In my mind this mortgage bailout plan is the final nail in the coffin. The most irresponsible, idiotic people are getting bailed-out while anyone with a mortgage balance less then 90% of what the home is worth and who is not more than 3 months behind on their payments are simply out of luck. What's the moral of the story? Borrow as much as possible and spend it. But don't repay a cent so you can get bailed out by the government. When the terms are reset, hell don't pay it anyway.... The government won't foreclose on you. You basically get free rent and get to spend/keep the money from the initial mortgage. Just remember hide it under your bed, and not in bank!! Quit your job, get extended unemployment benefits, and use that money for a new inefficient, government-subsidized GM car every month. If we're lucky we might make it into a couple months in 2009. But for all practical purposes, USA is over and a complete collapse of society is just months away. If you're brave enough to stay, expect crime to rise and fast! Buy a gun or two. Expect the worse. Or if you're smart, fly to a tiny, agricultural-based Caribbean island. And enjoy the rest of your life while you read about how the lands of the former USA becomes a bigger basket case than Medieval Europe. R.I.P. The United States of America, 1776-2008.
Shit, bust out a wall in a guest room or something, expose some wires or some shit. Then hire an appraiser have him nail the value of your house...then stop paying for a couple months. That'll get you in the right category. It's funny, my credit score is 796, I have never missed a payment on anything my whole life except once when I was on deployment at 19 (the credit union erased the bad mark when I got home). It would really suck to have to see my credit score go to hell, but really, what is the point of getting stiffed like that while everyone else who isn't responsible gets hooked up? I negotiated the hell out of my house to get it a reasonable level, waited until well into the decline to buy to mitigate value loss, got a great rate on a 30 yr fixed when I bought...and have made every payment. I am sure there are a lot of people here who did the same. It's total bullshit that only people who didn't take any responsible steps are getting free money. WTF? Anyone have any thoughts on that? I'd love to knock 15-20 grand off my loan balance. LOL This is the way I see it. The whole point of having good credit is to get better terms on a loan. Is it not worth sacrificing your credit score to get 15,20, 30 grand knocked off your mortgage? Isn't that a pretty favorable fucking term? Who knows if credit scores will even matter in the next couple years. I am sure there will be some gummint program that resets everyone's score to 700 or some shit anyway, effectively fucking anyone with an ounce of responsibility in every way possible.
The reason that irresponsible people are getting bailed out is that a good part of them are minorities. That's where politics has taken us.
It's funny, my credit score is 796, I have never missed a payment Reaver you've done what you said you were going to do that's called good character. 30k won't fix that. I take pride in my credit score as well. As for the US I'd be in the camp that it's a destruction of wealth cycle. Lots of fallout and unfortunate victims. The worse is the person who leveraged their six figure salary believing pencil pushing and paper shuffling was a stable career. It's still a cycle and I say the 401k's and index funds are trapped higher and we're not going back for 3-5 years. My impression is we're just now entering a 60's style 20 year rolling range from 8k on the Dow that will continue to rinse for another 3 years or so. If we break we could roll from 4k but I doubt it. But the US ain't dead it's just the end of things as we know it. IMO
If the average responsible person moves and hides their assets and then stops paying their mortgage and cc's society is over. I never even considered it in the past but now I am having conversations with my wife about doing this. Government is telling us everyday that if you can't make payments we will help you but if you can fuck off. I just can't see how lowering the interest rate and or principle due on 2million loans can be good for all other responsible payers in America. I have heard it before but I will repeat it, the government should buy these 2 million homes and bulldose them. It will be a better use of government funds than anything they have done so far.
I like your viewpoint, that makes sense. And about the character thing, I agree. I was raised that way. So on one hand I definitely see the reason for continuing payments is because I "said I would" when I signed my mortgage docs. On the other hand, the only ones who are truly getting fucked over are the ones that do have character and don't cause any trouble. A funny story. The schools in the town I come from in MS are/were about 50/50 white and black. In elementary school, all the teachers were scared of the black kids (or more accurately, their parents). Black kids would pitch a fit and raise hell and start fights, steal lunches, pencils, or whatever, and the teachers would let it slide because they knew it would be a huge pain in the ass to discipline the black kid. And on top of just dealing with the kid, it wasn't uncommon for the kid's parent(s) to come to the school and cuss the teacher out, etc. This was around 20 years ago before they had everything on lockdown with the cops at schools and stuff like they do now. Whereas kids like me who usually sat around reading and stuff would get yelled at and kept out of recess and shit over virtually nothing...why? Because the teachers knew we were obedient and wouldn't cause a scene, so they enforced the rules on us, while they let the other ones off the hook because it was a hassle to discipline them. The story I just told wasn't directly about race (though statistically...nevermind) but the point was it's just another example of the responsible ones getting the short end of the stick. It's like the gummint and the banks refuse to help us because they know we actually take pride in ourselves and that we will most likely live up to our obligations...but they will bend over backwards for the liars, thieves, and crooks who shouldn't have ever had credit in the first place. It sucks, because part of me feels like I am a dumbass for paying my mortgage and shit right now. ha ha
I am not sure where this should go here is probably as good as anywhere. A buddy of mine is considering bancruptcy. So he goes and sees a lawyer. Lawyer guy tells him heel yeah lets file, but first Lawyer man:Stop paying all your bills right now. then live off your credit cards and stow away all the cash you can. This way when we file you'll have some cash stored up and the credit card companies and all your creditors get stuck. So my buddy is like wow I found a good lawyer! I wanted to kick him in the balls right there. First of all he doesnt need to file in the first place and second he's a jack ass for considering the jack ass lawyers ideas. I am sure this is going on all over the place.
The Gummint should not be intervening here.. should have let capitalism be capitalism. The weak would suffer and perhaps even perish... the responsible would pick up the pieces and move forward. The weak would learn a lesson and behave differently in the future.