How the Suburban "American Dream" Robs you and your Family Blind!
I read a terrific article the other day from Jerry Banfield: https://steemit.com/happierpeople/@jerrybanfield/why-grow-grass-and-buy-food-168 I got inspired and had to write this!
So it is 2017 and you are looking to buy a house for you and your family? Good Idea? Let's take a look at it. I am going to base this look at it from the standpoint of the Southern end of Rockland County, New York, USA, a major suburban county outside New York City. Apartments are in demand and in short supply. The average 1 BR goes for $1500 a month and I am not kidding! The average 2 BR house around here goes for about $400,000! You are considered lucky if you get half an acre of property, although most of the properties have as little as one quarter of an acre!
Let's take a look at that equation on how much you would be spending on the house and other related expenses.
So we are going to take an average house from the area of Orangetown/Clarkstown in Rockland County, NY to use as our example.
Our house we are going to use is going to be priced at $400,000. It has 2 bedrooms, and a quarter acre yard. We are going to put down a 10% down payment, which comes out to $40,000. The interest rate on a 30 year fixed loan will be 4.00%. In our 30 year mortgage,in our total monthly payment, we will be including $800 per year for home insurance, as well as $15,000 per year to cover property and school taxes - YES you heard that right the taxes here are astronomical! That is a figure to be considered average on a home we are using in our example.
$1719.00 Principal and Interest Monthly Payment
$177 Per Month Private Mortgage Insurance (required because a down payment of less then 20% was used)
$1250 Per Month Property/School Taxes
$67 Per Month Homeowners Insurance
$3212.00 Per Month Total for housing related costs!!!!
The General Rule for financial stability is to not have any more then 1/3rd of your Total Income go to Housing Costs!
So, to be financially responsible enough to keep up these payments, an individual OR a couple would need to earn $115,632 a year to be able to keep this up. Of course this does not include utilities such as power and water, food, insurance, college education bills, car expenses, and cell phone bill!
$3212.00 The total payment every month considering all the home expenses (principal, interest, insurance, taxes.)
So let's see how much you will end up spending over the 30 years just on these housing costs:
$258,729 spent on interest over the life of the loan!
So how much will all of this cost you over the entire 30 years??????????
$1, 156,320.00!!!!
ONE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX THOUSAND, THREE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY DOLLARS!
All that for a little 2 bedroom house on a tiny quarter acre of land where you probably don't have enough space to grow anything on or raise a farm animal due to space constraints or local zoning laws.
Off to the grocery store! Spend money and get food!
Why generate your own power when you can pay a power company to do all the work for you? More money out the window!
Why get clean water from your own well or stream when you can pay for municipal water with unhealthy chlorine and neurotoxin Fluoride (which was never meant to be ingested - research it online.)
Why do something you really love when you simply just get a job or career you hate just to pay for it all?
Why? Because you've become a slave to money. You've fallen into the "system". You'll spend years working at something you hate to retire at half or less of your current pay to "retire and live out your dreams." If you are like most NY suburbanites, you think your only way out is a Lottery Ticket! But in all reality, you are living your entire life like a lottery ticket! You are probably doing something you hate now day after day, year after year, for only the one or two weeks off you get and putting all your dreams off until retirement. It's not all your fault!! This has been brainwashed into almost all of us by the schools since an early age. It takes "an outside the box thinker' to get the sheep woken up sometimes.
Well, my friend life is short, and you don't know what the man upstairs has in store for you. Placing a bet that you will live to 65 or 70 is not a guaranteed thing my friend. Stress at a workplace and running like a nut to pay off debts which you can afford is not healthy on your body or healthy on your soul!
I will reveal my 2 - 3 year "Wage Slave Escape Plan" in a coming post later on. This is exactly what I am doing! How to start building your passive income streams NOW while you are working in your current life, then "free up your life" and be happier on HALF to ONE THIRD the income as you have now!
You can do it if you want it bad enough! YES! You can be a free thinker and not just another soul stuck on the treadmill!
Imagine: You live in a nice house, completely paid for - no debt, with a reliable income coming in and plenty of ideas to expand that income by actually doing things you love. It's not as far fetched as you think.
Please follow and resteem the post.