One year ago today: November 6, 2016, strolling Southeastern.
Five years ago today: November 6, 2012, a major financial commitment.
Nine years ago today: November 6, 2008, I had a lousy week.
Random years ago today: November 6, 2006, it’s alive, I tell you!
Yep, that vegetarian canned soup makes an excellent base for stewing pork or chicken. My logic is that since it has no meat, the canner is compelled to make it taste better than ordinary. All this is going on while I’m looking into Florida foreclosure law for a friend. Some of this won’t make sense, but gloss over it since it doesn’t make much sense to me either. I find out foreclosures are handled by an equity court, which I vaguely remember as quite different than a criminal court. But I do remember there are some serious consequences over defending yourself. The system is acutely designed to discourage the practice.
[Author’s note: this is cheapest revenue house in a larger town in Polk County. It rents for $850 per month and is priced at $54,900. The income of $10,200 per year before expenses makes this a sure loser, investment-wise. It is nearby enough, just over in Bartow, but it would still be hard to rent to good people.]
After the house is foreclosed and sold at auction, if there is an outstanding debt (there usually is because they make sure of it), the bank can still come after you. The dirty trick is the bank does not always do this right away. The logic here is that right after a foreclosure, the bank knows you probably don’t have any money. They can wait, in some states, up to 30 years before they pounce. In Florida, it is five years. Plenty of time for you to get a new job and move on. The bank can and often does wait until you get back on your feet and does so in one of every eight such foreclosures.
I’ve got another twenty bucks says they go mostly after people with nothing to hide. Myself, I’m not worried since I never borrow money. Still, you might ask why people like me with nothing to hide still do my best to hide things anyway. The answer is the same as ever: it if foolish to give up a right just because you aren’t using it at the moment. America has already gone down the tubes and it’s all over but the crying. However, the immense wealth of the nation may continue to obscure the facts for a long time. But when it comes, it will be people like me still left standing. Maybe not forever, but a lot longer than any of the libtards who think their welfare checks will continue.
Trivia. Due to “congested roadways and high speeds”, there is a highway vehicle fire in Florida every 3 minutes and 1 second. This is on the highways, there are very few fires on streets and side roads. And the old south expression for air-conditioning. “Bought air.” Oh, and if anybody wonders what my ex-wife looks like, watch Reese Weatherspoon in “Sweet Home Alabama.” Spittin’ image.
Swedish royal family.
(For now.)
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Here’s something new starting to appear on my spreadsheets. These things have code names and this one is “Operation Early Monday”. It’s a gas and food budget that was raided to pay for this cabin, then replenished around this time last year. That, and a lower than usual property tax bill have created a slight surplus. I should sink it into the floor, but November is my year end and my birthday month. So what is the mystery plan? A trip? A new scooter? Nothing is decided but it is in the $1,000 price range.
This is also the month I officially applied to begin my US pensions. I don’t see the sense in waiting until age 65, or in my case age 67+, the way the economy is going. Get the money while you still have the strength and energy to enjoy it.
Even if the economy does pick up, there is the specter of inflation. Besides, before I moved to Florida, I had a tradition of always doing something memorable for my birthday. Within reason, I mean, since my retirement has been eased in over a number of phases, unlike others who lack experience and try to retire all at once. For instance, I retired from working for a living 24 years ago. I was forced to retire from work altogether in early 2005. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. By the time I turn 67, I’ll have massive experience at being retired.
Let me reflect on that. When I worked a job, I was always broke in a sense. There was never enough money left over. Every investment went sour. I was constantly behind on some payment, whether it was the utility bill or putting off maintenance on my Cadillac. I was caught up same as everybody else but what choice did I have? Anybody who works for a wage will tell you that is a non-profit venture. Working not only tied you up, it kept you from straying too far from home, and definitely took you out of the “self-employment” loop. Unless you run a small business, you never realize how important that kind of experience is. Too many people quit their jobs to start a business and land flat on their faces over this.
Twelve years ago, I said I’d eventually take stock of what changes retirement made in my lifestyle and personality. When I look back on it, what advice would I give others. Well, stay single, that’s FWB only. No relationship commitments, let her know her every tomorrow depends on today. It is neither impossible nor unfair, I was married under those circumstances for 11 years. That pretty much defines my lifestyle because the only women my own age who are not grandmothers are desperate for the one thing they can’t give in return—a quality committed relationship. And one of those qualities should be staying decent-looking. It’s a fool who denies this when it comes to women.
Financially, I would have done things this way. I would have knocked myself out trying every possible investment avenue to find out early what does not work. I would never enter into any agreement that would cause me to suffer if the other party screwed up. I would invest only what I could afford to lose. And I would have bought a small cabin like this one before I was 30 and kept it in reserve.
Then, I would calculate the minimum income I would need to be comfortable in case I had not made it big by age 35. I would set up enough investments to just cover that manner of living. Then, you are “living like Harry”. Any time you work, it is pure gravy. The other aspect of not working for a living, which I point out is not the same as not working at all, is that you can stay in the loop. If a deal comes along, you get first dibs because everybody else is busy at work. I’m saying again, by being available all day my chances of getting rich are infinitely greater than somebody stuck in an office or factory.
