But when that builder can pick his jobs....why pick the smaller build for less profit when someone else will buy whatever bigger house he builds for more profit? I mean, as long as the banks are throwing money at schlubs, there will always be a buyer right?
I don't necessarily disagree, but the problem with this theory is there's not starter homes out in the rural areas either. Down here on the MS coast there's PLENTY of land out of the municipalities. Just drive north 3 minutes. But no one is building on it. All the homes are being built by big builders clustered around new developments, in and out of municipalities. Overpriced crap builds that all look exactly the same.
Paraphrased old saying: "it happens slower than you think possible....then it happens all at once." I learned it in the housing crisis, watching it unfold for years, being called an idiot for predicting it, and wondering why it was taking so long. Covid unfolded the same way. Am currently rereading World War Z, and it has a similar premise (deeply ironic reading it post Covid), of how everyone learned of the zombie crisis but just ignored the threat and went about their lives....until it could no longer be ignored and everyone panicked all at once. Human nature I guess.
That’s sounds very similar to a product that was used before the housing crash. Those 2nd mortgages were “forgiven” after the crash but still existed. Now those loans have been sold around to companies that are collecting these mortgages and are taking homes. It’s nuts and I would avoid that type of product.
Only one man to thank...
During Biden’s Presidency, my income has gone up 40 percent and I have no credit card debt. The only other president where I’ve done well relatively speaking financially during the courses of their terms was Clinton and I loathed him.
www.newsweek.com
The Demand Cliff isn’t talked about often enough. The Enrollment Cliff has been mentioned a lot and colleges and universities have pivoted away from low demand majors which a part of me is disappointed about if only because I considered quite a few of those classes to be essential to my success.
So what’s the answer to protect against whatever comes next? That’s all I really care about going forward. All I want is for my investments, and my home value, to not go down over the long haul. Doubt they will, as they never really have. This doomsday stuff always seems to be temporary.
I’ve got a good bit of my emergency fund just sitting in an internet savings account drawing 4.75%. That hasn’t happened since pre-2008. Enjoying it while I can, I don’t see another true recession coming that will flip that again for at least a decade.
That is the question lol. The rule of crowds: following the crowd is a poor way to make profit, but a good way to be protected in what you have.
The starter homes in our are start with a dime sized lot and a garage that can't fit 2 cars in it, so you start with a clear cut subdivision where all you can see is cars in driveways in front of the houses. They're cheaply built, thrown together tract homes with laminate flooring, cheap cabinets, and cheap fixtures, but they put a little money into granite countertops, crown molding, and stainless steel appliances and they sell them for $300k+. And it's not a high income area. $300k was a nice house when I started working. Hell, I bought a nice house for under $300k less than a decade ago. Now it's a new tract home that's going to be a ****** neighborhood in 15 to 20 years with a bunch of houses that have major problems. Feel bad for younger people today.
Pretty sure it was promising yourselves that younger, generally poorer workers would pay you a **** ton of money to you when you are older. I mean, that wasn't really a mistake for the boomers from the point of their self interest. It's the greatest en mass screwing the world has ever seen (at least excluding the occasional genocide and raping and pillaging, but even then none of those compare in scale).
Historically that's true, but since we've sort of abandoned separation of powers with the administrative state, the white house can now unleash growth just by reducing ******** impediments. Conversely, they can strangle it by choking it off with new administrative burden.
Bad fiscal policy makes good monetary policy harder. Trump and Congress were dumb during COVID. They did a bunch of unnecessary and counterproductive things and then handed out a **** ton of money. That was bad, but at least somewhat defensible from a motive point of view in the sense that some people were legitimately hysterical about COVID, even if it still devolved into more or less a money grab by connected parties. Then Biden came in and Biden and Congress decided not enough of their favored constituents cashed in on the COVID money grab (even though they really did a ton; it wasn't tilted enough), so they went and spent a **** ton of money. Basically if you didn't get PPP or ERC, your wealth was siphoned off to give it to those that did.
