The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for March 04, 2023

That’s life, unfortunately.

Auto insurance will quickly outpace and overtake them all.

That’s why I’ll always have a mortgage…It’s something like 3%…everything gets paid AND I don’t want to own the house…cheaper than rent.

Good thing Uncle Ted, like me, is on Medicare. The monthly health insurance premium for my wife and our two children is almost as much as our annual premium for our home owner’s insurance. OUCH!

Words of truth Uncle Ted. Words of truth.

On the bright side, your house is worth more than your original purchase price.

I bought a house on Lawn Guyland in 1975. I got a mortgage and took over the original. That mortgage cost $85 a month; my property taxes were well over $300 a month. My neighbor bought the house new. My fantasy was to go back in time to 1957 and say to my neighbor, “did you know, in twenty years, your taxes will be four times your mortgage?” just to see his reaction.

I remember a similar conversation with my dad back in the 70s. He bought our home in 1957 on a ridiculously low veteran’s 25 year mortgage. I asked him why he doesn’t pay it off and he replied with such a low mortgage rate the money’s better off in his pocket than the bank’s

The only home-related bills, Ted? What, so your wife never wanted to remodel the kitchen or repaint the walls every 3 or 4 years?

This has been another edition of Crying with Uncle Ted

We paid off our mortgage 20 years ago. Everything was going great until the last year or so with investments losing 10% and inflation moving up the price of food, electric, and natural gas. etc.. Hope things can return to the way thy were in a year or two so we can feel secure again.

Our first house cost $69/month (including escrow). The second cost $200/month. My current house’s insurance and taxes are lots more than $200/month. Of course, My income is 10 times what it was back then. It all works out.

Though I never had a mortgage to pay, I’d have thought that the mortgage would be the single largest cost, but well below the combined expenses. Ted must’ve kept those expenses at an amazingly low level during the mortgage years. And after his mortgage freedom, he was released from the tight budget of utility expenses.

Very nearly half of my annual expenses are taxes and insurance.

We’re in the same boat as Uncle Ted. Have to allocate our funds between upgrades to our home and our knees, shoulders, hips, etc!

Here in Illinois my taxes are almost twice what my mortgage used to be

Someone once said that we don’t EVER own our homes….see what happens if you stop paying your taxes!

The taxes especially.

Part of the grand design.. if you have any money left over.. some agency wants it.

You’re lucky you don’t have PG&E.

Nature abhors a void. For most of us average people, something will always come up to cause the balance of income to outgo to remain the same. Remember that our house payments include both taxes and insurance which remain forever, so the savings aren’t as big as you might think. Still a good feeling to have it paid off though. Still got a little ways to go myself…..

Back in the 1960’s my aunt bought a house in Austin, TX for $5,000. Now that would only be part of the down payment…

Heard before covid, some retired people were living on cruise ships. The most inexpensive cabin, they still get free food, free nonalcohol drinks, free medical, free maid service, free amenities and able to see other areas of the world all for less then living in their own place.

I know I quietly celebrated when I paid off my mortgage, and the way I look at it now, that’s one less thing I have to pay.

Sadly, in some states that is true

Thorny gets an inkling of the road ahead.

Hmmm yes Uncle Ted. . .

I haven’t had a mortgage payment in about 30 years and hope to never have one again. I moved to a brand new home after the last house, and still, no mortgage.

Uncle Ted should have had his eye-sight checked sooner, he’s really short-sighted…

Two things for sure …. Death and TAXES and taxes & rates, Insurance (the white mans Burden (from the Goons)) and TaXeS. Uh! Oh! More than two!!!

Enjoy a stress free RETIREMENT anyway.

Yeah, funny…..

monsters do tend to grow that way… :(

My electric bill is double my first mortgage payment in 1972.