patrick.net

That feeling of being cheated is exactly what drove me to create this site and what keeps me working on it.

How to win? I think there are still some ways in spite of the best efforts of the Fed and the banks to enslave us to mortgages and bosses:

* Work in a high income area for 10 years, while renting and saving enough to buy for cash in a nice but low income area, maybe something like far northern CA or coastal Oregon. Kind of a race against inflation eating your savings.

* Start your own business and tell your boss goodbye. Might work, might not, but at least it's an adventure.

* Live on a boat or in a mobile home. I knew a guy who had a house in Davis, but worked in San Francisco. During the workweek he lived on his sailboat docked in SF and it was only maybe $300 per month for the dock fees.

* Own a bank, and own a few senators too, to protect your bank from any possibility of losing money due to free market forces. If you own the government, the free market doesn't apply to you.

I'm stuck in the same way. Had a bunch of money in the bank for 4 years now, theoretically I've been 3-6 months away from buying a house for those past 4 years, I was even under contract for one 2 years ago that I'm now happy I did buy.

I'd really emotionally like to buy a house, I thought fiscally that waiting would be a good thing but prices have not come down as much as I thought they would. There was a house for 215K two months ago that I now wish I had jumped on but it was under contract in a couple days. I feel like I've got a lot of my life on hold until I pick a house and settle down permanently.

All I know is I'm not losing. Sitting in a comfy apartment, bunch of money in the bank, decently secure job. I can recognize that I've got a better life than 99% of people in this world and I try to take stock of that. With so much turmoil out there in jobs, international markets, politics, it's kind of nice to know you can weather anything that happens and take advantage if any opportunities do pop up.