[Vision2020] [Bulk] Re: [Bulk] Re: Better Match Investment Timelines

[Paul Rumelhart]

Very true.  The problem doesn't lie solely with the people being 
scammed, but also with those doing the scamming. 

There are plenty of people who know better playing the "pay it later" 
game that aren't running the math like they should be, though.  I've 
been there myself, so I know.  

Lack of education on these issues isn't a great excuse.  If you don't 
know the difference between a fixed rate and a variable rate mortgage, 
you shouldn't be buying a house.  I know this is difficult for some 
elderly people and others, but you should take it upon yourself to 
become as much of an expert as you can before you sign a contract to pay 
back more money than you make in a few years worth of wages.

I believe professionals too, but if my doctor tells me my gentriculator 
needs confrabulation (at the cost of $20,000), I'm going to research it 
first before I let them do it.  You don't need 20 years of medical 
school to learn what your gentriculator does and what confrabulation 
will do to it.  You certainly don't need it to check for problems online 
that people might have had with their operations.

I agree that this is easier for people with access to computers and the 
luxury of being able to find time to study the information they find.

Paul

Donovan Arnold wrote:
> I think the problem is that credit agencies and banks lie and deceive. 
> People don't always understand what they are signing. Banks will 
> target the elderly, the poor, and disadvantaged that typically cannot 
> get things most people have. It is called predatory lending.
>  
> I don't think the average person understands fixed and adjusted 
> mortgage rates, what it means, and how things work. They also are 
> assured they can afford the payments, and they are qualified to own a 
> home, boat, car, new clothes, etc. If they are told they can by 
> financial people much better in the know then them, they are more 
> likely to believe them.
>  
> I believe mechanics, doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc., over my own 
> basic knowledge in their area. If they lied to me, and told me 
> something wrong, or bad, I would not know until I encountered the 
> problem later on. I think people are the same way when it comes to 
> loans and money, they trusted the professionals. And the professionals 
> were lying to make a commission.
>  
> Best Regards,
>  
> Donovan
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> */Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>/* wrote:
>
>     Ted Moffett wrote:
>     >
>     http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/economists-say-2008-year-forget/story.aspx?guid=%7BF1BD8B30-B628-4AA3-853E-1FDD8D54A33E%7D
>     >
>     >
>     > "The recession is likely to be a serious one," said Dean Baker,
>     > co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
>     >
>     > He estimated losses in prime mortgages will be two to three
>     times the
>     > $160-$200 billion hit seen in the subprime sector. This, he
>     said, will
>     > lead to large losses at banks and difficulty for Fannie Mae and
>     > Freddie Mac.
>     >
>     > University of Chicago professor of finance and former chief
>     economist
>     > at the International Monetary Fund, Raghuram Rajan, said
>     questions in
>     > the media over whether the U.S. economy will fall into recession
>     are
>     > really only about semantics.
>     >
>     > "We are going to have very low growth in the first two quarters
>     of the
>     > year. Whether it is negative or zero, it is going to feel like the
>     > same thing," Rajan said.
>
>     The big question is: are we going to learn from this? Will the
>     average
>     American stop racking up tons of credit card debt, and stop taking
>     out
>     questionable loans that should have sounded too good to be true?
>
>     Some statistics I found on the net (from
>     http://www.fool.com/ccc/secrets/secrets.htm):
>
>     * Total consumer credit: $1.7 trillion.
>     * Credit card debt carried by the average American: $8,562.
>     * Total finance charges Americans paid in 2001: $50 billion.
>     * Percent of U.S. households deemed credit worthy by the lending
>     industry: 78%.
>     * Number of credit card holders who declared bankruptcy last year:
>     1.3 million.
>
>
>     Also, 75% of credit card company revenues come from finance charges.
>     They are also talking about starting to penalize those who pay off
>     their
>     credit card bills every month.
>
>     Until we fix this problem, we'll be bouncing in and out of recessions
>     forever. The only answer I see to this is education and discipline.
>     For example, don't buy that 60" plasma screen TV if you really can't
>     afford it. This isn't rocket science.
>
>     Paul
>
>
>     =======================================================
>     List services made available by First Step Internet,
>     serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>     http://www.fsr.net
>     mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>     =======================================================
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. 
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51438/*http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs>