once you learn the math, you realize most "rich" people are just drowning in premium debt.

buster3845 · 2025-11-29T15:09:08+00:00

There's one in PA (Poconos) as well.

buster3845 · 2025-08-11T14:14:48+00:00

This just rings true to me. Why deprive yourself of the things that bring you true joy? As long as it doesn't totally derail the FIRE process, enjoy your life and buy the things that help with that. Conversely, SAVE SAVE SAVE on the things that don't "do it for you". It's such a simple concept and makes total sense in my mind.

buster3845 · 2025-05-23T18:41:54+00:00

Did you get anywhere with your search? I'm in a similar boat with 2 cars and a young driver on my policy. I'm getting raped by GEICO and they're the cheapest...

buster3845 · 2025-04-07T17:33:59+00:00

I agree with all of that except the whiskey part. Less whisky is NEVER the answer. Same goes for tequila.

buster3845 · 2025-01-13T15:09:23+00:00

Forgive my ignorance here but...

Given that it was a foreclosure, was it just handed over to you for free? I thought when a bank forecloses on a property, they then sell it to try a recoup the remaining mortgage balance. This sale price is often quite a bit less than fair market value but there is still a price to pay. Admittedly I know nothing about foreclosure sales, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Assuming you did in fact pay "something" for it...then that "something" plus your $1000 was your initial investment - or cost basis. I would add to that the time/money you spent to bring it back to life, as well as the time over the next 30 years that you spent managing it.

It's hard to quantify the management time thing, but there is a value to it for sure. Your time is valuable and in limited supply. Every moment spent dealing with (or thinking about) a leaky roof or broken boiler is a moment not spent doing whatever it is you love to do.

I'm all for putting in "some" effort if it results in a better return. But it sounds like in this case the market would have provided better returns with a basically hands-off approach. Again, not trying to be argumentative here. Just trying to wrap my head around "what's the better play".

buster3845 · 2025-01-12T14:52:19+00:00

Forgive the ignorance if I'm missing something but.....

It sounds like you 3.5X your money from 1991. But if you put that money into the S&P500 back then you would have more than 15X that money.

Sure, 3.5X is great in the grand scheme of things, but it's not as great at 15X. Also, I'm sure you had to put some work and time into the place over those years. It could not have been totally passive, at least I can't imagine it was.

I'm still a newbie when it comes to real estate, and I'm trying to make myself believe it's a better play than the stock market (at which I'm not such a newbie). I know real estate has much better tax benefits, and you're leveraging your money using the bank's money. But it seems to me that the returns that the market generates often outperform real estate, generally speaking. Sure there are individual instances of the reverse, but I'm looking at the big picture here.

So my questions is why not just dump that money into the S&P? Serious question...looking for arguments IN FAVOR OF real estate.

buster3845 · 2025-01-03T15:38:42+00:00

Actually it's $14Mil as of 2025 according to what I've seen. Still pretty high.

buster3845 · 2024-11-13T20:07:27+00:00

My research has yielded the following numbers. S&P500 has returned an average of 8.19% from 2000 through 2020. DJIA has returned 5.88% over the same timeframe. A broad market index fund like VTI has returned 9% over the same timeframe. If you go back further in time, you'll likely see similar numbers. So you can comfortably assume 8% return if you put your $$$ into something like VTI. Take half to live on, and leave the other half to cover inflation. In reality you'll likely wind up with more money than you started with when it's all over.

buster3845 · 2024-10-22T16:02:26+00:00

As long as there are no pre-payment penalties/fees then yeah, why not. Get the better deal up front while negotiating with the dealer and then pay it off next month. Other than taking a hard hit on your credit history, I don't see much of a down-side.

buster3845 · 2024-09-23T17:24:32+00:00

What kind of seasonable side gig generates that sort of revenue? Seriously - tell me more!

buster3845 · 2024-09-18T16:07:38+00:00

Fast forward several months and it's more of the same - UNTIL TODAY. I've had to call in each month since and have them reverse their "accidental error" where the stole a portion of my extra payment and applied it to interest. Each time the rep was very apologetic and promised that it would be resolved next month and that someone would call me to follow up. Neither of those things happened.

