Writer's Block: Occupy Wall-et
We have a mortgage because there's no way a middle-class person could otherwise save enough money in their lifetime to plunk down gigundo-bucks for a house in this country anymore (not even to purchase a piece of land unless you go to the badlands of Wyoming or something), but other than that, none. We pay our credit cards off in full each month and only use them instead of cash to get the cashback rewards. We paid cash for our last few cars. I found a job with good tuition reimbursement benefits and worked my way through graduate school after getting burned with undergraduate student loans in the LAST recession in the 1990's.
But there's that darned mortgage payment. Month after month after month... We refinanced into a 10-year mortgage to pay it down quicker, but that's still a long time to be payment-poor :-( Although we're lucky enough to still be 'above water' with it because we put down such a huge down payment, all that equity evaporated along with the housing market when the Wall Street fat cats wrecked our economy (as well as our 401(k) plans).
It helps that I'm a 'not-so-radical Radical Anti-consumer.' I like to shop ... at thrift shops, church tag sales, and the swap-shop at the landfill. Chlorox and a can of paint kill all ills. Living debt-free (as possible) and refusing to get sucked into the consumer culture is my families way of 'sticking it to the man.'
But there's that darned mortgage payment. Month after month after month... We refinanced into a 10-year mortgage to pay it down quicker, but that's still a long time to be payment-poor :-( Although we're lucky enough to still be 'above water' with it because we put down such a huge down payment, all that equity evaporated along with the housing market when the Wall Street fat cats wrecked our economy (as well as our 401(k) plans).
It helps that I'm a 'not-so-radical Radical Anti-consumer.' I like to shop ... at thrift shops, church tag sales, and the swap-shop at the landfill. Chlorox and a can of paint kill all ills. Living debt-free (as possible) and refusing to get sucked into the consumer culture is my families way of 'sticking it to the man.'