Ain't That America

[tyellas]

Today I had a very interesting conversation with a dear friend in the USA. Her job involves some complex permutation of health insurance, and as part of it, she deals with "clients" (families) working out their healthcare solutions and options. Often her "clients" are retired. She often goes to their homes for consultations and she says:

"People in these affluent neighborhoods have no savings, a lot of them are living on pension income. Only two out of five households have any retirement savings. In the affluent neighborhoods, none. Which is freaking me out. You can't tell from the curb anymore... Keeping up with the Joneses has cost these families a lot. It's very depressing. The people who are supposedly chic and fancy are broke as all get out and filing for bankruptcy. So it's redefining what success means in pop culture."

She went on to observe that she enjoyed visiting her clients in working-class neighborhoods more, because the economic news there was generally better: that was where she found the savers.

She also praised me for budgeting, even though I am spending all my money this month on home repairs (removing some rot from a corner of the house.) As I type this, an updated dishwasher (new to me, used) is currently gently caressing its third load of dishes. Seeing my drinking glasses come out immaculate is so delightful that I will happily stay home, amusing myself by letting the machine wash the dishes.

Comments

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

I have some sympathy for their temptation. When I moved into my house, in its first year, I got a "government evaluation" for it that declared the house was worth 20% more than what I'd paid for it. Yippee! I was a successful investor! Surely I was super smart and able to handle my finances! Eventually I calmed down when I learned more of what owning a house was about, and there were lifestyle changes - I reverted back to "savings" mode, and things smoothed out.

Of course this real estate bubble has ended and I got a more realistic "government evaluation" this year. But what if I hadn't? What if I'd had two bubble evaluations in a row?

So, I snapped back to my senses....but I understand the behaving-financially-badly temptation.

[milites.livejournal.com]

Even if you'd got two higher valuations in a row, (and I understand, since I got that myself) then you'd still have to pay that money back eventually. It doesn't reduce the amount of money you owe unless you sell your house and buy a smaller, less nice, or worse situated one.

It's not really profit, since you're going to need somewhere to live if you sell your house. If that is going to be buying another house the price of your next house has almost certainly gone up by a similar amount.

Of course, having paid off our mortgage at the end of last year, there may be a certain amount of trying to convince myself it was worth not buying the nice toys, so consider that when you're deciding if I'm delusional or not.

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

You paid off your mortgage? You are LIVING THE DREAM. And the toys, I find, don't matter so much as the experiences.