I’m sticking to my guns: buying an apartment is an investment. A capital one.
Whether it's a "good" or "bad" move is irrelevant to this point.
As a family man, my priority is simple—if I kick the bucket, I want to know my family isn't out on the street.
I’ve got a decent place, which means I’m not burning $2,500 a month on rent. Since I'm not bleeding cash, my monthly cash flow stays healthy enough.
Selling isn't even on my radar.
I'm not interested in playing the speculator, wondering what kind of returns I might squeeze out of some random stock or fund if I liquidated everything.
If I were single and looking to gamble:
1) I’d have sold both properties I picked up back in 2008. 2) I’d put half into bonds and the other half into money market funds. 3) Once prices finally bottom out in a few years, I’d buy a solid place to live and grab some land on the outskirts where the city is likely to expand.
Secure the roof over your head first; speculate later.
a) flippers b) buy-to-let investors looking for rental yield c) people just trying to find a place to live
In my book, buying a home falls under "investment" regardless of which category you fit into (whether it’s a good or bad move is irrelevant to this specific point, since market conditions dictate that; the bottom line is you're sinking a massive amount of cash into a property)
Categories A and B are pretty straightforward; they don't need much explaining. The house is an asset—something meant to generate money. How much it actually makes depends on the market, which right now means barely anything, if it isn't losing money outright.
Category C—that's where things get complicated.
If you're buying with cash: - You've sunk your money into four walls, and your "return" is simply not having to pay rent to someone else. It's similar to a buy-to-let setup, except the "profit" is mostly theoretical—you aren't putting extra cash in your pocket, but you aren't bleeding money to a landlord either. Plus, you can always sell the place and move that capital elsewhere.
Your equity is locked up and there's no way around it, but at least you have some basic stability.
If you're buying with a mortgage: - The money belongs to someone else, so your "gain" is avoiding rent while your cost is the interest paid to the bank.
Depending on the math, that interest could be less or more than what local market rent would cost. It's up to the individual to decide if it's worth it, though currently, monthly mortgage payments are often several times higher than equivalent rent. Essentially, your payment minus interest is just a slow process of buying back your own home until you finally own it outright.
All three groups—A, B, and C—are at the mercy of market fluctuations and the gap between what you paid and what the place is actually worth now. The "Category C plus mortgage" crowd is the most vulnerable; they risk losing both their home and their savings, though they can certainly come out ahead too, I suppose.
It all boils down to one thing: timing the market.
Steven Wells4 said:And mine is in Swiss francs too... I mean, I did give it some thought, but given the terms I was looking at back then, an American dollar loan just wasn't an option because the rates were way higher... and now I'm actually planning on getting a mortgage through Chase...
If you really don't have any other choice, maybe you could sell your car, and then use that cash to pay down at least part of the principal so your monthly payments aren't such a headache, which might make things a little easier to manage...
Brilliant advice. Either I don't own a car, or I'm paying for one. 😁
Steven Wells4 said:I mean, you can't exactly get a car back once it's gone, but if someone loses their job—whether that's actually happening or just a hypothetical situation I guess—the only thing the bank can really come after is the car... right?
Not quite.
The bank’s first instinct is always to go after the co-signer or guarantor—basically trying to garnish wages. If that fails, they take the car and auction it off for pennies on the dollar. Whatever principal is left over? They'll come after you for that with an unsecured judgment.
Look, you didn't borrow a vehicle from them; you borrowed cash.
It works the same way—you owe money, not a hunk of metal.
Your only real move is to sell the car, pay off whatever gap is left since it's worth less than what you still owe, and then finally close out the loan.
Kimberly Nguyen said:That isn't necessarily true at all.... it all boils down to how much you're pulling in versus what your monthly payments look like... personally, I'm juggling two different loans right now and I'm still perfectly fine to qualify for more credit.
There's some truth to that. I've got them too... honestly, more than Kimberly Nguyen, pretty much every type under the sun 🙂... and I could probably take on even more if I wanted to.
But I'm starting to think it might be smarter to slowly pay them all off, except for the mortgage.😂
Kimberly Lopez17 said:Nah, it’s not for a car—actually, I’m selling my Chevy Astra if anyone’s interested 🙂... I just need liquid cash for some investments. I can definitely handle the payments on this loan, it's just that since I already have one active loan, banks automatically flag me as high risk...
