Lilred's Rant of the Week- The American Public

[Lilred]

Hey everybody,
I'm sure ya'll have been watchin Oprah supportin Obama and all the political crap.
This mornin, I see that "for the first time ever, Americans are more worried about the economy that the war". This accordin to GMA. Well, ya'll prepare fer this week's Act Right Church Sermon...

First off, as it has always been, the poor man supports the rich man. In all honestly, most of the foreclosures on homes were either 1 of 2 things. They were high-risk bad credit mortages but MOST are these friggin idgits buyin the expensive homes that they dont need, and aint read the fine print when they signed.
And WE are gonna bail em out???? The taxpayers???
Now, the women in their suburbans that they dont need are spendin $200 a week in gas goin shoppin fer crap they dont need to put in a house they dont need.
NOW they are worried about the economy??? People cant afford their lifestyle, and it's the economy's fault that they would rather blame it on the economy than themselves??? Preytell, how does that work??
God forbid we git like poor man and we have to quit spendin! GASP!:eek:

Meanwhile...on good ole planet earth...the poor man is still makin his 10$ an hour, his wife makin 8$, payin higher gas prices and havin trouble makin his mortgage on his 1,000 sq ft home.

Now, a president, leader of our country...will be voted into office by Oprah and a bunch of pansy ass people pissed off cause they caint live the high falootin lifestyle they been livin. Oh, and we might as well build a golden bridge with the sayin "Everybody kick our arsh" above it...cause a president is also our protector. A pansy in the president's seat is NOT good..lol
Oh wait...we can hide out in our suburban and use it as a bomb shelter :rolleyes:

The old sayin "You made yer bed now you gotta sleep in it" has apparently been banned from the english language. Besides, what motivates the economy? Some stiff-necked reporter sayin "it's gonna crash!"...so it crashes. Next day they say "spendin was up last week"..so it goes up.
But ya know what...while all those people are doin that and gaspin fer air like a chicken on the cuttin stump..regular folks suffer the most. I dont feel sorry fer the folks who live out of their league.
While the economy and presidency goes to hell in a handbasket...us normal folks are still cannin, still cuttin wood, still raisin our own meat, makin our own whiskey and dryin our own beans.
And when somebody in a suburban carryin a pocketbook more expensive than the suburban comes knockin at my door lookin fer somethin to eat...why, I'll be inclined to send em to mcdonalds or (GASP) the local red cross er whoever else. My family aint gonna do without cause they aint got enuf sense to do without.

[GoodOlBoy]

Lilred last time the stock market crashed around my place we made hamburger and beef jerky. . . . nuff said. You are absolutely right. How about these wackoos live like the rest of us do instead of whinin about how bad they got it. YA GOT A NINE THOUSAND SQAURE FOOT HOUSE YA IDJIT! Thats a heck of alot more than I have! If nothin else convert most of it to a barn and raise yer food like the rest of us! Sheesh.

You know what drives me REALLY nuts about it? Check out the prices of fresh vegtables and meat sometime! Use to ya only bought canned if you were rich. Now the rich have run the prices of every durned thing up and we are strugglin to live on hamburger helper and pinto beans! And what do they put in all of it? SOY! Thats right so that those of us who are allergic to that malarky can only stand in the isle and stare at package upon package of stuff we either can't eat or can't afford!

Mark my words the day is commin when you are going to have to stand guard over your garden!

GoodOlBoy

[Rocky Raab]

Hey, LilRed - is that your Christmas spirit settling in? When I worked in retail, that's what the public did to me, too!

[Lilred]

my dear rocky....yessir...it wouldn't be christmas without me turnin away some starvin idgit :rolleyes:

lmao...ya'll must think i'm the meanest thing that ever breathed air..and i caint help it that i am. :p
however, in my defense, i do alot in my community to help folks. I get new headstones fer dead people in unmarked graves in the state forest...:rolleyes: and i clean the gravesites too...
what do i do fer livin people? not much...:eek:
kiddin...just kiddin...i do alot of "projects" in my spare time...right now, I've "adopted" a company from va in iraq. we're gettin kids to do drawins, write letters, and parents to donate to their well-bein over there. Sendin all that off in mid-Jan. So there...I dont just waste oxygen...i only waste it when i'm riled...ok. i do waste alot of oxygen ;) :p

[Rocky Raab]

Putting up with customers and their crap just about turned me into a stark raving psychopath at times - and those times were about four minutes apart in December!

