I'm careful not to mistake the store money for my money.
I figured this out early on.
So I might have a really good day, like yesterday, and have a stack of twenties and fifties and feel really prosperous. Except I don't. It has no emotional resonance for me at all. Because it's way too easy to summon up a vision of the stack of debt that stacks even higher.
The money is not my money.
During the height of the housing boom, I had people in the building trade ask why I didn't use some of that cash to invest in real estate.
You know, because it was a sure thing.
Well, I'd had my fill of "sure things." Sure things are NEVER sure things. Everytime I had overbought because it was a sure thing, eventually I would have an instance where I would lose all the money I'd made before....
But I'm sure that's what happened to the people at Summit 1031.
They probably started off thinking what a waste it was to have all the cash sitting in low-interest bearing accounts. They should invest a little in the market, and make some money with it!
It's a sure thing!
Then as they watched their real estate investments skyrocket in value, they thought, why not take a little out to spend? There is so much more than we actually owe.
What amazes me that there are STILL people who are defending these guys.
Hell, the store money IS mine in the sense that the risk is all mine. That is, if I take from the store and the store fails, I pay the penalty. (Well, so do the suppliers and the rest, I guess.)
Anyway, it's just poor impulse control.
But in the case the Summit people: IT WASN'T THEIR MONEY!
There is no real excuse.
I figured this out early on.
So I might have a really good day, like yesterday, and have a stack of twenties and fifties and feel really prosperous. Except I don't. It has no emotional resonance for me at all. Because it's way too easy to summon up a vision of the stack of debt that stacks even higher.
The money is not my money.
During the height of the housing boom, I had people in the building trade ask why I didn't use some of that cash to invest in real estate.
You know, because it was a sure thing.
Well, I'd had my fill of "sure things." Sure things are NEVER sure things. Everytime I had overbought because it was a sure thing, eventually I would have an instance where I would lose all the money I'd made before....
But I'm sure that's what happened to the people at Summit 1031.
They probably started off thinking what a waste it was to have all the cash sitting in low-interest bearing accounts. They should invest a little in the market, and make some money with it!
It's a sure thing!
Then as they watched their real estate investments skyrocket in value, they thought, why not take a little out to spend? There is so much more than we actually owe.
What amazes me that there are STILL people who are defending these guys.
Hell, the store money IS mine in the sense that the risk is all mine. That is, if I take from the store and the store fails, I pay the penalty. (Well, so do the suppliers and the rest, I guess.)
Anyway, it's just poor impulse control.
But in the case the Summit people: IT WASN'T THEIR MONEY!
There is no real excuse.