hands can turn just a few dollars into 50k or 100k in a year very handily.
Personally I have found Real Estate to be a great shelter, I'd never buy real estate strictly for its tax advantages, but you can definately write off a lot of income thanks to depreciation schedules.... Its amazing, you buy a house, you get to depreciate a part of the value of the house every year off your income, and the house goes up in value! Own a few properties and your depreciation amounts can get quite large.
Of course the government makes it up when you sell the property as you will owe capital gains on the difference between your depreciated value the year you sell and the sale price.. but that's years down the road... and then if you are going to role it into another property, you do a 1031 exchange and the tax liability is defered until you sell that property... unless of course you 1031 that one too.... you can literally 1031 exchange your entire life and past your death!
There are of course many many many other ways to shelter income... Like I said, find a good CPA, and/or go get some books and read up on the topic. I know its counter intuitive for some folks, but Uncle Sam actually does have lots of stuff on the books to help you if you are creating wealth.. just have to know about them and use them.
Oceanview, stop the class warfar nonsense... I live in a section of the country that has no bubble.. I'm buying houses for the same price they sold for in the 1970s in some areas I work, because that's literally what they are worth today!! I'm not riding any bubble to anything.. I'm busting my ass 50 hours a week at a full time job and spending another 10-30 a week building wealth... Appreciation isn't making me wealthy, planning and hard work is.
You want to play that class envy card, take it over to DU. I've worked damned hard for everything I've ever gotten! And I've done it by not being one of the fools who sits around griping they can't get a break.
You want to mock my contributions I have no time for you. I pay loads of taxes, return dead assets to the tax roles, hire contractors, buy supplies, do all sorts of things that help not only myself but others as well! I work damned hard for EVERYTHING I have achieved, and I am so sick of ever 9 to 5 clock puncher who thinks I must have just gotten it for nothing, because they are too damned lazy to take their own destiny into their own hands.
You work for someone else, you got no one to blame but yourself for not having as much as you want.. you gotta take the risk to get the rewards, and you want to think those that enjoy the rewards don't earn it or work for it, that tells everyone exactly why you will never have it!
You work every day to make ends meet, but drive newer cars than I do, likely have a bigger house than I do and have far more debts than I do.. but its not my choices and hard work that made me different than "the rest of the world" its the fact I am just milking the system. Bah! Fool.
I'll put my work week up against your's anyday.
Ditto that Amen. I have noticed that when we plan on a major purchase we plan for the best and then save for it and make it happen. That way we get top quality and have to replace whatever it is less often. It's great.
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