Lil Red if'n ya took all the people in these here States and chucked 'em inta a cider press, and then turned the crank down until it was fit to bust, you wouldn't get enough common sense drippin' out ta fill a shot glass. And that there's the truth.

[Aim to maim]

Originally posted by Lilred
.i do alot of "projects" in my spare time...right now, I've "adopted" a company from va in iraq. we're gettin kids to do drawins, write letters, and parents to donate to their well-bein over there. Sendin all that off in mid-Jan. So there...

And that, Mrs. Red, is a truely worthwhile endeavor. Good for you and I hope many others will follow your sterling example.

[fabsroman]

Honestly, I think I am with you on most of what you have said Lilred. However, in the end I seriously doubt that Bush, Congress, or any other President that gets elected will bail out the people that are being foreclosed upon. It is just way too much for the government to do. The government cannot just come in and re-write mortgage contracts, because that would cause panic for people that supply the money behind a mortgage. Mortgages wouldn't be worth the paper they are written on. The Bush administration did get some of the larger lenders to agree not to reset the interest rates on 5/1 ARMS for 5 years, but that is out of the graciousness of the mortgage companies hearts. There is no way the government could enforce that.

As far as a direct bailout from the govenment is concerned, that had better not happen with taxpayer dollars because this taxpayer would be pissed as hell. If that were to happen, I would stop paying my mortgage and insist on a bailout myself, or move into a huge house that we cannot afford and demand a bailout.

When we bought our townhouse almost 4 years ago, it was right at the height of the real estate boom. Sure, we wanted a single family home, but with our car payments, the expense of an engagement ring and the wedding, it just wasn't in the budget without us having to struggle. Our mortgage broker, who my sister worked for, approved us for $450,000 and they were willing to offer us a 5/1 ARM. I said no thank you to both. We took out a loan for $300,000 with a 30 year fixed mortgage. I also had a sense that the real estate market was getting as high as it possibly could and that it was going to explode.

We ended up paying our cars off early and now we are paying $1,000 extra a month towards the principal on our loan.

If I tell you the trouble that a lot of my clients are in, you would not believe me. I keep trying to tell them to spend less and be happy living with less, but they just cannot seem to get that idea. Everybody wants to keep up with the guy next door, but they have no idea how much debt that person has. I have clients that are paying $500 to $1,000 a month in interest on credit cards. I have clients paying $55,000 in mortgage interest a year.

This all boils down to responsibility. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions. People bought houses they could not afford, but that is because they were duped by the realtors and the mortgage brokers. They were probably duped into buying those Suburbans by the dealer and the oil company too.

Speaking of Suburbans, my F-350, which is a lot nicer than my 1998 entry level Ford Taurus, sits in the parking lot most of the time unless I need to impress a client. It costs $120 to fill up that truck, and with diesel at the price it currently is, I figured out it costs a little over 20 cents a mile to drive it. Pretty soon, I am going to get some luggage racks for my mountain bike and pedal myself to the grocery store.

What is really disturbing is the number of clients I have that are not saving for retirement. I have clients in their late 30's and early 40's that have not put anything aside for retirement. Meanwhile, they trade in their vehicles for new ones every two years. My wife and I are going to drive our cars until I can no longer keep them running at a reasonable cost. I read an article the other day that said keeping a car for 200,000 miles or 15 years can save a person $30,000+. It just amazes me how quickly people get rid of their cars.

[Rocky Raab]

Couldn't agree with you more on saving for your own retirement, Fabs. My family and I scrimped hard for more than 30 years because we put something -usually only a little, but SOMETHING- aside every month. A good chunk of that frugality was driving cars many years after their payoff date. Our rule is still "if the monthly repairs are less than a monthly payment, repair it and drive it."

Suddenly, with no warning, I turned 60. Imagine that! And darn if my wife didn't, too!

She has two years to go before she's eligible for her state teacher's retirement, and she will work those two years. But we are and will be quite comfortable for the rest of our lives. And we expect to be able to make our grandkids' lives pretty safe, too.

[fabsroman]

Rocky,

I firmly believe in putting something aside for savings first and foremost, even if it is a little. It is amazing what time can do to money (i.e., rate of return). I am actually kicking myself for not putting anything into IRA's before I went to law school. I just saved almost every penny I made for law school tuition, which allowed me to graduate law school without any student loans.

