It is not about what is affordable, but what is unaffordable. The “what we cannot afford” has always been a mainstay of politicians promoting the positive by embracing and demonizing the negative.
I have memories of being told “we cannot afford that” in no uncertain terms and like or not, had to accept what was told to me as the final word.
As all things play out over time, with the idea of “I will love you forever” being at the top of the list, given that more than 50% of those who get married, get divorced, proves the point that we do not know what is good for us.
The idea of wants coinciding with the ability to pay and the ability to suffer for our failure to understand that what goes up eventually comes down is an art that requires those who dabble in ideas being ready to absorb the pain of wants trumping reality.
All things come at an unaffordable price. Most think that the “unaffordable” is always about money and I would counter that for many it is about time and pain, the time to feed your need to see if your demands produce results and the pain of failure to be smart enough to avoid being too smart by half.
We now suffer a housing crisis such that those who want to buy a home either do not have the credit or the down payment or both.
This lack of financial competence, something said as a fact and not in a pejorative way, has bedeviled the “first time buyer” for many generations of home buyers doomed to be life-long renters.
Many who rent apartments, ultimately become “lifers” in the genre and while they profess to wish for a home of their own, prefer to let others do for them what they cannot do on their own. The landlord becomes the surrogate parent, tending to the needs of his children.
Lack of inexpensive housing is now a permanent fixture as older houses are either torn down or fail inspection and not suited for a mortgage at any level.
No longer can you buy a house that requires taking a mortgage without having “home owners insurance.” In hurricane prone Florida that is set in stone.
The “phantom costs” of home ownership are ever present and when the heating system dies, or the roof leaks or any number of other demons raises its head, the costs must be borne, one way or another.
The idea of retiring to Florida or other states to avoid one thing or another, the taxes, the cold weather makes one thing clear: those states are not as cheap as promoted.
For those who have “paid off” their house, living free from the cost of home ownership is something for dreams and not reality.
Each of us has a story on unafforability, most with a bad ending. I have mine and now being long past being disappointed with my perceived loss(es) I now settle for what is needed and be done with it.
Each of us has a bad habit of not respecting the money we earn. Money must be put to its highest use and understand that overall money goes to where it is most appreciated. This means that the term money does not mean wealth. Money is the vehicle that allows wealth to be tallied and no other.
Wealth is created over time and for those who want to ride to hell in a hurry, the concept of investing is something too few understand or gravitate to.
The term affordable housing will continue to be a “political” phrase, used to snare the politically naive. The pay that people now make is in numbers that were inconceivable when I was young. As everything is relative or so I am told, it was and continues to be bad government decisions that inflate our currency and force the risk takers to demand greater safety.
This missive is not meant to get into the weeds of the how or why, but to put to rest any idea that what is unaffordable today, will be affordable tomorrow, unless of course, the government decides to gift affordability in exchange for your vote
If this sounds familiar, it is and continues. The government sells its access to the highest bidder.
The members of the “unaffordable class” need a reorientation into the “financially disciplined class” before thinking about houses or any number of other things beyond their means.
by Dr. Richard Pitz