Appraisal

Yep and that's why we moved and kept selling our over priced homes into bubbles. San Diego in the 80's move to and Sold Las Vegas in 2008. Moved to a beach town in the SE with a very low cost of living. Definitely depends on where one chooses to spend their lives or take advantage of opportunities when they come.

 

+1. I was originally looking for a 2nd gen, 2012-2015. Most of the trucks within these years had about 50,000km on them, and were listed for about $5k less than a brand-new 3rd gen. Justifying the price difference took no effort at all.

 

Paying off a house early does not work for me. The tax man eats my ass alive every year. Now Bernie sanders wants to make college free for everyone and I am ask to pay for it.

 

Okay, here is a plan. A real one... You have equity... That's good... Sell your truck! Do not trade in, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Take that cash after its paid off and buy a 5yr or older car. my best high school memories are driving or in the back of a $600 Hyundai. Chalk up the loss to a life lesson. Shit happens. Lesson learned... And use the money saved to buy anything with Dave Ramsey's name on it and don't be like every kid since the 80's

 

Log out and talk to your parents.

 

Not to get too philosophical but paying off a house early makes all the sense in the world. For all of you financial geniuses on here read the total money makeover by Dave Ramsey. It will change your life if you practice what it says. That goes you too op. Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.

 

Not really. It really depends on your financial status. I am in a high tax bracket with limited deductions Yes the theory of living debt free is wonderful if you maintain a certain income level. If your income level is high then Uncle Sam is coming after you therefore you will need ever tax write off you can get. I am in the process of starting a business which will give me additional tax write offs. Don't get me wrong I am not starting a business just for tax write offs but I have a skill set that can be profitable

 

I see it both ways. Today I met with my financial consultant and I'm on track to have well into the 7 digit figures in my accounts by the time I hit retirement age. Yes, I'll have hiccups along the way, but the projection was based off of incredibly modest numbers. While living debt free would be nice, right now I make a killing overall not putting money against my extremely low rate mortgage and turning that money into my investments. Maybe I'm wrong and I'll regret it. Who knows. I've also seen people make 7 digits a year and end up dead at 50 with millions for their family to burn through in one or two years of legal battles. You never know.

 

You're leaving out the biggest factor risk.

 

Not at all.

Yes, I could lose it all tomorrow. I realize that too. I actually started off today looking at pulling some money from a few investments to pay off some divorce debt I still have hanging around from a few years ago when I decide to lump sum my ex out of my life. Well, it's actually more complicated then that but you get the idea. When I penciled it out though; looked at the taxes I'd incur moving that money around, looked at the lost income potential from that money 30 years out, and looked at my ability to service my debt in a reasonable time frame, it just made sense not to move towards accelerated debt free at this time.

Now once I'm done paying off my other debts will I throw extra money at my mortgage? Probably. Actually, I'll probably just take off an extra 5 years from my mortgage next time I renew. Then I'll have mine paid off at 43ish. All I'm saying is that there is more to a complete financial picture then attacking your debt as fast as possible. Sometimes it literally pays to work with the system rather than against it.

Also, some of the people here are talking about paying off a large mortgage and then moving around to keep making money off of the equity in areas that transition to higher levels of demand. Unfortunately for most people who have positions like mine that's not feasible. I can't just uproot myself and move 2000 miles to make a cool 100K. I'd take a pay cut among other problems that would eat up the money I made. Plus these housing bubbles are going to pop again soon... there's no reason houses in the suburbs that normal 90K family income families are living in should be worth 800K.

 

That's the way to do it. Not to say that paying off the mortgage is not important, but for long-term gains it's better to invest your money early. It's fairly easy to achieve ~8-10% annual ROI with diversified indexes, at essentially zero long-term risk.

 

Totally. Don't know what area of the world you're in/talking about, but my corner of the world (Vancouver) is due for a massive shit-storm of a correction, and it'll happen - just a question of when.

 

BTW none of this matters to the OP. He's a long way from making these decisions. Here's a few things I've learned in my young lift though that might matter to him:

1. Keep the truck. Forever. I'm not kidding here. Make it your own and keep that truck until it dies. It'll hurt right now but the only way to extract your value from it is to keep it until it's dead. Which will be a long time. Maybe 10 years or more. The biggest mistake I made when I was younger was trading in vehicles every time I had equity in them. While it appears to be smart... it really REALLY costs you in the long term. Yes, 0% rates and other goodies can help you out, but keeping your new vehicles until the wheels fall off or the repair costs are too high is really the only way to make new pencil out
2. Once you hit college apply for every scholarship. I mean apply for the ones for girls from broken homes too. I did the right thing here but my wife was really the pro at this. School is expensive but one of the ways to get around that is scholarships. Most of the ones linked to grades or community service are really hard to get because everyone and their mom applies for those. Apply for the ones no one does. Even if they are for less than 1K. You'd be surprised how many of those go unawarded and just having an application in gives you a chance that they will choose to give it to you rather than let it go unused.
3. Once you can buy a house buy used and buy under you means. I mean don't pay the HGTV game and buy a house right at the edge of your budget. Buy something that isn't a dump but is serviceable. Most importantly make sure you can pay for it even if you lost 30% of your income. That way you'll have tons of financial stability and you won't get killed if the market turns on you. Look for repo's and divorce tie ups. I got my house out of a situation like that and I found myself up over 150K in only a few years because of the desperation of the seller rather than the upswing in the market. Having equity in a house that you don't use is a great tool if you ever need to swing the debt hammer.

 

I live south of Calgary in a small town. Housing values here are around 300K-400K. I'm talking about shit box homes in Calgary though that are literally 900K for 1000 square feet of new living space. That's insane. Oh, and they have literally no lot or parking.

 

It took 6 pages for some people to actually chime in with helpful advice. I'd think this would be a good time to close the thread.

 

Why close it?

 

The party has just started Stick around.

 

Lol, update. Parents are taking over payments while I focus on school. Thanks to the people that viewed this thread though! Lesson learned.

 

I'm located at Ewa Beach. I go to school at Kalani (Hawaii Kai). Averaging about 20 due to traffic.

 

And story over.
Now everyone will either go about their business or pepper you with needless comments. Given that this is the 3rd gen forum, prepare for .

If I were you just ask the mods to lock this thread up.