Personally, I think the key to living a good life is limiting the amount of credit one has. With less of a monthly burden to worry about, people could relax a lot more. Instead, people feel like they are missing out if they don't drive every make of car imaginable and live in the largest house possible. The client that is paying $55,000 a year in mortgage interest is living in a 4 bedroom house and they only have a one year old child. They could have been living in half the house and used the saved interest for part of a down payment on a larger house later on (i.e., what my wife and I are doing right now). Don't get me started about the increased heating/cooling costs and the additional taxes. Those two expenses are one of the big reasons I don't want to move from our 3 bedroom townhouse.

[Duffy]

I live with my wife and three children in a small house in an average neighborhood in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, just north of Akron.

We first moved to Ohio from Pennsylvania after my wife finished her MS degree, and I enrolled in graduate school myself. We moved into a small townhouse until I finished my MA. I got a good job right away, and we bought our small house, all before the kids came. We moved into the house twelve years ago, and we had our first child three years later. While we were paying off our debts, building our savings, driving junk cars and putting things aside for our returement, our friends were buying huge houses, big SUVs, spending money like water, etc. Many of them are paying some hefty prices now, and not just monetary. Our job situations have improved (and now I work for the state of Ohio and have state retirement benefits), we have been able to upgrade our vehicles, we will probably buy a new house in a better area someday, we have only the mortgage payment as a standing monthly debt (and we pay extra against principal), montlhly utilities and related stuff, and one credit card that we pay off very month, no balance. We put aside a lot for our retirement every month, and we still have about 30 years to go. And our future is looking very good. Nobody else among our friends can say the same thing now. Granted, things may come up, and changes may be imposed, but we believe we can weather the storms because we planned and sacrificed early. And we still deprive ourselves of many of the things that we would like to have, so that we won't have to sacrifice later. And we're actually comfortable and happy!

It just seems to be a matter of personal responsibility and sound decision-making.

[fabsroman]

Duffy,

The way you are doing it is the way it is supposed to be. Credit cards and other credit are one of the worst things that have happened. I can remember 25 years ago when it was almost impossible to get a credit card. Nowadays, I get 5 credit card offers in the mail every day.

Because of the easy granting of credit, people are just not used to saving before buying something. They buy stuff where there is no payment for 3 years. Usually, that is all fine and good if they have the money 3 years later, but what happens if they don't. Then, after 3 years, it is truly painful to pay for something that is obsolete or worn out.

Sometimes, I just don't understand some people. My brother was carrying a $5,000 credit card balance at 15% while he had $25,000 in the bank earning 3%. I asked him why he hadn't paid off the credit card, and he told me that it just hurt way too much to write that large of a check. Then, he went and financed the purchase of a vehicle even though he had the money in the bank to pay for the entire thing. Mind you, he was also paying interest on the loan for the vehicle. When I asked him why he didn't pay for the entire car when he bought it, he replied that he had followed that advice from me on the last car that he bought and it took him years to get his savings account back to where it was. I was about to ask him if it took 5 or 6 years, because that is essentially how long he was going to make payments for, but I decided to let the entire thing go.

There are just way too many material things nowadays for people to want. If you get a Playstation 2, in a year or two they will have the Playstation 3. Speaking of the Playstation 3, I cannot believe that it is $700. That is more than what a personal computer costs nowadays and the personal computer allows us to be productive if used correctly. A lot of people spend money on things that they really don't need to. I'm almost guilty of that too. I almost bought a new Benelli SBE2 because it had a new grip, larger trigger guard for gloves, and a new recoil reduction system. Then, I came to my senses and held on to the $1,400. Almost talked myself into a Benelli Sport II because I liked the carbon fiber finish on the stock and forearm and I wanted to be able to compare a recoil operated clays gun to my Beretta Teknys. Then, I cam to my senses again since I was shooting in the 90%+ with the Teknys and I wasn't shooting clays as often anymore.

People replace cars, digital cameras, camcorders, computers, TV's, entertainment centers, etc. every two years because there is something newer out there. However, how much better can the newer stuff be?

[BILLY D.]

Several posters have brought up the subject of inflation, not directly.