On the personality side, there are less obvious benefits. You find that age-old situation at first that there is nobody to hang out with except the unemployed and the unemployable. But you can always replace them in the intermediate and long run with hobbies. Like electronics or music, maybe reading, or travel. The supply of decent women is gone by age 40, but some of the not-so-decent ones remain a good time. Being retired steadily decreases the amount you have to “be nice” to people who don’t make the grade. I think that is mainly due to your gaining something they cant, called self-reliance. You quickly learn not to put up with much nonsense.
And when you do, it is some sawed-off twerp like the Hippie. Somebody should call him and tell him I’m not the problem. The problem is his guitar player. He gets on stage and thinks he can boss people around. He starts playing solo at duo gigs. And he talks at some kindergarten level about how many chords are in a song, as if the other guy doesn’t know. Sheesh, what a moron. No wonder people walk out on that.
“When you have enough money,
1% is a good investment.”
~Horst Burkhart Minkofski
As of an hour ago, I am the proud owner of one of those dirt tampers. That’s the amazing device that everybody has until you need to borrow one. I broke down and shelled out the $27, but be damned if I’ll ever lend it out after that. You know the thing I’m talking about, a wooden pole handle with a square metal pad on one end. For tamping down dirt and gravel in your foundation. I’ve decided to use piers consistent with the rest of my building, I probably told you that already. But now, I have a tamper. I could not find the instruction manual.
Once again, I went on line and could not find the simplest of instructions. How to line up a row of concrete blocks so that they are all level across the top. It’s probably straightforward, but I thought to check in anybody on-line had any pointers to make the task easier. All you get is people building mortared walls and that is not what I want. If you look at the foundation of my house, the original builder laid out a grid of some 40 stacks of concrete building blocks all nice and level, and build the floor on top of those.
You’d think of the millions of posters on the Internet, at least a few dozen would describe the easy way to do that. Nope. So, my plan is to run a string line level with the existing foundation and laboriously dig each hole a little deeper than needed and tamp scoopfuls of sandy central Florida mine tailings in until the goal is achieved. Then thank the Internet for nothing. No doubt, I’ll have to run that string where it will be in my way for the entire job.
Meanwhile, how goes my [revenue property] investment hunting? There is nothing out there in my price range, not even a single-wide. Hence, I will continue with my age-old broad-front advance. That is, several small avenues instead of a single risk. A little cash put away, a little silver stashed, and of course, slow progress toward that second bedroom that can always be rented out to a student nurse. Er, I mean, rented out.
I will continue putting aside something monthly, which will not be sufficient to buy anything in sight, but will constitute ready core-cash in case there is another slump in the market like the one that let me pick this cabin up at half price. I don’t know if I explained the finances on that, but it went like so. Knowing that banks won’t generally loan mortgage money less than rather high amounts, and armed with the knowledge most people can only manage very small down payments, it was possible to calculate an intermediate amount that was either a large down payment or a low-ball offer on the property. Either would have worked out, and the rest is already history.
The rest of such a plan is then to sit and wait. Somebody or something will screw up. It’s a terrible concept but when you think about it, that is the same principle that operates ambulances, law firms, collision shops, and newspapers. So no finger-wagging first and thinking later. For some reason I’m reminded of that conversation with Theresa, who actually complained that when times were bad, I didn’t sit around and wait for them to get worse.
Remember that? That was the day I wrote about how she even complained that I had “all these little things [I] could do for extra money”. And I added how she did this moaning as she packed up her sewing machine, vacuum cleaner, and ironing board. Don’t call me repetitious, I could tell that tale from the trailer court a hundred times because it is funny to tell.
ADDENDUM
What I’ve come up with for my distressed friend is a series of non-profit societies that offer foreclosure protection. It is difficult to discover their true motives but at least a few of them appear to be a pool of “rescue funds” that I imagine would like to be repaid once the crisis is over. Expanding on this, I would advise anybody in danger of losing their house to check out this option, as I will tomorrow on behalf of my sort-of client. (I’m doing this as a learning experience.)
Here’s my thinking. House prices are generally rising again, but once more it smacks of that bubble of 2006-2008. Prices going up but not enough people buying to support the Ponzi pyramid. You know, America, the best thing that could happen is if all buyers simply declared a moratorium on purchasing for a year. Yes, it would throw the economy into chaos—but the kind of chaos that would bring down the arrogant banksters and the rich people who are behind making sure house prices stay stratospheric.
So, if you have a house now, what you owe on it is probably less than what other houses are selling for, therefore you should do whatever you can to keep it. Especially if you are over 40. Past that age, you should not be committing your future earnings long-term. If I can live in a trailer court for five years to save money, so can you, says the ‘survivor syndrome’. I don’t mean you’d be as successful at it as I was, but that you could do so if you had to.
But what you don’t want is to turn 60 or 65 still making large mortgage payments, and you certainly don’t want to be renting by that age. If not for the $6000+ per year I was paying for rent at the trailer court (I owned the structure, not the land), I would have bought this place in two years instead of five. Get yourself a livable place as early as possible, it does not have to be your primary residence. Just a place you can live if anything goes wrong, and oh yes, things are going wrong.
Last Laugh
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