Reverse Mortgages

[inactive]

As I said before, this country actively discourages saving. When your yield on a savings account doesn't equal the rate of inflation, it means they want you to either gamble you money away or spend it outright. You'd still be a fool to not save for a rainy day though. As someone feeling like a chump because you have over $50K parked in a 0.8% APY account, you're still miles ahead of everyone who said screw it and indebted themselves into poverty or gambled away their earnings in a volatile market.

It may be semantics, but you really have to invest for a rainy day, rather than save, just to keep up with inflation. Meaning, you now need to actively manage how and where you keep your money to make the most of it. Of course, freeing yourself from the reigns of debt is the first step.

Saving used to be simple and worthwhile. A savings account, Money Market, a few CDs, and you could easily build wealth for the future and your retirement. Not anymore!


And to you guys dogging Dave Ramsey - What he preaches is basically "Finance for Stupid People" and the majority of our society is stupid people! His advice it really good for the majority of people out there. But if you can use debt as a tool without shooting yourself in the foot (or rear, or head!) then it can pay off for you in the end.

 

[vvvvvvv]

And to you guys dogging Dave Ramsey - What he preaches is basically "Finance for Stupid People" and the majority of our society is stupid people!

This.

I am a Dave Ramsey fan, but I also know that some of his ideas aren't the absolute best - they're just the easiest way for 99% of people to prosper.

But I will say that it works!

 

[Glocktogo]

Agree. Credit is monies that are available. Debt is what you go into when you use those funds (regardless of the period of time they are used). So using someone else's money for any period of time is technically debt.

Agree that misuse of credit is the issue, not credit itself. Revolving credit can serve a very good role in unplanned situations. As you stated, it should never be used for sustaining day to day life.


I'm still not sure I understand what you mean by "I've yet to see a good use for debt that actually outweighed the liabilities of cash liquidity"

What are the liabilities of cash liquidity?

You hear all sorts of silly crap from people that having too much cash is a bad idea, because you aren't taking advantage of tax exemptions and such. About the only tax worth avoiding by doing something with your money you wouldn't otherwise do is capital gains tax.

Taking out a 2nd mortgage or refinancing because you aren't maximizing your homeowners credit is a really silly one. You're going to spend more money than you save and what you spend it on likely will not increase your market value enough to offset the expenditure. If you're going to do that, refinance a 30 to a 15 so you can save some serious $$$, but only if you're in the early part of the 30.

Stuff like that is an alleged "cash liability". It's nonsense. About the only cash liability in this country is letting the .gov print as much as they want, further eroding the value of the dollar.