At that point, your only real move is finding a co-signer to boost your credit score. Just keep in mind you’ll need that same person whenever you want to apply for a standard personal loan too.
That said, taking out a mortgage to get cash in hand isn't a bad play—the interest rate might be 2 or 3 percent lower than a personal loan—but it’s risky if things go south with the repayments. I'm not trying to scare you, but that's just reality. Losing your house for a fraction of what it's actually worth is a risk I personally wouldn't touch.
Kimberly Lopez17 said:Where can I find a mortgage for $25,000—secured by a property worth about $225,000—without them being too strict about my credit score?
As far as I know, every bank looks at creditworthiness—either yours alone or yours combined with a co-signer.
The fact that your loan-to-value ratio is 1:10 (instead of the usual 1:2.5) is great news for the bank, but it doesn't mean you can skip the basic credit requirements.
On the flip side, loan sharks and those shady payday lenders will be absolutely thrilled to have a "client" like you.
Alex Patel96 said:I see most people here view Thompson as a total disaster. (Which is a good thing, obviously.) But it makes me wonder who all these people are that show up in such massive numbers to his shows.🤷
I'll be the first to jump in,
I just don't see why being a hater is considered a badge of honor.
Do you all think he's some hack and his music is just shallow commercial garbage meant for the unwashed masses?
Because if you hate him, does that automatically make you an intellectual compared to the "average Joe"?
Sometimes when these forum dwellers get a sudden burst of inspiration—usually fueled by whatever stimulants they're using—they feel the need to write some grand theory about Thompson, Mac, and phallic symbols.
But Thompson isn't the only one; you could look at King Arthur for a similar example, and that goes back even further than Freud.
Good luck trying to explain to him that the cat stabbing itself on a stone was actually just a metaphor, just repackaged for a different era.
😍
Looking at it from the perspective of the laity, without getting too deep into the weeds, the cat symbolically driving itself into the ground after a victory serves as the winner's message:
I won. I'm putting my weapons away while there's peace. Don't push me, or I'll have to pick them back up. The end.
David Carter25 said:But honestly, that's really the whole point of this—I ended up taking out a non-purpose loan thinking I’d have enough to finally wrap up my house construction, though I only managed to get a portion of it finished. So, what I'm thinking now is that I’ll take out a renovation loan to clear out the current debt, and then use whatever is left over to finish the work I started. As for all those expenses I've racked up so far—you know, the lumber, the hardware, everything I've been buying I can cover those with the non-purpose funds, so I don't think it should be much of an issue.
Best,
Great. If your credit score isn't trashed, you’ve got a decent shot.
Old debts aren't going to help you here—you're going to need a formal quote for future renovations from a licensed contractor. Make sure the estimate is inflated, too; you'll need that extra cushion to cover the work you've already done. You can't use home equity funds to pay off an old, unrelated loan that was never meant for this.
There is a cap on how much you can borrow for renovations based on the square footage, but it’s usually pretty high.
The bank will likely just put a lien on the house to protect themselves.
Anyway, take the idea to Chase or Wells Fargo and see what they say.
Steven Reed said:It all depends on which bank you're dealing with—it’s not a monolith. Some lenders, like JPMorgan Chase, might actually demand actual invoices or even pro forma invoices for any renovation work completed 😉
In my case, they went off the pro forma invoice. 🙂
Bank of America. Everything worked out fine, everyone's happy. 😉
It’s possible, but only if you actually own the property.
You basically take out a home improvement loan by padding an estimate with fake renovation costs for your current place. The cash gets deposited straight into your account. Once it hits, you can spend it on whatever you want.
neonhound10 said:I usually just go for whichever option is the cheapest or the one that throws in a little extra something as a gift... For ten years now, they've made a hundred percent profit off me, yet I haven't had a single accident or mishap to show for it...
I drive a car worth about $93k but pay around $96k for my premiums, and I use State Farm—thank God it hasn't been necessary yet—but honestly, I just refuse to hand my money over to, or advertise for, companies that dodge claims or drag their feet when it's time to pay.
And we all know exactly which ones those are. It only takes one hit from one of those guys (with their crappy policies) to ruin your day.
Looks like the usual suspects have already staked their claims—State Farm and Allianz, and that’s about it. As for General Electric (Sun, Eurohealth, Adriatic), you’d be better off running as far away as possible. Honestly, I’d rather take my chances with UN Peacekeeping than deal with anyone carrying one of their policies.