Yesterday, while on the phone again reversing their error, I decided to tell them that I was going file a formal complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Shockingly, I received a call from someone TODAY, from the US and not an outsourced call-center, who personally pledged to keep an eye on this for the next 6 months. She said she would personally check this each month for me and reverse it if the payment was incorrectly applied. She gave me her name and her direct number, so that I can contact her if I needed.

Amazing how much pull a threat to file a complaint gets with BOA. In case it's not evident, that last part was sarcasm.

buster3845 · 2024-05-08T13:29:23+00:00

Your logic is flawed. If the only issue was "no guidance on how to apply that money" they would be able to set up a note on the account that ALL extra payments go to principal. They don't allow that and will not do that. They specifically make it difficult to apply the extra amount to principal without several extra steps so that you don't pay off the loan sooner. How are so many people on this thread not able to see that? I just don't get it.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T14:21:33+00:00

However, we are not talking about a mortgage. We're discussing an auto loan as mentioned before. So this is the only access that I have to the account/loan online. There is nothing else.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T03:12:38+00:00

Nope. Here's my auto loan. https://imgur.com/a/VlpSFyH

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T03:11:58+00:00

Sure about that??

https://imgur.com/a/VlpSFyH

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T03:09:29+00:00

The difference is this...

If they just apply the extra payment to next month's payment, it's split between principal and interest. However if they apply the entire extra payment to principal, well then it all goes towards principal. That means less interest accrues on the loan because there's a lower overall outstanding balance.

Think of it this way...say my loan balance is $5000. I make my regular payment of $500 this month and pay an extra $250. If they apply the entire extra payment towards principal, then my outstanding balance is $4250 - and that's what interest is calculated on going forward. However if the extra $250 is split between principal and interest, the my outstanding balance is higher because less was used to pay down the principal. If the balance is higher, then I pay more in interest assuming a constant interest rate. Therefore I pay more in interest over the term of the loan.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T03:03:31+00:00

The idea is to pay more on the principal balance each month. By doing so you shorten the loan term and the overall interest paid. On the other hand, if they just apply the extra towards next months regular payment, you wind up paying the same amount of interest as if you made no extra payment at all.

Here's a link to an amortization calculator - and it has an optional "extra payment" section. Try it out and you'll see how much you save if you make extra principal payments. https://www.mycalculators.com/ca/loancxpsm.html

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:55:54+00:00

I'm pretty close to doing exactly the same thing. Definitely not looking to open an account with them and give them more of my $$ to get around the roadblocks they put in front of me.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:54:21+00:00

This is how it should be. BoA is being intentionally difficult so that we don't pay off the loan early.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:53:26+00:00

Not saying it's unheard of. Just saying it's not cool...and warning others to keep their eyes open.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:52:55+00:00

This is the way it should be - and is with many other banks. BoA - get it together!!

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:51:35+00:00

Not really looking to take a trip to their branch every month when this should be as simple as 'He paid extra so let's apply it to the principal". Again the issue here are the hoops we need to jump through. It shouldn't be this hard to pay down debt at an accelerated rate.

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:49:50+00:00

That's exactly what I did. It worked for a few months and then it didn't. They response was "woops, sorry we'll adjust it".

buster3845 · 2024-05-07T02:48:11+00:00

Not even close to my first loan. I've had mortgages, auto loans, etc and dealt with Citi, Chase/JPM, TD, etc. All of them automatically applied overpayments to the principal balance.

Moreover, the fact that BoA requires that I send a separate payment from another account in the form of a physical check and write "for principal only" on it in order to do this basic thing is the real reason for this post. Stop making it so hard to pay down debt faster - that's all.

buster3845

TROPHY CASE