Entries Tagged 'Spending' ↓

So there is chatter in the news the government worked out a deal with major banks to freeze the adjustable rates on mortgages of many subprime borrowers. The rules are, the loan has to be originated from the beginning of 2005 to July 30th of 2007 and the rate is set to reset in 2008 to 2010. The subprime borrower also have to have a good payment history and live in the home to qualify. So I thought I would do an non-expert analysis on who benefits the most in this situation.

The Winners

The biggest winner is the banks that made these loans. Some of the teaser rates for these subprime loans are as high as 8%, so I don’t think the banks are hurting much by collecting a rate thats 16 times the average of national banks interest payout on savings accounts. Additionally, by keeping the borrowers in their homes, the banks do not have to deal with an asset that has depreciated in value. Basically, the banks are saving and earning billions by keeping subprime borrowers up to date with their debt.

The next big winner in this situation is the government. Why? One word: taxes. By keeping these stretched homeowners in their homes the government can continue to collect property taxes. Additionally, since the mortgage rates are not rising the homeowners will have less mortgage interest to deduct on their taxes and that means more tax revenue for the government than they would have had otherwise.

The Indentured

I don’t consider the homeowners who keep their homes in this plan to be winners. Sure, they get to keep their home, but many of them are so financially stretched that almost their entire income is going to the banks and that is a very stressful situation. In fact, if they weren’t financially stretched, they wouldn’t qualify for the program. This is Secretary Paulson’s outline of the plan:

Paulson offered a general outline of the plan on Monday. He identified four groups of subprime borrowers facing rate increases on their adjustable-rate loans: Those who cannot afford their payments even at the current rate; those who could afford payments at the higher rate; those can refinance into a “sustainable mortgage while keeping investors whole;” and those who can afford their mortgages today but could not at the higher rate.

Only the fourth group would get help.

These homeowners are just indentured servants to a gargantuan money hungry force. Their rates will be frozen for five years, but they will have to keep on paying the price on an asset that has depreciated greatly with all that they have.

The Angry

I would count myself amongst “The Angry” because I think the plan is unfair to most consumers and Americans in general. I don’t own a home, but I know many people who took out reasonable fixed rate loans at higher rates than these subprime borrowers, only to see irresponsible behavior rewarded. Additionally, as Paulson said, “those who could afford payments at the higher rate” will not get help. How is that fair? I suppose life just isn’t fair. I think this plan, and other mortgage related bailouts are just further discouraging people from saving money, and living a sustainable lifestyle. I also think the subprime borrowers who had absolutely no equity in their homes would do better just to walk away, save some money and buy a home for a much cheaper price. I know it’s not that easy, but we can’t continue to support this manipulated bubble economy.

Quote Source: San Francisco Chronicle 12/6/2007 Kathleen Pender: How mortgage-rate freeze could go wrong. This article is a great read that echos some of my thoughts.

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This is something that has confounded and annoyed me for months if not years. Basically, buying a home always has a moniker in the media as “The American Dream”. This is actually one of the main selling point of the realtors and home builders when they try to sell to first time buyers. I really don’t understand why having a giant load of debt is considered desirable and why it should be a “dream”. So I researched the term “American Dream”, and found that it was defined in a history book by James Truslow Adams entitled The Epic of America (1931). The book states, “If, as I have said, the things already listed were all we had to contribute, America would have made no distinctive and unique gift to mankind. But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” (p. 404). So why is the phrase “American Dream” now synonymous with being a home-debtor?

Maybe I am just not American enough and don’t understand this madness, but it seems that the “American Dream” has been twisted through the years to mean bigger homes, more expensive cars, and better electronics. It has become a marketing ploy for people to dive into materialism and lost most of its original sense of hope and goodness. I could see how owning a home could be a facet of the “American Dream” when a house represents the culmination of the owner’s hard work, but when that home is financed entirely by debt it contains nothing of the buyer’s efforts. When people buy things on credit and slip further and further into debt they’re not living “The American Dream”. Instead, I think they’re living what I would call an “American Delusion”, and eventually it spirals into the “American Nightmare” if they can no longer handle their debt obligations.

