No more social security.

Discussion in 'Social Security' started by RadicalRevolutionary, Mar 6, 2016.

  1. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    The craziest thing is that some of those giant houses cost like, $200k to purchase, so it's not even as though middle class people are buying them. These are quite literally 'poor people houses', at that price range.

    Ever been to the UK? Ever seen American heads spin on seeing the size of ordinary family homes lived in by the working and middle classes? Ever seen how they react to a 4 metre wide row house?
     
  2. Derideo_Te

    Derideo_Te Well-Known Member

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    You have obviously never been to America!

    [​IMG]
     
  3. it's just me

    it's just me Well-Known Member

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    With interest.
     
  4. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    Yes, I've been to the UK, and I've seen some of the homes there. You all do tolerate the compactness much more than folks do here. I honestly don't know how you do it. The first home I bought was just over 500 square feet (56 square meters?). It was immediately apparent that it would not be acceptable, but I bought it on a piece of land that was big enough for me to build a bigger house on. It took two years to build the new one, and I thought I'd go crazy if I had to spend more time in my "tiny house". The new one was about 1500 square feet, and we added another 800 square feet to that. Sadly, I lost that house right after I lost my pension plan because the place I worked at shut down, as did most all of the manufacturing jobs in that area. We really had no choice but to move to where the jobs were, which meant starting over with a big new mortgage.

    There are many here who do live in smaller homes and apartments. Urban areas usually have smaller residences, and rural areas have a lot of mobile homes (at just over that 4 meter wide row house you mentioned). But I'll take a bigger one, even if it costs more.
     
  5. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    I don't actually live in the UK, but our houses aren't much bigger than theirs. It's all a matter of what you're used to, and what you regard as important. Most people (here, and in the UK), don't think that bigger is better. We don't actively seek something impracticably small, but we usually go for 'adequate'. Few people feel the need for a basement, an attic, a home theatre, a 'master bath', and a triple garage. Our rich simply tend to go for design quality and location, rather than size.

    Probably stating the obvious here .. but had you stayed in your 500sqf home, you might not have had the problems you did. My husband and I lived in a one bedroom 'shack' (wood fire, no hot water to kitchen, no real bedrooms, no town water, bathroom outside on porch) for the first 10 years of our marriage, and it was the best decision we could have made. We spent that 10 years paying down our mortgage, so that by the time the kids arrived we were close to clear.
     
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  6. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't know where you live, but in several places I've lived you couldn't find any house for $200k.
    Maybe one that was literally completely falling apart, or totally burnt down.

    I'd love to know where "giant" houses can be bought for $200k.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2020
  7. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    Ha! I don't think staying in our "tiny" house would have been a good decision at all. My mental state would not have been kind to our marriage. :) I don't think bigger is better unless there is a need, and in that case there was a need--me. At that time we didn't have all the stuff we have now, so it wasn't as bad, but we had one tiny closet shared by two bedrooms. Simple things, like a linen closet would have made it a bit more acceptable.

    I bought the property from the family of an old lady who had passed away. Paid $6000 in cash for it, so at that time, the mortgage was not an issue. It needed new everything--plumbing, electric, roof, windows, etc.. But I planned to only live in the old house until we could get moved into the new one. After we moved in to the new one, I had to decide if I wanted to tear down the old place or convert it into a garage. When I started gutting the place, I realized that it was in terrible shape. Years of leaking roof had rotted so much of it I was surprised it still stood. Then I noticed a place where the framing was charred by a problem with a light switch. My wife had told me several times she could smell something burning, but we couldn't tell where it was coming from. Long story short, it would not have lasted much longer.

    We really didn't owe much on the new one. I built it in stages with the intention of not having a mortgage at all. The first part took a while to get done--we did it on a cash-only basis. After we moved in and started on the second part, I got tired of spending all my time on it so we borrowed against the first part of the house to pay for the second. At the time, the banker I worked with for the loan said I was in very good shape financially.

    About three years later, the job situation went really bad. We lived in a part of the country now called the Rust Belt. Over the course of about two years, most of the manufacturing plants and mills in our area were closed up and most of the people in there no longer had jobs. The area where we lived is now turning into a ghost town, with huge Queen Anne and Victorian style homes collapsing on themselves.

    I'm telling you this because in spite of working hard and doing all the right things at the time, we got blindsided. I lost a good paying job, lost my home, lost a pension, and had to start over in the hole. I was fortunate that because of my situation, I qualified for funding to go back to school. All in all, I think going back to school and not being saddled with a huge debt was the best thing that happened to me.
     
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  8. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    I have a friend who bought a house in America last year for $20k.

    And remember, by 'giant' I mean the sort of houses Americans probably think are average .. but in my country are considered mansions.
     
  9. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    Yes, tricky when you do everything right and still come a cropper. It's always the debt that gets us in the end, or rent.

    Getting that home paid off as quickly as possible is always the safest option.
     
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