Hindsight Is Always 20/20

As the old saying goes, the love of money is the root of all evil. The ability to do simple arithmetic should be a requirement if one is going to purchase a house. It used to be a requirement for mortgage lenders.

It isn't really necessary to understand percentages and all the other stuff. You take your income after taxes and subtract the proposed house payment, the mandatory insurance and property taxes, estimated utilities, the car payment that gave you the good credit, and the gas to get you to work since you live so much further away.

Is there enough left over to buy clothes, pay for health insurance, go to an occasional movie, buy cleaning materials for the house, save money to send your kids to college, save money for crap that always shows up that isn't in the budget such as car and home repairs, and that old standby, food? Cool.

How about if someone loses a job? Will you have enough when the loan resets, without depending on your home increasing in value? No? Then you can't afford it. No matter what the realtor says. They are salesmen. It's their job to sell you the biggest something that they can get away with. It's how they pay their mortgage.

You can be like the rest of us and rent. Home ownership is great, but I prefer gadgets and good times. As long as I have a roof over my head, food in the fridge, a decent temperature inside the house and I can afford some of the electronic goodies, I'm a happy woman. Plus, I have memories of fun for the last few years, not regrets on how everything I worked for has disappeared into foreclosure.

Besides, when you close your eyes and go to sleep, everything looks the same.