I think the modern American Dream as we know it is a lie. It’s purely a slogan for the credit card companies to spur on spending, or a line for politicians to garnish their speeches. As an immigrant I still hold on to a tiny piece of what the original dream is. I don’t think it’s about consumerism or materialism. It’s about getting a fair chance to achieve success through patience and hard work. It’s about building up a better life in a place where opportunities are abundant and available to anyone. The Dream is an ideal that can’t be bought, but unfortunately it has devolved into instant gratification and debt.

As I write this article a song is playing in my head and it accurately describes how I feel about America and the reality of the American Dream as it is now and I will share a little of it here:
Flirtin’ With Disaster — Molly Hatchet

I'm travelin' down the road,I'm flirtin' with disaster.

I've got the pedal to the floor,

My life is running faster.

I'm out of money, I'm out of hope,

It looks like self destruction.

Well how much more can we take,

With all of this corruption.Been flirtin' with disaster,

Ya'll know what I mean.

And the way we run our lives,

It makes no sense to me.

I don't know about yourself or,

What you want to be - YEAH.

When we gamble with our time,

We choose our destiny.

Chorus:

I'm travelin' down that lonesome road.

Feel like I'm dragging a heavy load.

Yeah! I've tried to turn my head away,

Feels about the same most every day.

I hope you’re not dragging a heavy load and flirtin’ with disaster, but I would like to know what your definition of the American Dream is. Are you living it right now? Are you as disturbed as me that the America we live in today portrays the quintessence of the American Dream as consumerism and materialism?

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If you absolutely have to borrow loans, never even go for something like unsecured loans. They don’t take much time in becoming bad credit loans and then you will suffer from bad debt deductions too.

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Recently I heard that a jewelry company branded their diamonds Hearts on Fire to charge a premium for the precious stones. The reason they did this is that lately diamond dealers’ profit margins have plummeted due to more educated consumers and online shops like Blue Nile where you can compare the prices on thousands of diamonds with ease. Prior to these branded stones, all diamonds have been “generic” and price was just determined by the characteristics of the gem itself. I personally think that diamonds are a scam, but charging extra for a branded diamond is even more ludicrous. The reason is that if you look at two diamonds of the same quality and size you can’t tell what the brand is at all.

I think that sometimes paying more for a brand name item makes sense. For example, I like name brand walking shoes for their quality. Compared to generic no-brand shoes, a pair of good brand name shoes just last a lot longer. It is the piece of apparel that takes the most beating and my mom found out early on that a more expensive pair of brand name shoes lasted a lot longer than the $7 generic shoes she was buying. The cheap shoes actually cost more in the long run because they broke so fast that she had to replace them. Basically, I think it makes sense to pay a premium for a brand name product if the quality is actually quite a bit higher than generics.

I also buy brand name products if the products are unique and can’t be substituted by generics. For example, many drugs under patent are irreplaceable by generics. So in the case of unique products consumers don’t really have a choice and the company that owns the monopoly on the product can charge any premium they wish. I guess that is why prescription drugs and health care in general tend to be fairly expensive.

Here’s where I think buying brand name products do not make sense. In the supermarket there are many foods that are branded. I have seen store brand butter that is half the price of a package of a frequently advertised branded butter. When the price difference between two virtually identical products is that high I think it makes no sense to buy the branded product. The premium is probably due to the marketing anyway and there is no point in supporting more advertising.

Another thing about branded merchandise I don’t like is that people often use the brand of their things as a status symbol. There is really no point in buying $300 True Religion jeans just for the brand because the same look can be achieved with much cheaper jeans. When people pay a ridiculous amount of money purely for the sake of the brand their behavior becomes brand worship instead of sensible consumerism. In that case, the marketing team of the company has done a fabulous job in brainwashing consumers and building up their brand, but it doesn’t mean that you have to fork over your money to follow a passing trend.

Finally, I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! If you braved Black Friday I hope you got some deals to make me proud! Did you buy something for the sake of its brand? What attracts you to certain brands?

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More than one person has asked me if I have any holiday shopping tips and so I decided to write an article here since a lot of my friends read this blog anyway. Hopefully these tips will help you save money and cut down your stress.

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