GolfHos

Down 200 right now.

Biggest worry is the late payments on Mortgages. If you want a house looks like there are pleanty of foreclosed ones out there.

Do they realize that I'm hoping to retire in a few decades?  It'd be nice if I didn't owe on my Roth ...

Yeah, I've been watching cnbc all day. (out sick today  :sick:)

It sucks that I lost a fair amount of money today because other people don't pay their bills.   >:(

don't or can't?

there is a difference you know. take a walk in their shoes. you lost money today because someone lost their house. :sad3:

I'm still not at a point where I can afford to buy stocks at the market.  Born a pauper, and living paycheck to paycheck.

I'm torn. I've tended to lean to the "personal accountability" side of the ledger but in the past number of years creditors have to assume some of the responsibility. You just can't give out loans like candy at Halloween and not expect this to happen.

in our local paper there is an average of 40 foreclosure notices a day 7 days a week. the unemployment rate in michigan has been 7% for months and i know several people  who are working at 1/3 the salary they have in the past. can you make your house payment should you lose your job? for 6 months, a year, year and a half? houses are pretty much unsellable in the metro detroit area.

Sounds like that'll be more common in a lot of places. My wife and I are fortunate in that we have managed to save an emergency fund to keep us afloat for quite a while if either of us lost our jobs. It was, and remains, a priority for us.

It will be interesting in the upcoming months to see the effects of the subprime market implosion. Interesting and sad.

You should get a better job, or move to Canada.

Why do you hate America, where all the people are independently wealthy or working on it, and all the children are above average?

I buy shares into several Index funds on a regular basis... so the shares I bought today were cheaper....

As much as I try, it's hard for me to have a lot of sympathy for those that can't make their mortgage payments.  I didn't have much money when I started out either.  Fresh out of college and I paid $15,500 for my first house.  It was a "dump" but I could make the payment and the interest rate was 12% for pete's sake (early 1980's). I worked hard to fix it up as my finances allowed.

I think people overbuy.

While I'm sure some of these people have suffered unexpected misfortune, how many of these people bought houses they couldn't afford in the first place?  After all, we're talking about sub prime loans here.  These people were credit risks to begin with. 

The I'm living in the 1400 sq ft house I bought 23 years ago.  We've made a conscious decision not to be house poor.  I don't have a lot of sympathy for people that have bought huge houses and now can't make their payments.

Time to cut back on the club hoing?

I was talking to a real estate guy a couple of years ago, and he pointed out that there were mortgage companies out there writing mortgages for people who had no business getting mortgages.

His exact words:

'Those chickens are going to come home roost'.

While I agree with your point that people should pay their bills, when you have SALESPEOPLE out there hammering on people and outright lying just to get the commission, there's some responsibility there too.

Several years ago I sold a house to a couple in a lease purchase deal that had no business buying that house.  They managed to get some sort of whacko sub-prime mortgage after renting from me for a couple of years.  I was looking for a way out of that particularly property, where I lost a little money.

Anyway, it was foreclosed within two years after I sold it.  It would have been the second time they entered bankruptcy.  They were nice people, but just sort of fiscally naive.   

The system is sort of revved up to put people like them over their heads.  Like vultures roosting high in a barren tree under the hot savanna sun with lots of lions and tigers and crocodiles and hyenas and gigantic hippopotamuses and zebras and antelope and perhaps a protohominid or two sort of milling about creating dusty, dry clouds while others taking naps in what little shade is available, lots of people stand on the wings to make money each time someone like them walks along. 

 :) Oddly enough (spending all of my time on a site call GolfHos)  I'm not a club HO.

The last club I bought was a 12 dollar sand wedge from Wal-Mart. And I bought that out of necessity for a round that afternoon.  Got rid of my Nike 53*.  Don't ask.

My clubs are Ping Eye2's that I got from my B.I.L..  I have the same TaylorMade driver I got 5 years ago.  R540.  I have an original Bertha 4 wood, from 7 years ago.

I have a componet 2ball type putter that is at least 5 years old.

The last major purchase was Nike Tour Blades 2-PW(The same clubs Tiger plays) 4 years ago, that I bought more to collect, than to play.

I gave up HOing years ago.  Got tire of trying to buy a better game.  Plus, I have been less than impressed with lack of continued innovation lately (as opposed to what we saw in the early to mid '90s).

 8)

Predatory lending practices + simple daily interest = recipe for disaster. (I don't discount the fact that people tend to have themselves stretched way too thinly these days too, but at what point should lenders also be held accountable?)