I should feel sorry for her,
but I don't. She's working 80 hours a week to meet her mortgage payment, which was an ARM and she couldn't get refinancing in today's fearful market for a fixed mortgage. So why doesn't my heart bleed for her? Her mortgage payment is $8,200 month, and she owns 2 acres of prime real estate in Marietta, GA, which she wanted assessed at $1 million to secure a loan, but the bank said, $900,000 tops [story in today's WSJ].
The number one rule of economics that every child should be taught in school is, "All bubbles burst." Give every senior on the last day in high school a cup of sudsy water and a wire wand, ask them to swish it and blow. Tell them to watch the pretty bubbles float, admire to colors, laugh at their classmates' antics. Then watch the bubbles pop--every single one will pop. Remind them that they are watching the real estate market, or the stock market, or their current love interest or their chosen career aspirations. It could be as valuable as a typing course and about as exciting.
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2 comments:
Sadly, they don't have typing classes in schools any more. It's one of the most consistently useful skills I have. Almost none of the young engineers I work with type "correctly" any more. They are proficient pointer and middle finger typist though. Their knowledge of electronics and programming languages is what got them a job, but I wonder about young people who would like even a secretarial job. Where do they learn to type?
I worked with an engineer several years ago who sold his home and moved the Washington DC area for the company we work for. A few years later, he wanted to come back, but the local market had risen so much, he could no longer afford to come back and buy a house here.
We bought our home in 1997, and we won't move unless dynamited out of it.
I used typing in every job (and now hobby) I had. But I sure could have been smarter about investing and economics. Had no courses, except in the school of hard knocks, about that.
I think secretaries are now called administrative assistants or office managers.
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