Living Car Free - $2.2 million in debt, almost nothing in the checking account, clinging to car

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.




worker4youth
04-28-07, 08:59 PM
http://iamfacingforeclosure.com/

The guy is $2.2 million in debt, more than half of his 10 homes (!!!), all financed 100% as "investment properties", have been foreclosed. His car recently got broken into. Instead of selling his car, he recently paid $550/6 months for insurance, even as he is getting threatened legal action from unsecured debt, and is 3 months past due on his rent.

Of course, no one questions his "need" for a car.


lyeinyoureye
04-28-07, 09:10 PM
I'm pretty sure having the car really didn't contribute much to being millions of dollars in debt, provided it's all true. While they are expensive, they aren't that expensive.

Autokat
04-28-07, 09:18 PM
Id'e rather be poor and happy
:lol:


CaliBuddha
04-28-07, 09:23 PM
all he needs is a little apartment and a colnago

worker4youth
04-28-07, 09:30 PM
all he needs is a little apartment and a colnago

A colnago!? Are you crazy, he can't afford that.

pj7
04-28-07, 09:55 PM
Makes me glad I work for a living.

lyeinyoureye
04-28-07, 10:01 PM
all he needs is bankruptcy, a little apartment and a beater schwinn
:D

Dahon.Steve
04-28-07, 10:05 PM
http://iamfacingforeclosure.com/

The guy is $2.2 million in debt, more than half of his 10 homes (!!!), all financed 100% as "investment properties", have been foreclosed. His car recently got broken into. Instead of selling his car, he recently paid $550/6 months for insurance, even as he is getting threatened legal action from unsecured debt, and is 3 months past due on his rent.

Of course, no one questions his "need" for a car.

Over the years, I've met almost half a dozen people who purchased these "No Money Down" real estate courses and went bankrupt trying to fix properties. It's insane to 100% finance real property for any reason. The cash back at close is illegal because you're taking escrow money but you're never really told that. He's going to have to come up with that money.

If he were car free, it might have helped. The stupid deals he made would have been impossible to do without a car. The bicycle would have kept him honest. With a car, he was wreckless and destroyed his finances and might very well end up in jail.

makeinu
04-28-07, 10:08 PM
What an idiot. If I were going to go into $2 million debt then I would invest the money somewhere in South America and then disappear. Not flush it down the toilet.

The sad thing is that this moron probably isn't going to have to pay that back. His big reward for being stupid.

Dahon.Steve
04-28-07, 10:15 PM
What an idiot. If I were going to go into $2 million debt then I would invest the money somewhere in South America and then disappear. Not flush it down the toilet.

The sad thing is that this moron probably isn't going to have to pay that back. His big reward for being stupid.

He never had 2 million to begin with. It was all paper money and he lived off the escrow.

makeinu
04-28-07, 10:41 PM
He never had 2 million to begin with. It was all paper money and he lived off the escrow.

All money is paper money, it's just a matter of liquidating it...

Dahon.Steve
04-28-07, 11:30 PM
All money is paper money, it's just a matter of liquidating it...

He couldn't liquidate because that would have required repaying the mortgages which I'm sure he was upside down.

CommuterRun
04-29-07, 04:20 AM
It's so nice to be debt free.:)

Autokat
04-29-07, 05:01 AM
It's so nice to be debt free.:)
+ 1 :beer:

Miguelangel
04-29-07, 05:39 AM
This is what happes when people that have no idea about how a market works get into it. I shud know I been foreclosing these people for years. Although no one deserves this, this happens to thousands of people in the USA. It is because of these asses that we pay exhorbitant prices for houses that are not worth it. With this real estate downturn hopefully we will loose these irresponsible market makers !!!!

Platy
04-29-07, 01:34 PM
Casey Serin is rather famous to those who follow the housing bubble blogs. He's not exactly a financial genius but he does seem to be pretty good at being famous. I expect him to have his own TV program someday!

bragi
04-30-07, 12:52 AM
Casey Serin does, in fact, appear to be an idiot, and really impatient, too. If he'd done a little research, and gone more slowly, instead of buying 8 houses with nothing down virtually at the same time, he might have survived the mistakes that inevitably happen when you enter an environment you know nothing about. The thing that gets me, though, is why he'd bother to create a blog that describes his ass-kicking in excruciating detail, as if anyone beyond his friends and family actually cared. This guy is so self-involved I'd almost feel sorry for him if my flesh wasn't crawling so much.

BTW, I agree with lyeinyoureye that cars have little or nothing to do with the mess this guy is in.

BenyBen
04-30-07, 06:45 AM
It's so nice to be debt free.:)
+2
:)

pj7
04-30-07, 07:26 AM
It's so nice to be debt free.:)
Preach on!
I've never had debt and couldn't be happier.

eofelis
04-30-07, 07:41 AM
It's so nice to be debt free.:)

+3

I'm also "poor" and happy.