Just to show how things will go, when I graduated from High School You really didn't need to be college educated to do well. Dayton at that time was FILLED with manufacturing jobs, General Motors being the largest supplier of those jobs. Delco, Frigidaire, Moraine products, National Cash Register. Unfortunately thanks to a clean environmet those jobs are now in India, China and Mehico. Sure makes me feel better. I'm sooo much healthier and the country is richer, well a few are.

The average Person/Family made around 6K a year. Hamburger was 25 cents a pound, Milk 20 cents a quart. bread 18 cents a loaf etc. Ad Nauseam.

Do to a lot of changes, it ain't that way anymore. Now an MBA is required to man the cash register at Macdonalds. 65% of the job market could/was handled by HS graduate in my day. People in those days were not required to recite Shakespeare. We/they went out and built a military complex during WW2 and a force with all the Bombers, Ships needed to win.

So as you plan your retirement think this way. Your money that you save today will be worth a lot less, unless you get a financial advisor to show you how to grow your money. Money saved in my day, if you didn't grow it is worth about 5 times less now versus those days. Don't plan living on a SS check unless you like living in your car and enjoy eating ALPO. Yes I know people like that. Well not personally but through other endeavors. I also am a volunteer. I'm just not from Tennessee. I hate the word Tennessee, I always seem to get too many e's, n's or s's in it.

And for Gods sake don't let your kids even consider a career in the Military unless they are "Ring Knockers". The only ones of those that were worth a crap were the Pilots. They worked for their money and earned every dime.

I hope I don't live another 70 years, I don't think I am going to like what I see in the future.

That reminds me of a story my Grandfather once told me when I was little. In Germany during the depression to go to the grocery he said you needed a wheelbarrow full of money. It kind of reminds me of today. When I was a kid the only place you seen a 100 Dollar bill was in a bank. Now they are like water. Anybody checked lately, whats a dollar really worth. It sure ain't a dollar. I thinks it's more like 23 cents the last time I heard. But don't worry about it's true value, no pun intended, let's print more. Thank God for credit cards huh, otherwise you would be falling off you wallet all the time if you had to carry cash.

Well I gotta git. It's time to go buy some more of that cheap Chinese crap at Walmart.

Bill

[Rocky Raab]

It's really not much different now, Billy.

When a blue-collar person made $6,000 a year, that worked out to about $3 per hour. Today, a blue-collar guy gets as much as $30 an hour. His salary is ten times "back then."

Guess what? Gas is $3 a gallon versus 30 cents, milk is $2 versus 20 cents, bread is a buck eighty compared to 18 cents. The Marlin 336 went for $39, and today goes for $390. A can of 2400 powder sold for $1.85 and today goes for $18.50.

The real difference is that back then, a new family would be happy to move into a two-bedroom, single bath tract $5,000 house as a "starter home." But today a young couple has to have a 7,000 sq-foot McMansion with a pool, a ski boat, two ATVs, two sports cars and an RV - as their FIRST home.

They're happy to buy now and pay later - but they have no clue what that payment is going to be; and brother, it's going to smack them big time.

[BILLY D.]

Rocky

Glad you weren't offended by the "Ring Knocker" comment.

I'm just glad my kids exerted some common sense when it came to finances. They have nice homes, nothing extravagant, and none have the intent of buying another home. They are camped out forever. Unless they have to move for employment opportunities.

They got their money smarts from their MOM. She could squeeze a nickle and make the Buffalo burp. She used to make almost all the girls clothes, some things were store bought, but not many. She wasn't the type to sit on the sofa watch soap operas and eat Bon Bons. I know she did listen to them, but they were a backround filler while she did other projects.

Early in our marriage I just let her handle all the money. Kinda hard to manage a checkbook when you are umpty ump miles from home.

The kids all watched their Mom and followed her example. Excellent leadership. To tell you what kind of stickler she was, she used to wash and re-use their sandwich bags for school lunches. Them things cost xx. Ya, she packed their lunches. Soup in a thermos, sandwich,friut and desert. And the kids listened and comprehended, learned. She ruled with a velvet fist.

Bill

[Lilred]

Billy,
My pop was like that. We went into the courthouse (which is where the stores are, and still are today, Cumberland aint a town, but a county, and still, nary a stop light in the county lol) anyway...we went there once a week. Went to Farmville, which is a town, once a month.
We was lucky iffin we got a penny fer a piece of penny candy. After we sold our baccer at the auction, we would go to a little general store on the way back and got some ice cream fer helpin with the crop. Other than that, it was yer birthday er Christmas fore you got a toy. I never knew what a coke (er soda pop as some of ya'll might say) till I was 12 yrs old.
We were never what I'd call poor. We ate, we stayed warm and we got medicine when we was sick. Oh, and we worked our friggin butts off....lol
Pop was just frugal. Oh, how I wish it was like that today.