I'm curious, are countertops and SS appliances something big builders can get great volume discounts on, while flooring and cabinets aren't, or is there some other reason why they go for those upgrades? Customer (dumb) preference maybe? Labor costs?
Except that most Boomers are convinced that they paid for their SS and Medicare. That they like to lecture the yutes but miss that context is just so on point.
Seems more like a GOP talking point than reality. Congress has complete control of the Administrative state. They're just to corrupt and incompetent to do their job.
Not to be nit picky but shouldn't that read " boomers were naïve enough to let the government convince them they paid for their SS and Medicare" ?
I think they did pretty well considering what they had to work with. They applied the lessons of the Great Recession pretty well (going big is smarter than going small, too much has relatively minor costs, too small has major costs and basically you shouldn't have bothered and accomplished nothing, don't expect to be able to come back to Congress for more, etc). Some (cough cough J85) resisted those lessons in real time, continue to resist them today, and likely will to their graves.
I think businesses shuttering and almost certainly never reopening wasnt a "hysterical" fear.
[eyeroll]
just like if you dont get favored tax treatment, youre wealth is being siphoned off to give it to those that do? It was just more of the same. Not that i favor either, just noting the inconsistency(in general, not necessarily you)
Newsflash, here in 2024 team Transistory has been vindicated. Most inflation we've seen is clearly traced to supply shocks. A recession wouldn't have stopped it.
i dont think so. Who was promoting such a view? Was the truth hidden, or just ignored? If theres aliens out there, blame the govt for hiding it. This one is on the people.
Who was promoting such a view ????? We were promise by our own government that if we invested in these programs we would receive these benefits when we reached a certain age. Exactly how are you saying we should have ideally handled this ?
I am sure they just get more bang for their buck spending on countertops and SS appliances. A kitchen with granite/SS feels much nicer than one with tile/black appliances....and kitchens sell houses.
It is true that if Congress was more competent and less corrupt, they would pull back the administrative state. But since they're not, it leaves the President with huge levers to use to either choke the economy or let it breathe. Can't really do much positive except for eliminate the wasteful costs already imposed through regulation, but that's a lot of room for doing something positive. Even then they have to come in with a plan as tons of bureaucrats improperly think of themselves as "experts" that are ordained to stop the political process from dictating policy when they know better.
Greatest mass screwing that somehow continues to get worse as laws are adjusted to ensure the payments continue regardless of life choices.
Yep, and they love leaving out the part about their current SS payment being double what they paid in + inflation
You weren't promised that you could "invest" in these programs. You were offered the opportunity to deceive yourself and you took it.
How often is this scenario, or ones like it, happening? How many 75yo couple get divorced so one person can travel the world on half of the couple's SS payments?
Therein lies the problem. The payments aren’t split. The person that earned the payment continues to get 100% while non-earner gets another 50%. My gripe with this isn’t so much about whether the average person believes this is right or not because opinions will always vary there. My gripe is that the system was never set up to be able to fund these levels of payouts, hence the mass underfunding problem that’s now in our hands while all the boomer generation can do is tell us good luck
So if we can't blame this president, how far back do we have to go? I forgot just the previous administration. That is the standard protocol.
Exactly.
While maybe not common, roughly 1% of collectors are receiving spousal benefits from a failed marriage, and again… my gripe is not about two divorcees splitting assets and/or income. My gripe is that it’s not split, and there has never at any point been a plan to support these levels of payments
A promise that you'll get the benefits later doesn't mean you paid for the benefits.
If you really get down to it, it’s not really about the boomers messing up or not. It’s just their general attitude towards it. They love to talk about how the country is going to hell but there’s no real action there. So yeah it’s like you said - good luck guys! But take of me when I’m in the hospital.
I think this is a good pace to remind everyone that Social Security is essentially an insurance policy, not a pension plan. We can of course debate whether this is a good thing or not, but this is the status quo.
Yep, mixed bag.
