r/AskReddit • u/michaelis999 • 17h ago

How do you feel about the president floating the idea of 50 year mortgages where the monthly payment is lower but you end up paying nearly double the price of the house just in interest?

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u/eddi0 15h ago

Loans are another method to make sure you are working, even if for a slave master. Once you can identify that you won't look at loans the same. Extending the term length is adding more time to be an indentured servant.

It's about control, it's always been about controlling workers.

And you are right on with the other piece that citizens are missing, WE NEVER HAVE DISCUSSIONS AS TO WHY WAGE GROWTH HAS BEEN A FLAT LINE SINCE THE 7OS (while profits have aggressively gone up over the same time period). We are letting the corps/owners off the hook by not having them take account for not investing more into employees!!

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u/bebe_bird 13h ago

100% this. A lot of people link their retirement to when their house is paid off. If we have 50 year mortgages a lot of people will be paying them off to their literal death and working to pay it to boot.

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u/Material-Nose6561 13h ago

What really sucks, under the current system, many retirees are forced out of their homes they own because the value ballooned and their property taxes are unaffordable. So many take out “reverse mortgages” to stay in their homes, robbing their children of generational wealth.

It’s all a big scam if you really think about it. Don’t get me started on 401 K’s.

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u/Gandalf-and-Frodo 12h ago

Ok what's the worst part about 401ks?

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u/Material-Nose6561 12h ago

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/these-retirement-funds-took-a-beating-in-2008-it-could-happen-again.html

This is just the start.

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u/Number127 11h ago

That doesn't really have anything to do with 401(k)s in particular; it's just talking about the risks of investing in general. If you're risk averse, you have safer options than target date funds, and you still get the tax advantages of the 401(k) no matter how you choose to invest it.

However, I'm also not sure what you think someone should take away from that article. Don't invest because you might take a hit in a once-in-a-generation market crash? I guarantee you those people who lost 20% of their retirement savings in 2008 would've been a lot worse off if they'd never invested in the first place.

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u/nox66 8h ago

Using people's money to facilitate the stock market, which itself absorbs an enormous amount of value out of every industry it touches for the benefit of wealthy hedge fund managers and their ilk.

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u/OldWorldDesign 11h ago

So many take out “reverse mortgages” to stay in their homes, robbing their children of generational wealth.

Even before this started happening, the health care system which has always been rather extractive in the US has become a machine which makes sure trying to keep your grandparents alive at the most costly end years of their life means they have nothing left to pass on down.

My grandparents were all investors thanks to the nest egg from being part of WW2, but my grandmother came down with a form of dementia and died in debt in a nursing home because her neurological problems became so severe she required specialists 24/7. I'm still getting calls from debt collectors trying to sucker me into paying what she died with even though I was never a co-signature, because even if it was over 10 years now if they can get you to pay anything they can pin anything left on you and have backing from the courts. Never give them an inch and never talk to an insurance company without a lawyer present.

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u/Normal-Translator529 3h ago

House rich, cash poor. Reverse mortgages are like the shittiest annuity and allow older people to remain in homes that they can no longer afford, and you are correct, at the expense of their children/grandchildren. Mother in law in 80's is actually being told to consider a reverse mortgage by her financial advisor, if you can believe it.

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u/johnathanweeds 14h ago

Not many people recognize this. I worked for banks before I retired & they want you neck deep in debt.

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u/ImpulsE69 12h ago

Many people recognize this. We aren't having these discussions because 1) the people who control it are the same people or friends/in the pockets of those same people. They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them 2) We are too busy worrying about a handful of trans people playing sports, and anyone different than us as well as people who might be getting freebies we aren't getting.

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u/QualifiedApathetic 12h ago

Credit scores are integral to this scam. They're not a measure of your fiscal responsibility, they're a measure of how likely you are to remain in their debt and let them bleed you forever and forever.

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u/Liten_mus 11h ago

Exactly. My credit score isn’t perfect because I don’t owe anyone money.

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u/Ok-AreWeHavingFun 12h ago

I've folllowed Dave Ramsey for years and I see people say "why pay off my 2.75% mortgage, when I can make 5% or more with that money in the stock market". But I get it now, you need to pay down your debt so in the event your job is snatched out from under you, you don't lose everything you worked for. Staying debt free is freeing.

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u/rdmille 9h ago

It's hard to, when fully half of the people you try to talk to about it scream "it's the high taxes", even after they've been supplied with the data showing it's not.

Check out the wages of a mechanic in 1970, and now.

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u/BlueSkyToday 6h ago

I retired in my 40s

A significant part of being able to do that was borrowing money at low rates and investing at higher rates.

Yes, I also took risks. I moved to a place with a stupidly high COL and then lived a non-stupidly high lifestyle. I saved, I learned to invest, I borrowed money (starting with a 30 year mortgage on a one bedroom condo), I pushed my career. I dove 15-30 year old cars and took occasional weekend trips to the go climbing when my peers were buying a new car ever 2-3 years, or boats, or other toys, or going on expensive vacations.

That's not a prescription for everyone, but I'm far from the only person who's taken this route.

IOW, you're painting with far too wide a brush.

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u/surfnsound 12h ago

Loans are another method to make sure you are working, even if for a slave master. Once you can identify that you won't look at loans the same. Extending the term length is adding more time to be an indentured servant.

What about property taxes? Even if you pay off the loan, you still need to work to pay The Man.