BTW, it sounds as if mom was a wonderful gal and you and your children were blessed to have her. She could be a role model fer many of us.
:)

[fabsroman]

Rocky,

That issue came up at a financial planning seminar I attended a couple of years ago. The standard of doing well in the 50's was food on the table, a roof over your head, a car in the driveway, and a TV. Today, the standard of doing well is being able to go out and eat every night, a main home and a vacation home, 3 to 4 cars in the driveway, and a TV in every room of the main home and vacation home. Don't get me wrong, I want all those things too, but I am not willing to sacrifice my long term financial well being just to have what I want now and pay for it the rest of my life.

Very few people even think about paying off their mortgages early, and a lot of accountants don't even suggest it. Me, I suggest paying off a mortgage ASAP and not taking out any home equity loans on it afterward. I know people that are taking out equity loans on their cars. How sad is that?

Billy,

My mom used to re-use the sandwich bags and Ziploc feezer bags. I would get irritated about the freezer bags because some of them had holes in them and when I froze game in them they would end up getting freezer burned. Finally figured out that if I water tested them first, I would know which ones were good and which were bad. To this day, my mom still saves those used Ziploc bags and she even saves aluminum foil. In one of the drawers in her new kitchen, there is a bunch of aluminum foil that has been flattened out, but you can still see all the crinkles from it having been used.

Today's society is one of buying a new one whenever something breaks, and I cannot say I blame people in most cases. Things just become way too obsolete way to quickly. For instance, if something goes wrong with a PC nowadays, I am more likely to spend $600 on a new one than spending money on fixing the old one. Same thing goes for a TV, MP3 player, etc. However, other things can still be fixed and continue to work just fine. I fix my bikes and guns whenever possible. Same goes for my cars. Maybe I am being a little unfair to people about cars because I can fix them myself, but most people cannot. A buddy of mine took his Saturn into the dealer for a brake job. He was quoted $1,500 by the dealer and a couple other places. The car was already 7 or 8 years old do he decided to spend the money as a down payment on a new car. Now, we all know that a brake job on a car is about $400 to $500 in parts, and that is if you replace all 4 rotors and all 4 sets of pads. On my F-350, it is a little more, but something tells me the dealer would also charge more than $1,500. Had to replace the oxygen sensor on my wife's car the other day. It was a $35 part and it took me about 40 minutes because I had to take the radiator gan and catalytic converter heat shield off. Probably would have cost $200+ at the dealer. I'm also not complaining about the dealer prices, because the dealers have to pay for rent and the mechanics have to eat. It is just that way too many people no longer know how to do things on their own. I bet 50 years ago most people would work on their own cars. Then again, maybe I am wrong.

[BILLY D.]

Fabs

I can tell you most of my classmates in High School were metal heads and worked on their own cars. Plus that if we had problems we had a class for auto mechanics and one for auto body. These guys were ones you wanted for friends. If ya really flubbed up they would take the car to class and use it for a project. The instructors/teachers loved it.

Bill

One funny. I had one brother who fancied himself as a mechanic. My Dads carbuerator went south so Erwin was gonna fix it. He detested following directions and mechanical books. Well he screwed it up royal and lost a few parts in the process. He being the smart A$$ that he was took it down to the Oldsmobile garage and they charged him $25 to put it back together and another $25 to rebuild it. The rest of my brothers and I laughed our fannies off. At this time buying a rebuilt off the shelf was cheaper. :rolleyes:

[fabsroman]

I'm a big proponent of reading the manual. I have Chilton and Hayne's manuals for my cars, and I also subscribe to AllData DIY (Do It Yourself). My tools, manuals, and onlnie subscriptions have paid for themselves umpteen times over, if not more.

[Duffy]

Originally posted by fabsroman
My mom used to re-use the sandwich bags and Ziploc feezer bags. To this day, my mom still saves those used Ziploc bags and she even saves aluminum foil.

Hooray! I'm glad to see that my mom, my mother-in-law and...gasp!...my WIFE aren't the only women in the world who do that!