I sometimes wonder why these stories are written. Am I supposed to feel sorry for this gentleman? Excuse me for probably sounding like a total and complete jerk, but I don't. This is a classic case of total and complete financial irresponsibility and I have no sympathy for those that make these kinds of decisions.
Like it has been so said before, use your house as an ATM you're going to get burned. Put yourself into debt far beyond what your current income can sustain (IE that old debt to income ratio) and your going to get burned. What's this guys answer to all this? Where's the hand out! Huh? Um no you made your decisions now live with the consequences. At 61 this guy should have known better. At 61 you'd think he would have a pretty good nest egg of cash and retirement stashed away to draw from, NOT his house. We all hit hard times, bumps in the road of life etc... this is why saving, investing, being frugal and living well below your income is so important. That is a concept apparently not to many believe in these days.
The sad thing is those that understand the above and have worked hard, gotten decent jobs, lived frugally so that we have a savings buffer and retirement are going to get screwed bailing these people out. Funny, I'm half this guys age and know better than to do what he did.
I mean really look at the numbers in that article....
Sells his house (doesn't include what he made, but lets just say he made at least enough to pay for the land). He has $125K in cash from an inheritance to spend.
He bought the land for his new house outright for 39,900, so that is a 0 liability. He takes 100K of his inheritance and a 55K mortgage out, which leaves him with 25K in cash that we are aware of left over. That's where what seems reasonable ends.
So he decides he needs landscaping and a garage, takes out a 40K loan which brings his mortgage up to 95K, but still should have 25K in the bank right? Then he get's a lien put on the house for 10K, for his wife's medical expenses, why, he should have plenty to pay for that... where did the 25K go? Then we find out he re-fi's 3 times, racks his debt up to $265,000 and still has no garage. Huh? So in other words he has blown through the 25K left over from his inheritance and a total of 210K in cash out of the house. Grand total $235K all in the span of 8 years. That everybody is inconceivable in my opinion, all the while he's obviously not pulling in much making flies for local area bait shops. Not only that no mention again of any savings, and no mention of his pension being drawn as a retired LEO. Feel sorry for him? Heck no. Explain where the $235K went!
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