("Poor" is an attitude, not a sum.)

We also have a small apartment with a Colnago in it.:D

Curiouswill
04-30-07, 08:29 AM
It's so nice to be debt free.:)

+4

same here though I almost had a student loan debt that thankfully my mom decided to use the money that she was gonna give me after college to pay that off.

pianomahnn
04-30-07, 12:55 PM
This is what happes when people that have no idea about how a market works get into it. I shud know I been foreclosing these people for years. Although no one deserves this, this happens to thousands of people in the USA. It is because of these asses that we pay exhorbitant prices for houses that are not worth it. With this real estate downturn hopefully we will loose these irresponsible market makers !!!!
Please, don't forget about all these lending agencies that have been giving loans to people who clearly shouldn't be approved. They're as much at fault now as the person taking out the loan.

skinny
04-30-07, 01:04 PM
all he needs is an apartment. a fixie, a shower, and a beer.;)

makeinu
04-30-07, 01:25 PM
He couldn't liquidate because that would have required repaying the mortgages which I'm sure he was upside down.

He could have flipped the houses for half of what he borrowed and walked with a cool 1.1 million.

Of course then he'd be a criminal. Instead he's just an idiot, which apparently isn't a crime since he'll remain a free man and the lenders still won't get their money back.

Eco-warrior
05-03-07, 10:20 AM
+4

same here though I almost had a student loan debt that thankfully my mom decided to use the money that she was gonna give me after college to pay that off.

I'll be debt free next month, other than student loans. Pulling myself out of the credit card debt of my youth at the moment, which is exciting, but the massive student loans still loom. I'm thinking of leaving them to my children. :)

worker4youth
05-03-07, 01:13 PM
+4

same here though I almost had a student loan debt that thankfully my mom decided to use the money that she was gonna give me after college to pay that off.

Student loan debt is actually good debt to have because the interest is so low. It would have been better to invest that money at even the very safe 5-6% that some CDs and savings accounts give you, than to pay off your student loans in one lump sum, like that.

You could have stood to earn a few hundred dollars, depending on how much your loan was.

HandsomeRyan
05-03-07, 02:49 PM
Student loan debt is actually good debt to have because the interest is so low. It would have been better to invest that money at even the very safe 5-6% that some CDs and savings accounts give you, than to pay off your student loans in one lump sum, like that.

You could have stood to earn a few hundred dollars, depending on how much your loan was.

Maybe i'm misunderstanding what you are saying? if they invested the money in CD's how would they be paying for school?

sweetnsourbkr
05-03-07, 03:36 PM
Maybe i'm misunderstanding what you are saying? if they invested the money in CD's how would they be paying for school?

Keep going to school part time! ;)

Roody
05-04-07, 12:26 PM
Maybe i'm misunderstanding what you are saying? if they invested the money in CD's how would they be paying for school?
You probably didn't take econ in school. :p

Instead of paying off the low-interest loan in one lump sum, you could have taken the cash and invested it in an interest bearing account. Let's say the school loan was $50,000 at 3 per cent interest. Put the $50,000 in an account that pays 6 percent interest. Then pay off the loan on schedule, and pocket the couple hundred extra dollars you make in interest. Plus have a nice nest egg that you can use for other investments, like a down payment on property.

cowtown_cowboy
05-07-07, 01:31 AM
You probably didn't take econ in school. :p

Instead of paying off the low-interest loan in one lump sum, you could have taken the cash and invested it in an interest bearing account. Let's say the school loan was $50,000 at 3 per cent interest. Put the $50,000 in an account that pays 6 percent interest. Then pay off the loan on schedule, and pocket the couple hundred extra dollars you make in interest. Plus have a nice nest egg that you can use for other investments, like a down payment on property.
Quit thinkin' smart!:p

fat_bike_nut
05-21-07, 06:39 PM
Apparently, Casey Serin's become the most hated blogger on the internet:

http://tech.msn.com/news/articlecnet.aspx?cp-documentid=4863979&GT1=10036&wa=wsignin1.0

Eco-warrior
05-24-07, 05:21 PM
You probably didn't take econ in school. :p

Instead of paying off the low-interest loan in one lump sum, you could have taken the cash and invested it in an interest bearing account. Let's say the school loan was $50,000 at 3 per cent interest. Put the $50,000 in an account that pays 6 percent interest. Then pay off the loan on schedule, and pocket the couple hundred extra dollars you make in interest. Plus have a nice nest egg that you can use for other investments, like a down payment on property.

The catch being you have 50,000 dollars to invest. Or 25,000. Or 2,000. Or....forget it.