Too much debt overburdens your horse...

And puts someone else in control of the reins.

This quote says it all, it is from a book of old cowboy proverbs call "A cowboys guide to life."

This post is about $$$. Just felt I need to share
it after reading another post earlier today.

Think about it. $$$ only becomes the center issue in life if you let it. The Great Materialism that started after WWII. Grew in the 60's and from 70's thru 90's got out of control has made too many people prisoners to debt.

Not to mention our Government to China. That's a whole other story.

Early on in my life, living close to NYC, I was exposed to many wealthy people. My adolescent conclusion. Money (IE being Rich) causes a who set of problems that middle class folk like me did not ever have to worry about.

When I was a kid, the rich got divorced because the could afford too. The rich lost sons and daughters to drugs or car crashes in their Porsches or Bimmers. Or the "well to do" father committed suicide and after-wards we would find out he left his wife penniless and in debt.

And while this is hard for many hard working people to do. Get out of the debt imprisonment.

IF you are totally under water on the house and cannot afford all the bills. Go bankrupt, tell the bank to take the dam house. The government( the same one who created the housing bubble) bailed out the banks and left all us hard working citizens to rot in debt hell.

One of my brothers went bankrupt years ago and lived and prospered after wards. Many of my friends have short sold houses, plain just walked away or stopped paying the mortgage and saved the $$$ up to pay to rent a home once they got evicted. It is messy, but it gave them HOPE for the future instead of a long term nightmare there was no foreseeable end to. Living with no HOPE for the future is no way to live and leads down many "bad roads". Drugs, alcoholism, divorce, etc.

Personally, after 911, I moved my family out of NY and became debt free. No mortgage, no car payments, no CC debt, nothing.

I can say it because I did it all by myself. Even paid for college myself. Never had a new car until i was 47. Always used. Always fixed almost everything myself because having been raised "lower middle class" my dad had to fix everything. And learned early on too many possessions only weigh you down. Everything you own needs upkeep ($). Or gets taxed.

Being debt free is as close to true freedom as one can get. You still have enough bills but your major source of stress is gone. Being self employed my revenue stream has allows been like a yo-yo and since the Big Recession, mostly a yo-yo at the end of its string. But being debt free lets you live like people did in the olden days.
Simple, live with less. Enjoy PEOPLE not material things.

Like the line in
Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin
"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, Nothing don't mean nothing honey if it ain't free..."

Pete

Pete, if you ever listen to the Dave Ramsey show, he calls the paid off home mortgage the new status symbol. However for manyyyyyyyyyy Americans if all else is paid for and your only debt is the home mortgage hey youre not all that bad. What scares me is the stories of young people having several credit cards maxxed out paying ONLY interest YIKES......... Its all part of the want it now and want the best credit mentality. Im an old fashioned Conservative tight wad fuddy duddy but if all were like me the economy would reallyyyyyyyyyy be in bad shape lol we need new cars n boats n trucks for jobs and the credit industry.

My life was a bit different, I was buying farms with old farm houses (and driving old paid for trucks n cars n tractors n combines) while many were buying fancy homes buttttttttttt I sure came out farrrrrrrr better then they did

But what may bring the Country down IS THE NATIONAL DEBT AND SAME TAX N SPEND N PRINT MONEY MENTALITY GRRRRRRRRRRRRR Glad Im old enough to have seen the USA in better years.

God Bless yall and the USA

John T

"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller

Janis came along a little later

Yep her n several others recorded it later, I never liked her version but Im an old fuddy duddy also lol

Its often called out in the Jams I attend and Im surprised how many fail to add the very needed 7th chord in the chorus verse grrrrrr its just NOT the same without it and the melody cries out for its use

John T

Well spoken, John T.....and I tend to be rather "progressive" on a lot of stuff. Your comments are on target.

Rick

...and that/this thread is not really political!!

Meeeeeee get Political !!!!!!!!!!! lol

John T

30 years ago finncial advisors told people to get out of debt first then build retirement plans, etc. Now days they steer young people straight into the stockmarket via mutual funds and tell them their money will out grow their debt. Personally, I think the stock market is one hue bubble that will burst in the near future, especially when congress forcibly converts 401K accounts to gov't securities or siezes the accounts outright.

I'm with you all they way John. Buying a home, investing in real estate, and speculating during a bubble are three entirely different things. Nothing wrong with the first two if you know what you're doing, everything wrong with the last.

Have a good day and keep working on those riffs.

One young fellow I know from work. Makes 6 figures and can"t "afford" a new house.
Funny thing is a few years ago I tried to gently steer him into getting his balance sheet in order.After all, he is a CPA and controller for a large corporation. Why can"t he get a new house?

Well, he wanted to drive one of those fancy new Acura"s. I drove in it one day. Wow, the cockpit rivals a fighter planes. BUT then because he got his new car the wife insisted she had to have a new car too!

So now he has 2 car payments, under water on the Condo he just had to buy a few years back.

Then his wife lost her job and got pregnant!

So now he "has to" sell the condo at a lose and get that bigger house. Wife insists.
Oh, I forgot, before they had kids they had to get 2 pedigree dogs!

It"s all materialism to me. I am obviously not as old as some of you guys as I "thought" Janis wrote Me and Bobby McGee! LOL but when I was a kid
we barely watched TV and were not exposed to the constant barrage of commercials today"s kids are.

Everywhere you look it"s commercials. EVERYWHERE!

As adults we can block them, well at least some of us some of the time. But with little kids it is getting embedded in their psyche at way to early a age to combat it.

I gotta go. Replacing the kitchen sink! "Old" one works, just too small and wife "found" a bigger, better one on sale for just $120. While I agree the old one "stinks", in the old days we did not have the array of over sized pots and pans we have that make it too small!

It just never ends, unless you end it.

Pete

Until I retired in 08, I worked with a lot of young engineers. One thing that I noticed was that they all had a lot of student loan debt. These kids are coming out of college with 100K in student loans. And a lot of these people were taking out 401K loans to pay for children. Saving never seemed to be in the plan.

I must be doing above average here. No credit card debt, no car payment. My truck is paid for with lots of life left in it. Only have a no interest balance of about $3K on a tool box and a mortgage.

A mans house is his castle no matter if it's a tent. If they lose that, it can be totally devastating! Especially if they worked for years to keep it. It's not easy for everyone to be debt free. You have to eat and need shelter. The economy runs on debt. Dave

When the wife and I got married about twenty years ago, we made the major mistake of buying a house right out of the blocks. It cost us $110k. In the amazingly short time of three years, it grew all the way from 110k to 95k. Just like that! It was kind of like magic. It sure cured me of an awful lot of misconceptions about life and money. It took us about ten years to clean up the mess we made. That also taught us an awful lot of things.

We have been debt free for the last ten years this coming summer. There are times (like this winter which has been tough) when I wish that we had access to credit cards or some other type of short term cushion. However, we have learned to make it through, even when it is uncomfortable.

Christopher

I can not agree with a man"s house being his Castle if you are seriously "under water" on it and unable to make the payments. That"s a prison to me.

Pete

I'm not talking about somebody who bought a house way beyond their means. Maybe they purchased the family home or farm and due to the economy or other circumstances beyond their control, couldn't keep up with the payments. When you lose things that you worked hard far, it's devastating. Dave