You Are Known By the Company You Keep

Because of a mistake I made when I was a teenager and a desire to try to "do the right thing", I had the misfortune of being married to one of these types for a couple of decades.... maybe that is why I have the dispositon that I have....  we are all shaped by our experiences in life, right?


Aesop's Fable:

The Ass and His Purchaser

A man wished to purchase an Ass, and decided to give the animal a test before buying him. He took the Ass home and put him in the field with his other Asses.
The new Ass strayed from the others to join the one that was the laziest and the biggest eater of them all.

Seeing this, the man led him back to his owner.  When the owner asked how he could have tested the Ass in such a short time, the man answered, "I didn't even need to see how he worked.  I knew he would be just like the one he chose to be his friend."

 

I can't say she was lazy but she sure as hell was the "biggest eater" and addicted to attention getting, self-made drama.... narcissitic control freak bitch on a never ending ego trip to fill the perpetually half full glass...good fucking riddance.



From Dr. Housing Bubble in Sunny California....

Keeping up with the Joneses
I have recently seen many people so blindly focused on one tiny aspect of their balance sheet diving into buying a home because they "ran the numbers".  In fact, one couple I know bought last year and on paper, everything looked good.  Heavily discounted home compared to bubble price.  Just a bit more than renting on a net-net basis.  That is, until they started trying to keep up with their neighbors.  First, they “had” to buy a new car.  After all, that 10 year old car looked like a clunker in a neighborhood with $40,000 to $60,000 SUVs.  So add that as a new expense.  These cars carry a much higher insurance premium.  Add more to your monthly insurance.  They also needed new furniture so there goes thousands of dollars.  The spending is only beginning.  They now need to update the kitchen and living room to match up with other hipsters.  Clearly they have not worked with contractors in SoCal.  The bill is going to jump up very quickly.
This is largely what happens.  They also had to put their kids in a more expensive prep school.  If all goes well, these kids might get accepted to a great college (if private, look at $50,000+ inflation adjusted to the future per year unless they are super star scholars).  Then add to the mix that this will be the “starter home” and they will look to move into a bigger (more expensive) home shortly.  5 to 6 percent will come off the top in that transaction.
So on paper, yes, it didn’t seem all that bad of a move to buy.  Yet ancillary spending increased dramatically.  Also, many younger people that buy are likely to lose one income for a period of time after a child is born if they plan on starting a family shortly after buying.  If they go back to work, add in the cost of daycare.  That is a sizeable hit to the bottom line.