Did anyone else watch Oprah yesterday? I was shocked! It was about the effects of the recession on America. Lisa Ling was doing a report from Sacramento about the tent cities popping up there and not only there but they said they are popping up in most large cities.
I had no idea.
Almost all of the people they interviewed that have been hit hard by the recession said the same thing over and over....
They had not spent wisely. They had lived beyond their means. They had not saved anything.
And, what would they do differently? Save, save, save and not spend, spend, spend.
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6 comments:
We have seen a sharp uptick in homeless people. They have a lost look about them that the normal homeless do not. They also have more 'stuff' than the usual drug addict or insane homeless do. They make certain 'stupid new guy' homeless mistakes. Like feeding the pigeons (um, they ALL come over and poop on you!), and panhandling at 5 am (nobody driving - nobody to give you change!).
I did see a news show about Florida, the town of FT Myers (Just South of Tampa) has over half of the houses in town repossessed. I went on Realtor.com and found a ton of houses for nearly nothing. Some ready to live in. One I really liked 4 bed, 1 1/2 bath 1300 sf for 17k. BUT.... you'd be alone in a neighborhood. Nobody in school, no taxes, pools filled with mosquito larvae.... Could be quite scary.
I didn't watch the show, but wish I would have. I'm not surprised by the amount of people who overspent. The banks made it to easy and offered far to many people the option of putting off paying house payments that would eventually be too much for them. The median house price in Sacramento was probably around $600,000 just before all of this happened. Where we lived in CA the house prices were around $800,000. I could never figure out how it was that people were paying for houses at that price. David had a relatively good job for the area and we weren't even close to being able to afford a home.
Of course we knew from the first .com bust that we wouldn't make CA our home or depend on any job he had there. When he was laid off the first time we said we'd never get in over our heads again.
We had the same experience as Sandra in MT. We had no idea how people were affording $6000 a month mortgages. I cannot explain how happy I am to be in school. So happy. For us, this is the safest place to be.
And I start the garden this week. Strawberries are already in, and the spinach and root crops are still going from winter, but we will be putting in the spring crops. We may be the only place in the US where it is well into spring.
I'm hoping I'm recovered in time to help grandma put in the garden. I want to grow so many things!
We are broke, but David's job is stable as WalMart is doing well in the recession. Luckily we don't have to worry about rent, and I'm hoping to start school in the fall. I'm really glad to be where we are and out of danger for the most part.
I was thrilled to hear that part of the stimulus package was going to fund Pell Grants and they are raising the amount of each grant. Now would be a great time to get into school.
I think Wal-Mart may be the only retail store left standing after the dust truly settles.
Man I wish I had some property so I could have a garden! I want to can my head off!
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