Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

"We'll all die some day, but it's not like the suffering that happens on this earth is meaningless and inconsequential."

It seems to me that you believe the meaning of suffering and death is that it is evil, or meaningless - something to be delayed and avoided "at all costs", and because our ancestors suffered and died a bit earlier on average them we do today, their lives/societies were fundamentaly inferior.

I honestly can't tell the difference between this position and mere sentiment.

 

Experience the real suck and realise when you have a home and some good people around you everything is great. I have learned that espesially nowadays I dont like being super critical of people or like hearing people semidepressively talking down someone because of some"real" strangesness or a short fall of personality or quirk. Most people are a little strange at times and are maybe better for it at times because of exp. I still love good comedy though.

Psychological part is probably living outside of self and not realising your body and exp is most important. Not being really one with shelf and giving your attention to "rent"....

 

This whole conversation reminds me a bit of an old Onion short...

Karl's happy as hell, and he ain't got shit! He could die tomorrow and he probably wouldn't mind. But nobody around him seems to understand him at all. Not that Karl minds... not as much as they seem to. It's as though he is totally oblivious to their fears. They must be thinking "Doesn't he know that he's going to die one day?"

I can actually relate to that guy a good bit. I can't pretend like I don't fear death, but at the same time, I've become aware that's mostly just ego talking. A big part of its job is keeping me alive. But in this world it often gets used against you. You learn to fear certain outcomes in life as though they themselves are death. Sometimes an existence you can't see yourself in is a worse fate than death. "My life is over." A simple life is nice, sometimes. Everyone wants to be special in their own worlds. But death is the great equalizer. There's some freedom in that. Or at least it makes you more prone to appreciate certain things... and worry less about others.

 

This describes becoming a real slave to the system but hey, "you" ordered it. I am thinking that I never want to be that guy. Only loan I can justify was my car leas that is a tool to go to work.

 

@purr1n don't remind me of work. When the rates are low, it becomes a refinancing/payoff loan with different lender party fuckfest.

The more that I work on servicing loans the more I don't really wannna own a home. There are great benefits of ownership, but I'm a lazy f**k. Lazy fucks shouldn't own homes period, because if you are too lazy to learn how to paint then you are an idiot.

 

In my family my grandparents generation were suspicious of debt, even when they had 30 years. My parents generation were largely oblivious, even disdainful of those who dared questioned it. I am tainted, in that I am halfway through a 15 year, though we don't do debt for anything else (CC's, etc.) and pay cash for cars, have real retirement savings and college funds for the kids, etc. I have to admit that my parents did not teach me any of this however...

 

I was becoming on the path of a money saving Yoda until I discovered SBAF.

But the reality is that I am having less self-control than I would like.

 

It is a Trap. Getting rich does not help either, you get comfortable spending more and there is always not that much free money.

 

The debts they keep are leverage, no? As good as cash to them. Better in some ways. They'd like to have as many people as possible owing them money for as long as possible. It suits them, they can, and people go for it like it's just the thing to do.

I've been thinking a lot about this very thing lately. Turned 30 this year... kinda looking at pictures of what my future might look like and where to line my ducks. And I gotta say, it's hard to picture a mortgage in there. My parents will be long retired before they ever pay theirs off. We just kinda laugh about how absurd that situations is.

The thought of it kinda gives me this sinking feeling that I can't fully explain. It's not like I can't do it. I could afford it now, in this area. For now... later is harder to say because of how things change when you're locked-in. I bet nobody who's ever lost big on a mortgage expected things to change for them like they did.

I just can't begin to explain how little I want that. I don't know if I even want a house. Unless I come up with some leverage to get around it, who knows? I may not. It would be nice to own a small one. But having no aspirations to push for starting a family, I feel like I have fewer reasons than a lot of the people who take those deals, because I just can't fathom it. But then, the thought of a family AND a mortgage is even harder for me to comprehend.

I'm not cut out for that stuff. I'm going to have to have a different plan, to get some more stability. It's hard to see a future in 30 years of debt imprisonment. I'd be paying for my house for the rest of my working life. Minimum!

 

I bought a house when I set an arbitrary ceiling for myself where monthly net after mortgage, property taxes, and deductions was similar to pre-COVID rent, at least while I'm on the upper-end of the interest rate curve. The SALT tax ceiling hurt as someone living in an HCOL area.

I took the 30yr because I looked at index fund returns from 2008 and it seemed better to invest the money into equities rather than paying off my mortgage. I'm still undecided on how to balance 529 vs. personal portfolio since higher education costs are out of control due to the growth in administrative staff. That money certainly isn't going to faculty or improved educational resources.

My biggest real estate mistake was waiting way too long to buy instead of during the 2012-14 crash like many people I know who doubled to tripled their home prices, especially younger families who put everything into buying a SFH in Palo Alto or Mountain View. That said, we have enough and a bigger house or lot won't increase my family's quality of life.

We're starting to have more discussions on when and why we would want to leave California. With more tech companies allowing remote work, I don't really need to be in the office 5 days a week anymore. My buddy just bought an enormous house and lot out of state (satellite tech hub) for a fraction of the price of a 70 year old Bay Area SFH 1200sqft on a 5k lot. I would be able to put away nearly my entire paycheck if I sold the California house and left the state.

@zerodeefex Did you actually leave California? I can't tell who actually did it and who is just planning in this thread.

 

So, saw this earlier today, hasn't been posted yet, but I've always wondered how politicians or people could say mass (or more than 1 or 2 votes) voter fraud doesn't/can't/won't happen. Regardless of political beliefs, with 200M+ voters in this country, I have always imagined it would be statistically likely that some en masse voter fraud is going to happen on a regular basis. This guy just did it in a dumb way and got caught (100+ tampered/fake votes).

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/10/08...idate-zul-mirza-mohamed-arrested-voter-fraud/

To be very clear, I am not implying or saying that the national election this year is invalid, to reject the results, etc. Just questioning why so many refuse to think voter fraud isn't going to be a thing.

 

Congratulations! I have a lot of coworkers in Colorado and it seems like people are a lot healthier and more family oriented out there. It would be really nice not having such a large mortgage hanging over our heads.

I just looked at home prices in Boulder and they're a lot higher than I remembered. It must be California expats driving up property values. I keep hearing about people leaving the state every week.