Interesting Numbers

Dave Ramsey had a big simulcast/multimedia event this past Thursday called Town Hall for Hope. I believe the intent of the event was to get the public to see that they need to get back in action and control of their lives. I didn't attend the event but was looking at the website today. He has some interesting stats in there:

Town Hall For Hope with Dave Ramsey

These are interesting to me because I lived through Stagflation, wage freezes, and gas lines in the 70's. I remember the double digit mortgage and CD rates of the 80's. I was sitting in a college class in 1987 when the stock market took it's big drop. I just came to the realization that through all of those times I was always too busy to sit around and worry about the bad news.

I'm not gonna go into a long diatribe, but numbers can be interpreted anyway you choose. I guess you have to be lucky and pick the right 15 years to invest. I believe those numbers validate that the Slowlane is as risky as any business. Also, I find it interesting inflation is only mentioned when it befits his Slowlane thesis.

When your primary wealth acceleration vehicle is the stock market, be prepared for a long, bumpy ride that takes 50 years to realize. No thanks, I see ya at the finish line -- I'm already there 40 years early.

Yep, I agree with you about that.

I found the foreclosure data interesting. Kinda reminds me when I visited LA in 2004 and my relatives told me about the cost of their house. I was amazed because, to me, the house did not provide the value for the cost. Also his job barely made the mortgage payment and this was just a run of the mill mid-size 3-2 house without central A/C. I couldn't see how the multiplication of the home values and cost could be sustainable. I knew it would stop eventually but didn't think it would affect the rest of the country. I also didn't know the rapid run-ups were happening in other areas of the country. I didn't have cable TV and didn't watch all the trendy RE shows. Just didn't know how wide spread it was.

I now see it may have been in other states but the majority of the run-ups were in isolated pockets in those states. To me it says a lot that these areas can affect the information the rest of us get. This in turn makes us all feel further beat down even though it's not that bad here.

Cycle's happen, things are good and than they get slow for awhile, they will get good again.

In a few years we will all be making 1980's money and have another set of problems to worry about. I'd be surprised if I saw another 04-06 in the RE market in my life time, but you never know.

People get to morbid and think the world is coming to an end, human nature.